Meet one of your incoming Sustainability Officers, Oskar Barltrop. He's just finished his first year as a European Social and Political Studies student. Oskar told us about his experience so far as a student, his impact as Hall Community Officer for his halls of residence, 109 Camden Road, and his plans for the future in his role as Sustainability Officer.
Hall Community Officer
It's through this role as Hall Community Officer that I first got involved with Students’ Union politics. I've also been active in various clubs and societies – such as knitting, climate action, and football.
My role as Hall Community Officer involved a close partnership with the Welfare and Community Officer and the SU Democracy Team. I've spent spent a lot of time lobbying for desperately-needed improvements in student halls and organising social events for everyone to get involved in, such as 109 evening socials and other events with freebies.
One initiative I've particularly enjoyed has been the 109 football team - Ifor FC. As a Hall Community Officer, I applied for the Students' Union to provide funding for the team to enter into the UCL Social Leagues. It was a great way of involving lots of different people and creating a sense of community at 109.
I'm proud of all the work I've done so far this year, particularly on holding UCL Accommodation to account for the disintegrating quality of its accommodation with students' cries for help being ignored despite an array of issues, such as flooded rooms and mould. But there's still so much to get done and that's what I'm keen to focus on now.
Sustainability
Looking to the future, as Sustainability Officer, I'm hoping to expand the Student Sustainability Council, which will be recruiting new students in September, and to lobby UCL for a more ethical and sustainable investments policy, with a big aim of getting UCL to drop Barclays! Many of UCL's pre-exisiting policies are great but they often aren't implemented fully. I've got a lot to live up to as the previous Sustainability Officer Alan Salazar steps down, because he's so amazing and achieved so much. But I hope that UCL and the Students' Union will support the Sustainability Council in order to enable me and Pauline Le Gal (my Co-Sustainability Officer) to get more students involved with the fantastic work we're doing.
My advice for first years
Get things wrong. Give everything a go. Try an activity you've never tried before - I went to a tango taster session in term one and it was a highlight of the term for me! One of the best ways to find out what works is to find out what doesn't work, so you can try something else!