Written by Ana, your Activities and Engagement Officer
This Monday was the first Activities Zone of this academic term. Activities Zone is a core democratic function of the Students' Union where a group of elected student representatives discuss, ideas and policy proposals relating to the sports, arts, societies and volunteering provision at UCL.
In these meetings, elected reps and officers discussed ideas put forward by you on how to improve student life at UCL. Policies passed at this stage are put forward at Union Exec, where the committee make the final decisions on implementation through voting.
What was discussed
At the first Activities Zone of the year, many of you actively participated, shared insights, and contributed to discussions on key issues. Some of the topics discussed included:
UCL200 Festival of Student Life
We're bringing the UCL community together for the UCL200 Festival of Student Life which will see campus transformed into a once in a lifetime festival . At the zone, we engaged in discussion about what the event could look like:
- Commemorative merch to mark the occasion
- Sports: one-off activities and tournaments
- Debates and individual competitions happening throughout the week
Varsity 2026
Varsity happens every year in March, where we play Kings College London in a series of matches. At this Activities Zone, we discussed how to engage more students as spectators, considering inter-society matches against KCL, Varsity merch and increased visibility on campus.
Breaking down barriers to engagement for students:
- Scheduling and accessibility - holding more events during the day and looking more closely at timetabling to ensure students are free to attend
- Student identity - working to create an identity for groups in relation to Varisty - including sports, arts, career, media and more
- Increased promotion of societies and the participation fund
- Having a retention advice and strategy for clubs and societies
Discussion on sober committee members
Your Sports Officer, Jim Roberts, discussed the potential of implementing a policy requiring one member of a committee to be sober during drinking socials. We talked about:
- The training that would be needed for sober members on how to safeguard others
- The practicality of implementing and regulating the policy
- The level of support for the policy
What's next
Be part of the conversation, and have a say in the experience you want through activities here. You can also join a Welfare & Community zone or an Education Zone.