Hello! My names Alex Butters I am a second-year politics student and a part-time welfare officer. I have also been a course rep, deputy chair for the annual meeting and raised concerns to the heads of departs at the student life committee. Put your trust in me and I will strive to use all this experience to achieve these polices for you;
Free mental health lessons for anyone
A survey I conducted as part-time welfare officer found that 84% of students did not realise certain symptoms could be a sign of a mental health issue. Mental health issues can be extremally scary if you don’t understand what is happening to you and can result in isolation if your friends do not understand creating a stigma. Lobbying the university to make this opportunity available to any student interested in the induction week allows for everyone to have the chance to learn these key life skills
Improve student feedback/ lecturer communication
It can be frustrating trying to get feedback/help from lecturers who don’t reply to emails and can’t be found. I would lobby the university to introduce a policy that commits all lectures to publish office hours and introduce a maximum time response period. Allowing for all students to get the required support.
Improve and expand social learning spaces.
Many students look for spaces to work or sit with a group of friends. With the library often full this leaves a couple of small areas such as the second floor of Roland Lelevinsky. More spaces like these are needed to allow for students to study on campus and prepare for group work. I would work with the university to make sure these areas are factored into any new building as well as to add them into current buildings maximising student work space.