Tom Upton [Archived]

You Stay Classy Swandiego.

Wed, 26 Jun 2013 12:10:00 +0100

A little over two years ago, I sat down in this office and wondered what the next few hours would hold for me.

Many hours, days, weeks and months later I have very little time left working for this fantastic Union.

Hopefully those of you who have joined us this year, or are a sesoned University veteran will have gained something from your Students' Union. Much like the University the Students' Union is nothing without you, our membership. Often over the two years I have had to spend far too much time than I would like to in meetings or cooped up away from Student life on our vibrant campus.

To those of you moving on to even better and fantastic opportunities, good luck, the time and experiences you have had here will never be forgotten. Or to those of you like me, who are heading home for the first time in a long time not sure what's going to happen next, don't worry, I'm 24 and still haven't got a clue what I want to do next. We are though in a unique juncture in history. Yes the economy has taken a battering over the last few years, and yes like us there are many other graduates. There is however a strange willing in the world to try and to do things no one has thought of yet.

A great example of this comes from within our own student body. I'm sure Ben and Jezz won't mind me mentioning their success, as I believe it is truly an inspiration to every student. Mango Bikes, a name you may have heard or seen, was born from the imagination of two Swansea students. The possibility to custom design and build your own bike to get you around during you student career, took off and the guys have turned an idea into something truly unique. The opportunity though comes from the co-currciular side of student life. Yes we all study specific currciculums, but we also take part in sport, socities and other voluntary acitivites which leads us to meet a huge spectrum of people. Next time you have a 'crazy' idea why not pitch it to your friends? Perhaps it isn't so silly and could possibly change your life. Now is the time in our lives to take a leap of faith and try something even we are unsure about. To read more about Ben and Jezz or just marvel at the colour possiblities with their bikes click here:

http://www.mangobikes.co.uk/about-us/

For me though, I'd like to close on a thank you. Thank you's often don't sound as sincere as people would like them too, so I will try and emphasis mine as fully as possible.

Being 'The President' is possibly the single greatest honour you can receive during your time at University. For a fleeting 10 Seconds it seems cool, and then for the next 11 Months, 29 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes and 50 Seconds it is the strangest rollercoaster ride you could be silly enough to step on to. There is a constant feeling that you could let students down. That might sound odd, or over the top, but many of the meetings that I have the privilege to attend will directly affect student life. I have sincerely tried my best in every meeting that I have attended to represent the true feelings and values of our student body. Whilst I'd like to thank our Students' Union Staff, both full and part time and all of the fantastic colleagues I have had the opportunity to work with from the University, my biggest thank you, is to you.

I don't know half as many peoples names as I'd like to, I haven't been to anywhere near as many events as I have wanted to, but I always, always see students enjoying themselves. This makes every stressful meeting or situation I have been in worth while, and reminds me daily the point of both mine and all of the Officers roles. Thank you forgiving me the opportunity to represent you. It has truly been an honour and a privilege and something that I will never, ever forget.

Finally, I'd like to say welcome and good luck to your new Full Time Officer Team. They are and will be a credit to all of you. Keep an eye on the Union Website and Social Media over the summer, there are some very, very exciting things on the horizon.

Tom.

Part Time Officer Election Results!

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:58:00 +0100

Good Morning!

First and foremost a very big thank you to those of you that took time out of your revision and assignments yesterday to vote.

11 of our Part Time Officers for 2013/14 were elected last night and the results are as follows:

Students With Disabilities Officer - Tori Evans

General Secretary - Alex Mckenzie

Environment Officer - Simon Wilde

LGBT+ Open Place Officer - Joel Gascoyne

LGBT+ Women's Place Officer - Rachel Hodgson

Swyddog Materion Cymraeg - Mitchell Lewis

Part Time Students' Officer - Nishali Patel

Mature Students' Officer - Matthew Johnson

Ethics Officer - Christopher Whitty

Community and Housing Officer - Margaret Ball

Black Students' Officer - Nhamburo Ziyenge

A big congratulations to you all and the best of luck to all Full and Part Time Officers for 2013/14.

We hope to see you all at the Student Forum this Thursday at 18:00 in the Refectory!

Tom.

Prelude

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:26:00 +0100

Prelude, is one of my favourite words in the English language. Defined as "an action or event serving as an introduction to something more important" (OED) it is the perfect way to describe the run up to elections in Students' Unions. Often I've heard people call it 'the calm before the storm' or 'when it's still safe to walk down the mall without being bombarded with flyers'.

