Last week the brand new Zone Meetings took place: Activities Zone, Education Zone and Welfare and Community Zone. Here’s the highlights, what was discussed and what policies came were passed:
Activities Zone
In the Activities Zone, elected officers come together to discuss issues, projects, campaigns and propose new ideas to improve student activity at UCL. This includes improvements to all the Clubs and Societies we have on campus, volunteering, events and enterprise.
Quite a few ideas were discussed during the meeting with two passing into Union policy, which means that we will be making these ideas into reality at the Union.
Here are the motions that passed:
Affiliating Departmental Societies
Proposed by a Postgraduate Research student, Departmental Societies are not affiliated by the Union because they aren’t open to everyone. Being affiliated by the Union would mean better help in booking facilities, more engagement with other students across UCL and voting rights in Clubs and Society elections. This policy was amended from a previous version so now we'll be working with departmental societies to affiliate Departmental Societies. Departmental Societies will have to be open to all students but they can have restrictive activities within their society, so we're hoping that helps.
Reduce Printing, Increase Digital Signage
“The value of paper can’t just be picked up, carelessly folded in our bags or disposed of as we like”. Loads of posters are printed during Freshers’ Week to be left in libraries and around campus. Nowadays, with everyone connected digitally, especially with the new askUCL app and digital screens nearly everywhere, this printed material is a surplus to what is already available digitally. This policy was passed and we'll be incentivising clubs and socs to go paperless and are providing training to presidents.
Education Zone
In Education Zone meetings, elected officers discuss issues, projects, campaigns and propose policies that aim to improve the educational experience of UCL students.
Here’s what was passed in the last meeting:
Providing Subtitles for Students with Hearing Impairments
In this proposal, there was a desire to see a more accessible service with subtitling on all audiovisual material so as to make teaching accessible to all students. This policy was passed and we will now be lobbying UCL and working with Digital Education staff to get this implemented.
Welfare and Community Zone
The Welfare & Community Zone meets to improve the wellbeing of UCL students on campus and in the wider community.
Here’s what passed in the last meeting:
Tumble Dryers in the Union
Many students live in accommodation without tumble dryers and as the weather gets cold, it takes a longer time to dry clothing which in turn causes a rise in humidity in the accommodation. This policy was amended as it's not practical to buy in our own tumble dryers we'll be providing you clearer resources on where to find local laundrettes, lobbying UCL accommodation to get more laundry facilities in halls and providing a guide on your rights as a tenant in terms of combating damp.
If you've got an idea on what you'd like to see changed around campus then let us know! You can have your say here.