Hey all! Chloe here, coming at you for a final time…
Wow, where did those two years go?
My time at AberSU has absolutely FLOWN by. It honestly feels like just yesterday I was parading around campus like a mad woman, dancing on the concourse, handing out stickers, and getting to know as many of you as possible to become your next AA officer.
Despite the rapid pace these two years seem to have gone by, looking back I’m pretty chuffed with all we have managed to achieve together.
Let’s take a walk down memory lane then shall we?
I think my first big win in office was closing off some work I had started way back as a faculty officer regarding assignment submissions. As a student, I realised that academic departments were using different features on Turnitin basically willy nilly, with some having all the bells and whistles turned on, and others completely restricting access to their students. Not fair. It took some pushing and a few sticky conversations, but in 2019 Academic Board passed a policy mandating departments to allow all students access both to multiple submissions, AND similarity reports via Turnitin. Alongside this policy also came the decision to go paperless with Undergraduate dissertations. Believe it or not, back then most departments expected students to submit a paper copy in fancy binding as well as a digital submission, and no, they were not paying for it either… we were. So giving that the chop was also a big win in my books, for both our wallets and our planet.
At this time I was also knee-deep in campaign planning for the Purple Postbox Project, AberSU’s take on the national fight to remain an active member of the ERASMUS+ exchange programme beyond the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. I’ve written a few blogs on all the great things we managed to achieve with the campaign for you to check out:
... but it definitely deserves a shoutout here. Not only did our postcards make an appearance in both UK AND EU parliament, but AberSU also took home the NUS Wales award for best educational campaign that year. Leading this campaign gave me loads of opportunities to connect with so many people within and beyond Aberystwyth, and also gave me experiences I will never forget! Oh, and did I mention I went to London? And Brussels? Maybe once or twice..
Then came the storm... that chucked a bit of a spanner in the works hey? Less than a week after my re-election, the world was sent home. And my life as your officer got pretty hectic. My summer was spent in meetings quite literally all day, every day, doing all I could to make sure your very abrupt transition to at-home learning was as smooth as possible.
Despite what has undoubtedly been a challenging time for everyone, we’ve still managed to achieve some pretty great things. Myself, and the wider AberSU team secured you a no detriment/safety net policy, not once but twice, hosting workshops, advice sessions, and more to ensure your grades are protected and students understand their options. We also worked with IS to vastly improve online access to student resources such as digital and physical texts, VPN usage, course related software, and technological poverty, providing kit to students unable to work from home. We helped to shape alternative assessments, working closely with university learning and teaching, and the accessibility service to ensure your assessments were fair and accessible through the pandemic. And finally, we’ve passed SU policy to reform special circumstances and introduce ‘self certification’ which I’m super excited to confirm has already made legway within the university.
Finally, there’s no way I can go without giving a shoutout to all those wacky memories I got to do with you guys, our students. From helping our wonderful A-teamers run what I’ve now coined the ‘polling wagon’ during the last general election, to covering students in gunk during Superteams and aftermath. I’ve found myself dressed up as a dragon, and an elf… and I even played quiz show host for University Challenge. There have been many late nights, and maybe a few less early mornings, even more laughs, and some tears… mostly because I was expected to do cardio on multiple occasions, thanks team for being overly competitive!
There’s so much more I could say, but I guess the take home here is… thank you. Thank you to our students for giving me this opportunity, and letting me give back to you and hopefully making you proud! Thank you to my team for always pushing me, while being supportive and making work feel anything but working. Thanks AberSU for all the memories, and for preparing me for my next adventure. It’s been an absolute blast, and I’m really proud of the human I am coming away from it.
With that said, you have definitely not seen the last of me! Ta ta for now, but not forever.
Cheers everyone, signing off for a final time
Chloe x