Thursday 06-07-2023 - 13:44

Jack Ballingham, Opportunities Officer for both 2021/22 and 2022/23 reflects on his time at Durham SU.

It’s been a strange and, it seems, long two years to be a Student Officer at Durham. When I was first campaigning to be elected in February 2021 the country was still under covid lockdown. Since then a lot has happened – lots of things I’ve been proud of, and some things that have been more difficult.

For me, the most fulfilling part of this role has been the campaigns that myself and other Officers have been leading for the last two years. Despite a political climate actively hostile to students and our interests, I’m immensely proud of the stands that Durham SU has taken in defence of our members. On toxic issues that draw the attention of a rabid right-wing press and media, we haven’t shied away from sticking up for students. We stood with students against the abuse and intimidation that followed Rod Liddle’s appearance at South College in 2021, and we’ve stood up to unfair coverage from the Daily Mail and others on numerous occasions. We’ve stood up to the University when we needed to as well.

For most of the last two years I’ve been campaigning with students against the government’s so-called “Free Speech” Bill, a piece of legislation that does the opposite of what the name suggests, and attempts to muzzle student dissent. Where some in the higher education sector haven’t felt able to speak out on this fraught issue, I’m proud that Durham SU became one of the most vocal and public opponents of the Bill in the country. We challenged the government’s rhetoric, and engaged in a constructive campaign on freedom of speech – and eventually changed the law. It may still be a bad law, but I’m glad that Durham SU managed to improve it in some small way.

Locally, we’ve made good progress on tackling the housing crisis and securing better financial support for students. The research I’ve led this year has resulted in the publication of Reinventing Renting in Durham, a report that sets out possible alternative models of student-led accommodation – this will guide the SU’s strategy in the next few years, and hopefully have an impact after my time in the role has come to an end. Sometimes the tangible impact the SU’s lobbying can have is often lost among all the other discourse of the academic year. Facebook Memories recently reminded me that the University’s review of the Durham Grant this year was originally announced in response to public questions I’d written to them in June 2022.

I’d be lying if I said everything in the last two years had been positive, however. I would rather the tail-end of the long-running SU Democracy Review hadn’t got stuck in the mire of college politics, even if I am somewhat glad that I managed to get it wrapped up eventually (third time lucky!) I would rather not have had to deal with a student newspaper going to the Daily Mail for extra firepower in an unprovoked campaign for “independence”. I would rather we hadn’t spent time putting solidarity with striking workers up for debate in a referendum that was barely quorate. You can’t always have your way though.

Unfortunately some of the campaigns I’ve led haven’t been as successful, and, in all honesty, have been met with obstinacy from the University. Suggestions of adopting the Real Living Wage have been practically stone-walled by senior management, and I’ve lost count of the number of different and often contradictory variations on the University’s Real Living Wage policy I’ve been given. Often Durham can be a difficult environment for student representatives to try to make any sizeable change.

Ultimately though, after being here for five years, I can safely that Durham has made me who I am now. I don’t get college politics or JCRs, or why everything that happens here is treated as a complete outrage, or why an anonymous Facebook page basically dictates campus discourse, or why the University seems to immune to student feedback. There are things I’ve failed at, and things I regret not doing (and doing). But as much as I complain about all of this, I don’t know where I would be now if I hadn’t been here. I’m immensely grateful to have been able to study here, and to the few thousand-odd students who voted for me to do this job for the last two years. I’m grateful to all the other SU officers I’ve worked with this year and last year, particularly to Josh and Declan, comrades in a struggle which never seems to get closer to ending. Being a sabbatical Officer for two years has allowed me to develop skills I wouldn’t otherwise have had, and I feel like I’ve been able to go some way to improving students’ lives (however small it might seem at the end of it all). For those thinking about standing to be Sabbatical Officers in the future – it’s not always easy, but it is worth it in the end.