A blog. From Me. Kenny Budd Vice President (Activities) at Kent Union. I am hoping this this blog will serve as another channel to communicate with students at the University of Kent and hopefully help to spread the word about some of the work I'm doing at the moment for students.
All my posts are in a personal capacity and from my own perspective unless otherwise stated. (Please note as of July 2013 I am 'retired' as Vice-President)
Today wasn't such an exciting one unfortunately. Solid meetings from 9 until 6. The highlights of the day included discussing Kent Union's new strategy around 'hard to reach students.' Although I'm not sure I'm happy with the title I think this will be a significant step forward for Kent Union in terms of reaching out to students who might not be catered for by some of the more traditional activities that we organise. This can range from nights out in the 'Venue' and other bar nights, to the time and location groups hold their meetings. People who might fit into the groups of 'hard to reach students' might include mature students, students with dependants, international students, ethnic minorities and many more.
I'm particularly excited about the new Mature and Postgraduate society which is being set up. The first meeting of the group will be held at Dolche Vita at 10:00am on Wednesday 9th of May and anyone is free to attend whether you consider yourself a mature student or not. It will be a chance to meet your Mature students officer who represents you here at Kent as well as a chance to set the objectives of the society as an social group but also potentially a support network. I personally believe that higher education is becoming an increasingly attractive proposition for non-traditional (18-21) year-olds as many take a career break or seek a career change and return to education or perhaps to study for their second or postgraduate degree. This is why I believe this group is so important and needed at Kent. If you have any questions please drop me an e-mail. You can follow the society on twitter @KentMature or join the facebook group here.
Stage Spiders Do Great work with kids in the Canterbury community and beyond
www.stagespiderscanterbury.webs.com
The other thing of note today was a meeting with local Head of Canterbury City Council John Gilbey where we discussed a range of issues including the 70,000+Volunteering hours that have been logged by Kent Students so far this year (if you haven't logged your hours its still not too late go to www.kentunionvolunteering.co.uk before May 10th) and the Community Spirit Award won by CSR at the 'I love Student Radio' awards. As well as all the fantastic work that many of our societies and student led volunteer groups are doing in the local community with special reference to stage spiders.
That's all for now, here's hoping that the weather cheers up a bit and that I don't get stuck in meetings for the rest of the week!
Friday 27 April 2012
'Lovely Bunch of Foakes'
Today has been a really productive day. For the last two weeks I have felt a little stagnant in the work I have been doing. Whilst its been nice to to catch up on the e-mails and admin it hasn't really fed my soul and I don't feel like I've been doing the work that really matters. Having recently come back from Cardiff this has all changed and I'm feeling energised and a bit more motivated.
Pupils from Hersden School in the CSR Studio Red Based At University of Kent's Canterbury Campus
Today I helped to move some shelving units into the Foakes Room which is a room in Eliot college near CSR studio Red which has until recently been derelict and used as a room for storing technical equipment whilst the new Studio blue was being built at Canterbury Christchurch University. As a C.Y.S.M. (CSR's Board) member and as a Kent Union student representative I'm very excited about this new development as it will mean a greater involvement from students at the Chirstchurch campus due to ease of access (not being keen to trek up to Kent's Canterbury campus for everything) which will ultimately mean more variety and output for listeners and more opportunity for students to get involved in this amazing community project.
CSR's Studio Blue based at Canterbury Christchurch
In addition this means that now the work is complete on the new studio that there will be room to move Inquire, Kent Union's student newspaper into the Foakes room. This will mean more independence for the Inquire volunteers as well as more space and better computing facilities to be able to do their work. In addition, the space will be shared with CSR volunteers increasing communication between the two groups and even closer collaboration in the future on projects. The space will also be set up with presentation and training facilities in order to help volunteers develop new skills. We are starting to make baby steps
towards the improved facilities that I would like to see for our volunteers. Check out the http://www.inquirelive.co.uk/ website.
Mel Lewis, we're so lucky to have a student media specialist staff member . She is not the Beebs... and she is not good at lifting heavy things
In other news, I am currently reviewing the Kent Union society handbook, updating it with more accurate and up to date information. I also intend to make it a bit prettier than it currently is as it doesn't exactly make riveting reading. The way we train our society committees and student led volunteer groups is also being reviewed with the most exciting suggestion being a multi-stream training day where volunteers will all be shown the core information but will then be free to select the more specialised training that refers to their individual role.
That's it for now, I hope you all have a fantastic weekend.
Thursday 26 April 2012
The Start of Something Beautiful?
Welcome to my new blog, here's hoping that I will get used to this site and posts will improve in standard over time.
I have recently just returned from The University of Cardiff after going to support my younger sister who is planning on studying business and considering Cardiff. I also saw it as an excellent opportunity to visit a Students' Union with a bit of a reputation for good facilities. However, this visit was not out of the blue and is part of a benchmarking exercise I am conducting; comparing the facilities and systems of Student Unions around the country against the provisions at Kent Union.
Nick Clegg delivering a speech to students at Solus Nightclub, Cardiff Students Union 19.4.10. Photo Alex Folkes
This includes (but is not limited to):
Number of Societies
Most popular/ successful societies
Funding per member
Which Funding Systems were in place
Physical facilities including room provision and booking
Specialist facilities
Volunteering provision
Volunteering funding
Student media including; T.V, Radio and Publications
Raise and Give Charitable fundraising
Whilst at Cardiff Union I was fortunate enough to be able to spend some time with their membership services manager and pick brains over how thing work there. It was a very informative conversation, I am hoping that Kent Union will be able to combine the best parts of both our funding systems in order to increase the low 'grant per head' that societies at Kent currently have.
But, the most striking observation is the Union's incredible physical facilities at its disposal; a fleet of 7 vehicles student groups can use, 4 meeting rooms accommodating 200 people, a lecture theatre with retractile seating and nightclub, each with capacity of 800+ accompanied by a further two cafes/pubs and fabulous media facilities. The student radio station plays gently in the background as you walk through the clean and spacious corridors of the four storey union building. All of this means societies have access to the spaces when not occupied for organised activities and are therefore less reliant on the facilities of the University for their activities. This ultimately empowers the students and is what I wish to achieve with a new Kent Union facility.
Rutherford Hall University of Kent (Not Currently Available for most society bookings)
The Campaign for an activities building on the Canterbury Campus as well as the campaign for the C4 building at the Medway Campus to become a flexible activities space are priority campaigns for me this year and I met with Professor Keith Mander Deputy Vice-Chancellor at University of Kent today to discuss the importance of these facilities. We also discussed at length the positive impact that non-competitive activities have on students developing employability skills independently and informally through volunteering opportunities at Kent Union and how we can make existing University Facilities more accessible.
Thanks for reading. I will Keep you updated on the progress of the Benchmarking exercise and also the developments to activities at Kent.
Today wasn't such an exciting one unfortunately. Solid meetings from 9 until 6. The highlights of the day included discussing Kent Union's new strategy around 'hard to reach students.' Although I'm not sure I'm happy with the title I think this will be a significant step forward for Kent Union in terms of reaching out to students who might not be catered for by some of the more traditional activities that we organise. This can range from nights out in the 'Venue' and other bar nights, to the time and location groups hold their meetings. People who might fit into the groups of 'hard to reach students' might include mature students, students with dependants, international students, ethnic minorities and many more.
