Your Student Life President's Spring Update
Hi Everyone!
How is it nearly the end of the semester? Time is flying by! The last few months have been super busy at SMSU!
Since my last update, We have delivered 7+ campaigns including:
- Refreshers Week – 23-27 January. We delivered a fabulous line-up of events for this year's Refreshers Week, including mug painting, wine and cheese night, and Refreshers Fayre for the first time ever. Engagement and feedback was highly positive.
- Culture Week – 30 January - 3 February. In response to student feedback, we worked with students to develop Culture Week in celebration of the many different cultures and nationalities of our Simmies. During the week, students were encouraged to thank Staff members in different languages, the Refectory provided meals from many different cultures, and much more!
- Sexual Harassment Awareness Week – 6-10 February. This year, we ran an ‘Erase the Grey’ campaign to highlight that there is no ‘grey area’ when it comes to sexual assault & harassment. As part of this week, Caitlin ran a ‘Pizza & Consent’ workshop to teach students about consent. The event reached capacity and the students who participated thoroughly enjoyed the event and said they learned a lot from the class.
- Sexual Health Awareness & Guidance Week – 13-17 February – This year we provided guidance and free samples of sexual health products to St Mary’s students.
- Volunteering Week – 13-17 February - The first Student Volunteering Week campaign in association with the Student Volunteering Network where we hosted a student volunteering fayre, two one-off volunteering opportunities and a long-standing collaboration with the Strawberry Hill Residents Association.
- LGBTQ+ History Month – We raised the Pride flag for the month of February, and organised a movie night showing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
- Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Week – 27 February - 3 March. To encourage students to show kindness in everyday life, we organised and set up a ‘Compliment box’ where students could submit a compliment or positive message for other students/staff. We received nearly 200 compliments, with around 10 for staff.
- Red Nose Day – We encouraged staff and students to wear their PJ’s to campus on Friday 17th March for Red Nose Day. We also asked for voluntary donations on the day, raising some money for Comic Relief!
- Ramadan Unity Fast - In collaboration with a small group of students, we organised this wonderful evening as a celebration of unity and alliance with the Muslim community at St Marys, where non- Muslim staff and students were encouraged to fast for one day alongside their Muslim peers, and we all broke the fast together after sundown.
And of course, on 29 March, for the first time in 5 years, we held Varsity on campus and brought the trophy home! I want to say a massive thank you and well done to all of the teams that played on the day. Win, lose or draw, you played a part in making the day as fantastic as it was!
Following the Varsity win, we held Sports Dinner on 31 March at Kempton Park Racecourse. It was a truly wonderful night spent celebrating the successes of our spectacular sports teams and club members.
Since the start of January, 2 societies have affiliated with SMSU and we cannot wait to see what they get up to!
Coming Up…
Summer Ball - 12 May 2023
