In March 2023, Vasiliki, Lina, Kathryn and Rowan were elected by students to campaign for changes that improve your student experience on campus.
Here’s an update on everything the Officers have been working on this Semester:
Return of the Night Bus
After campaigning from multiple Officer teams, years of student feedback and countless meetings with the Council and bus providers, we’re proud to say the Night Bus will return for a trial run as the N1 service, run by Stagecoach.
The N1 service will run every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 12.30am and will cost £2 for a single fare. Find the full Night Bus schedule here.
Vasiliki
ELP Self Certification
As part of her manifesto for the year, Vasiliki has worked hard to bring self-certification to the University of Liverpool. After many consultations and University Committee discussions, this is now in place for this academic year.
You can now self-certify for Exemptions for Late Penalties (ELPs) for two assessments, meaning you won’t need to provide supporting evidence, and we will ensure information about self-certification will go out to all students before the assessment period. Read more about self-certification and how it all works in Vas' Self Certification Update
Expand Bursary Eligibility
Here’s Vas’ latest update on her campaign to widen eligibility for bursaries:
“The University have refused to increase bursaries this year. However, feeding into the Race Equality Charter, one of the actions is to review the bursary and scholarships over the coming years.
I’m also working with Rowan on a business proposal to provide students who are recipients of the bursary with free graduation gowns.”
Guild Loyalty Scheme
Continuing from her campaign work last year, Vas and the Guild Team are working to gather information on the till system, to find out how we can use an online loyalty scheme. We continue to look at deals and prices at the Sphinx and how these benefit our students.
Lina
Sober Spaces
This semester Lina has been researching sober spaces at University, including conducting surveys and focus groups to gather student feedback on sober experiences at Uni, as well as looking into alcohol-free accommodation. She will be meeting with the University to discuss her findings in January.
Curriculum Mapping
In collaboration with SOS-UK, Lina has been designing decolonisation criteria for their Sustainability Curriculum Mapping project. We’re the first students’ union in the country to incorporate decolonisation into SOS UK’s project, with students now able to map their curriculum against sustainability and decolonisation criteria.
Support for Religious Students
Lina has been working to create a multi-faith space and quiet room in the Guild building. She continues the wider conversation regarding University policy and religion, the facilities they provide to support faith practice, and how religious practices can affect University commitments. This includes working on how to support students requesting authorised absences for religious observances, and addressing timetabling issues in this area.
More Than a Month
Lina has continued to lead on the More Than a Month (MTAM) campaigns. This has included updating our MTAM resources and updating our Awareness Wall in the Guild building. She has also organised collaborations with societies for events throughout Black History Month and Disability History Month and worked closely with BookSoc on our book giveaways.
Kathryn
Reducing Laundry Costs
Following from her campaigning over the past year and a half, Kathryn can now confirm that for the 24/25 academic year, when using Circuit Laundry in University accommodation, washes will be reduced from £3 to £2, and drying from £1.30 to £1.
Sustainability
Kathryn is continuing to work with the University on their ethical investment policy. They have promised to allocate a large sum of money to impact investment, with more information coming in 2024. She is also continuing the running of our Climate Action Network (CAN) to bring students together who are interested in climate justice and sustainability, as well as being involved in continuing Green New Deal negotiation meetings.
Know Your Workplace Rights
Kathryn has been spreading awareness of rights in the workplace to our students, so they know what they’re entitled to and where to find support. This has included a social media campaign and an accompanying blog.
699 Bus
There were ongoing issues with the 699 service in September + October, so Kathryn launched a survey to gather info from students about their experiences of the bus, as well as monitoring the buses to check if they were sticking to their timetable. Going forward, we’ll be having more frequent meetings with Arriva to ensure student have a better experience.
Big Education Activation
We asked students to think big about what they would like to see in political parties' manifestos, to help with NUS’ Student Manifesto for the upcoming General Election. Kathryn also went down to London to present the student ideas to NUS to help form their “Student Manifesto”.
Rowan
Cutting Graduation Fees
As part of his manifesto, Rowan has been researching other Universities’ offers around graduation fees. He is now writing a proposal for reducing graduation fees for University of Liverpool students, which will be send to the University’s Senior Leadership Team for consideration.
Cheaper Gym Fees
Here’s Rowan’s latest update on his campaign to reduce gym costs:
“Before I started my role, the gym fees were increased for this year. I am meeting with the Director of Sport Liverpool this month to get a better understanding of why this happened and to see if any improvements can be made on this for the years to come.”
Non-Competitive Sport
Rowan has met with Sport Liverpool to learn more about their Turn Up and Play offers and non-competitive events like their cross-campus competitions. He is currently in talks with how to further link Sport Liverpool’s events with Guild activities and societies.
Guild Loyalty Scheme
Rowan has been meeting with the Guild commercial team on the logistics of adding a loyalty scheme to the systems in our outlets and potential offers this could include.
Become an Officer
If you’re interested to find out even more about the Officers’ work, you can look at their webpages here. Feeling inspired and ready to take the leap and run to be an Officer yourself? Nominations open on 29th January. You can find out more about this unique opportunity and register your interest now!