I’m Connor Hewison and coming to Uni my experience here has been rooted in the activities offered by the union. It’s very much become a home for me. So if given the position I’d want to give everyone else a similar experience, a similar sense of belonging.
I want to be your VP Activities., I was the president of Anime and Manga for a year and the following year I took up the role of Interest Councillor as well as Course Representative for the third-year Creative Writing cohort, I represent both my classmates and the interest umbrella on a regular basis. Now I want to represent you and make changes here to help you.
- Community Engagement and Outreach
In the time of COVID and hereafter, we should be banding together. Looking out for each other and the greater community, taking advantage of services like roots and RAG so we can fundraise and put money back into the community. Creating more volunteering opportunities which, with any luck and hard work from those involved, would have a lasting effect within the university and the city. (which might also lead to external venues in the form of community centres for us to host events in)
Increase the number of opportunities for EDI training available to committees and potentially go as far as to make first aid a mandatory thing of committee training. So that we don’t just have the skills to look after our mate but—if the situation happened we could SAVE our mate.
As a union, we exist at about 10-15% of the student populous (roughly) in regard to sign ups and student engagement. I’d like to improve that. Potentially through more give it a go’s at points in the year where people aren’t getting used to their schedules or through social media engagements which make a service look more fun. Let’s show not tell.
Another thing we could do is host less service-specific events to appeal to a wider audience.
Our students, whether a part of the union or the uni. Should have easier access to the knowledge of the services we provide. To further this, I’d like to give the inclusivity societies their own page on the union’s website (similar to how we have sports and societies now). In addition to this I’d like the same page to have a list of all services provided by both the uni and the union. This would be structured something like “here are the support services we provide” and “Here are groups, so you know that you’re not alone”
- I want to create events that would prompt a bit more socialisation between the services we offer.
Think an old fashioned sports day but draft style to prompt some team building and socialisation amongst people who wouldn’t normally get grouped together.
I’d also like to have a conversation with you lot. About what YOU want for the coming year, let’s work together and see if we can do something about your issues. I’m looking forward to supporting you in 2021/22 and I’m looking forward to your support in the coming elections.
Thank you!
A vote for HEW is a vote for YOU.