My Manifesto | Hayden For Officer

My Manifesto 22/23

Development and Wellbeing

Continuing the front on Physical/ Mental Health Provisions
- No matter what, the mental health of our students should stand forefront of our prioritise, but we cannot simply put a box around it and call it a day, this will be a forever growing and evolving issue that should be addressed for our students, whether that be, the University moulding its service to our student body, or ensuring students know where to be signposted and feel listened.
- Physical health such as exercise will always have a special place in my heart, as it is and always has been my go to for clearing my head and making my mental health and physical health better, even if it is a little bit.
- I am soon having my operation for my knee as it has now been over 2 years since I had suffered from a severe injury in American Football, and that has affected my ability to exercise, thoughts and prospects on using my knee in physical needs later in my life and subsequently my mental health
- I want to make physical health an option for all students to feel like they can do, not limited to the “sporty lot”, whether this be “Beginner” focused times for those that are nervous or find the gym/ working out daunting
- I still strongly believe that any of the sports clubs should be something that all our students should have access to regardless of skill level and finances, if you have an interest and find it fun, you should be able to go do it.
  
  Improving/ changing GP Services for students
- Finalising the services, we have far too long been under Harley street, why is the University supporting and utilising a service that has no attention for our students, I have first-hand experience with HS, and that should not be the case. We should be able to be seen by the GP that the University is pushing students to sign up with, and if that’s not the case, it is time to say goodbye to HS and connect with a different practice that CAN see, support, and service our students that come to study at Staffs
  
  Time to talk, support and give support sessions
- The key to preventing the small case to developing to a big case that is hard solve, is simply tackling it from the start, with key support groups to start the conversations and make time to talk
  for our students and help them before it escalates to another level.
- To support our students with pre-existing tools such as Rest and Reset Lounges to make them feel supported, and hopefully feel empowered to support others in similar situations
  
  Substance Abuse and Addiction aid
- Raising more awareness for this topic, bringing in resources for self-care and noticing the signs of substance abuse or addictions.
- If we cannot stop you, then we want you to be at bare minimum safe if you are going to do it, this can be further supported with drug testing kits
- Assess and review the current drugs and tolerance policy at the University and how can it be changed to support students.
- I have already been in contact with a charity that supports addictions for plans in the coming year that I want to continue working with to produce informative material/ resources, signposting to specialist drug and alcohol treatment via the provider, and workshops around the topic.
- Bring in drug amnesty areas and follow up support rather than not listening and condeming them

Providing resources to help you grow and develop as an individual after University and more!

This would be apart of the growing strong game changer, and I want to add/ expand on skills you will need as you leave university and become an independent adult. These skills and resources would include but not limited to:

Self-care and time management
Money management
Taxes, bills, and loans
Eating healthy
Exercise and fitness
How to build and keep a good credit score
Establishing a job/ career
How to support yourself
Driving and housing
- There is already a lot of good things in this game changer and it is a shame to not have been able to promote or work on it as much, but this is the perfect chance to get it going again, revitalising areas and adding more value to what is important to you when you leave university as a fully independent adult

Academic Support, Accountability, and Opportunities

Implement standards such as compulsory academic mentoring training for staff to get it right from the start

Implementing a standard such as a compulsory academic mentoring training for academic staff so they can support with most student issues on the spot appropriately rather than downplaying issues or ignoring them as they do not know.
This can also include but not limited to being able to: signpost appropriately with mental health, stress, anxiety, training for competency on race, gender/sexual identity, disabilities, LSS’s etc

Hold the University and Union to accountability - Students have the right to know and a say if it is not right for their education
In my last year as your Vice-president, I have been able to grasp insight to more than the regular student on the ground thanks to my 20/21 peers. I strongly believe if the University or Union has promised to commit to something, then they need to hold it up, whether this be the executives, high level staff, academics, Union senior management, or even the Officers.

Student accountability, apart of higher education, it is holding yourself accountable to grow and develop as an individual
In my opinion, it is very easy to point fingers and blame others when there is a mistake or something that you believe should be done has not been done. However, that will not get anyone anywhere, this is higher education for adults that have chosen to further educate themselves to take accountability of their actions and lives, to be better, making the change yourself than waiting around until something happens
I want to raise the student body, inspire them, and help them grow as individuals, know that their own voice is more than enough to get things going, to hold yourself accountable, because if you aren’t going to start it, no one else will for you

Ensuring university hold up their end of the bargain for their written policies
To make sure when the University has written policies that they hold their end of the bargain such as LSS’s, student support for wellbeing or other, lecture captures, extra support for students that are a given not a loose thread that they can let go of anytime

University to offer developmental opportunities such as micro-credentials
With your degree, you can learn the core principles and some aspects give you chances to lead or work in team settings, however, that might not be enough, so I want to lobby with the University for the implementation of “micro-credentials”, being small, tailored bite sized courses for you to choose and develop yourself along side your chosen degree for postgraduation, making you more employable.
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This should be the opportunities to branch out of your specialty to support your discipline and abilities to come out of higher education feeling like you you know your next steps in your career path.