Students' Union elections did my head in my first year. I most definitely didn't care, turned my volume up in my headphones and walked on by. Somehow three years later on, having no doubt matured considerably I found myself as the Deputy Station Manager of Xtreme - our very own radio station - and unable to access the Union building at times of the day when people wanted to broadcast. I went home night after night to my housemates ranting away, who turned round after about a week and said "DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT THEN".

So I did, I dressed up as a Smurf, drank a horrdendous volume of energy drinks and spoke to what felt like half of the world. Two years later, I couldn't be prouder to be the outgoing President.

Tomorrow at 5pm sees the close of this year's nominations for our 13 Part Time Officer Positions:

http://www.swansea-union.co.uk/elections/

If you're proud of our Students and want to represent them, or perhaps you're annoyed about something and want to change it, then I thoroughly encoruage you to run.

I'll leave you with these rather famous words, which I think speak volumes about the important of reading as a child (and perhaps as a nostalgic teen or adult).

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." Dr. Seuss

Happy Monday,

Tom.

The Final Countdown

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:35:00 Z

Yesterday afternoon signalled a significant step up in progress for the Bay Campus Development. It was also the final University Council that Imogen (current Sports Officer) and I will sit on whilst in office.

University Council is the second highest decision making body of the University, all management boards and structures feed up to it and it is where final decision on strategic and academic issues are made. Yesterday a decision had to be made regarding which company the Hendrefoelan Student Village Site would be sold to. As I hope many of you are aware, HSV will be closing partially and then fully as the New Bay Campus Development is built and completed. For a very long period of time, over two years, Charlotte your Welfare Officer has repeatedly asked to be involved in talks regarding to the closure of HSV. We have asked because we are majorly concerned that the clousre, which is in two phases; the first phase being the houses in the village and potentially the pub and other services, followed by the woodside flats in the second phase, will have a huge impact on student experience.

Yesterday during a presentation made at Council we were encouraged to hear that services such as the Wonky Sheep, Laundrette and Spar shop would remain open until 2018/19 -(when the final phase of building will begin and there will be no student residences left), however we still felt not enough consideration had been given to protect students being isolated, cut off and affected by essentially living on a building site. Imagine how disruptive living, sleeping, revising and working will be living next to a demloition and then construction site! Thus Imogen and I, your student representatives voted against the sale. Unfortunately the rest of University Council voted unanimously in favour and the sale will go ahead once all legalities have been finalised.

I feel at this juncture we as the student body need to take a very firm stance on ensuring that quality of life for those students who will live in Woodside in 2015 have as close a student experience to students living on the Singleton Campus and the new Bay Campus. In the coming weeks we will be asking you for your support to make sure this is possible.

If you would like more information on the Bay Campus project, please either come and see myself or Imogen or pop us an email (president@swansea-union.co.uk or sportsofficer@swansea-union.co.uk).

The Bay Campus is set to be open in 2015 and will signal a significant change to Swansea University life as we know it.

Thank you for reading,

Tom.

Results!

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:30:00 Z

Good morning to you all! I hope you had a lovely weekend and are potentially enjoying some very relaxing time off! Last Thursday night saw both our annual AGM and last Forum of the term.

During the AGM we asked you to vote on our list of Honourary Life Members. Those up for nomination were; Nathan Jones, Luke Young, Dr Naglaa Elhusseini Mohamed and Roisin O'Connor. The results were as follows:

For - 38
Against - 12
Abstain - 3

This means that all four nominees have now joined the ranks of our Honourary Life Members of Swansea University Students' Union, congratulations to you all!

Alongside these individuals, five others were automatically nominated for Inidivual Contribution Awards at this year's 'Big Awards Party' by our Trustees Board. They were; Sam Booth, Tom Hoyles, James Short, Susan Turner and Ghatan Al Gahtani. We look forward to receiving even more nominations as nominations have just opened! Click here:

http://www.swansea-union.co.uk/news/article/susu/The-Big-Awards-Party-is-here/

During the Forum we were also presented with a Motion, mandating the Students' Union to support the Swansea City of Sanctuary Project. The results were as follows:

For - 43
Against - 6
Abs - 7

This motion has duly passed and is now policy of Swansea University Students' Union, congraulations to it's proposer Josh Hale.

If anyone has any left over questions regarding our AGM please email either myself (president@swansea-union.co.uk) or our Societies and Services Officer - Josh Hayman, societiesandservices@swansea-union.co.uk

Many thanks to all who attended and those of you who voted online!

Have a wonderful holiday,

Tom.