Wednesday 24-08-2016 - 16:15

President Millie Tanner

This is the last week of the current Students’ Union Officer team’s term.  Re-elected activities officer Kara-Jane is looking forward to continuing working with Durham students next year, but on behalf of Ben, Esther and Jake, I’d like to say goodbye and thank you to all the students we’ve worked with and for in the last year. It’s been an amazing experience to lead the Union this year, and we’re all enormously proud of where we leave it and the progress that’s been made.

The big issue that the officers have campaigned on and continue to campaign on for students this year has been accommodation fees. I’m enormously proud of our success in pushing back on the University’s proposed accommodation fees increase of 9% and getting it reduced to 3.5% for 2016-17, but I believe that students need and deserve much more from the University on this than they’re getting.

Another big part of what we’ve achieved as officers this year is the restructure of the Students’ Union. We now have a team from a wide range of fields bringing their expertise and knowledge to bear on the challenges faced by our Union and our members. I’m really impressed by how far we’ve come and where we can go from here.  

We’ve run some great campaigns and made changes that are already improving things – from micro to macro. We’ve had a puppy room and bouncy castle to help you destress, run an alcohol safety campaign and seen a significant decrease in the aligned dangerous drinking behaviours and secured agreement to amend the University’s regulations and introduce anonymous marking for all summative work. We’ve increased study spaces in Dunelm House and lobbied the University and got commitment to a process of support and reporting around sexual violence. We’ve got your student experience at the top the VC priority list – the facilities you use, our amazing student groups, your IT needs etc.

It’s a wide and varied list, and it’s not always the glamorous or big ticket items – but looking back I’m confident that we’ve made improvements and got your voice heard. I’m also confident that we’re in a better place to continue this work in the coming year and beyond, and that the incoming officers will pursue this.