Safety and Sustainability

Students’ safety first, anywhere, anytime

I started and achieved a 24/7 safety initiative for the whole of our London campus within 6 months, I want to further enhance this with our students in Stoke anywhere and anytime on the campus to a finer level, as well as our Stafford campus
Student safety should not be second, third, or fourth on the list, it should be a clear priority as it is our students that keep the life of campus, how are they suppose to live and create that sense of community if they don’t even feel safe to be on it

Getting our safety teams more connected with students

I was able to join the back end of the security changes on the Stoke campus, this being our security team, being changed to a “safety” team by being more visible around campus, change of clothing to have a friendlier feel, and patrolling more frequently around the campus and local area.
However, they should be first hand understanding the student concerns as it is their role to enable students to feel safe on campus, this is your space, so why should you feel safe on it?
Holding more forums, events, and closer interactions with our safety teams to understand what the current or future climate of our student safety is

Making Safezone more accessible and reliable for students
I worked on and helped promote the implementation of the University bespoke free safety app “Safezone” that came into play in April 2021
I want to continue raising its awareness, and implement more transparency and visibility of the app for our students, to understand its use and how it can keep our students safe, and make campus a safer space
Far too much our students might call or even use the Safezone app to connect to our Stoke campus control centre where our safety team is, however, by the time they arrive, the culprit/s or issue is already passed with no proper resolution, that shouldn’t be the case and I want to make Safezone more reliable for our students
Helping students understand and utilise the Safezone App, as it has a wide extensive range of deatures that can support students in need and does create a safezone to be used while using on Stoke campus
Implementing Safezone into the Beacon app, to create a physically shown "Safezone" on the app and extended information for when and where builds are, if they are covered with Safezone and how it can support them

Transparency on how sustainable campus is, what needs to be changed, and what you can do
There is no transparency for our university on how sustainable it is, and is resorted to being labelled “113th” on the people and planet charts for university in the UK, this should be changed and this can start by letting students know how sustainable/ eco friendly are the buildings on campus, or things like Catalyst roof being completely fitted with solar panels and understanding how much of the solar energy is being used to power the building as Staffs has been listed 113th on the "people and planet 21/22"
This could also include more water fountains around campus, solar panels on key buildings for electricity generation on our digitally connected campus
I want to work on a policy for old equipment and furniture that is to be thrown away have the chance for students to be aware to be recycled locally back to students that might be moving into accomodation that is not funished, needs old equipment to live better, or recently graduated and looking to move out in their own housing space

To Lead and Change

I want to use this year to lead, aspire, and inspire students. letting them know they have the power with their voice to make a change

I want to try to visit every society, and sports teams I can for the coming year, to show that it doesn’t matter what shape, size or colour you are to join something you are interested in, and help you shape your voice
I want to show staffs students that you are the individual who can make a difference starting with yourself, inspire them out of this nihilistic culture and show them that there is more than just being a bystander, this is your education, you life at University, and your future, so rise up and make the stand to make the difference

Address the cultural ignorance at Staffs, and provide the time to make a change for it, to truly become a connected university

There are far too many issues at Staffs that are ignored and covered with this “it will be fine” plaster, just for it to rip off and erupt in greater force. A lot of this is down to ignorance and little to no understanding of having an open mind which causes conflict that cannot be resolved
Cultural ignorance is one of the worst, the number of subtle comments with closet racist and xenophobic behaviour is disgusting, and it should not be tolerated at all. I want to bring in an opportunity to have people of colour and other races to sit down and talk, to have a human library event where you have a chance to speak to someone else, a person’s experience and background so you don’t make immediate assumptions or think about the comment you might have made without thinking twice
Workshops, and or training to be culturally competent because I believe that Staffs is for all, I want our international, POC, and more students to be feeling apart of the community rather than our overwhelmingly white/ British student audience being out on our campus events and activities.
This includes staff and students to be understanding and clearly seeing the issue or being empathetic to the raised concerns, so you can just go to anyone at the University and know that you will be supported no matter who or where you turn

To be truly able to say #proudtobestaffs

If I can achieve these 18 points, then I want to say that I can truly say I am #proudtobestaffs
Supporting you all at Staffs while I am one of your Officers