Green Room Opening

The official opening of the Orchard Resource Learning Centre (ORLC) Green Room took place on the 16th October. Both myself and the VPEA Tom Marley were in attendance. I've said it before and I'll say it again; this really is a fantastic facility and something which I feel will be of great benefit to the students of Selly Oak Campus. Film footage of the event is apparently being posted on YouTube, a link shall be posted to it as soon as I find it. If you're finding the learning spaces on campus overrun with freshers this time of year, why not head on over.

The night went smoothly with but one exception. Tom - perhaps feeling a little light headed having been courteously plied with red wine by our hosts - managed to knock a bottle of the stuff on the brand new (rather expensive) green carpet. I should like to thank myself for successfully handling what could have been a very embarrassing incident. Sabbs; can't take them anywhere.

(How it might have happened ^^^^^)

And on that note, I'd like to wrap up this post by reminding all our members (on all sites) to always drink responsibly.

Blogging et al.

Ok, so I'm not a natural blogger. That would be why a large number of posts have appeared overnight whilst I pretend that they were here all along.

But blogging is apparently the way forward, and in fact our officer blogs are meant to replace the old Guild Council reports. I don't approve but I'll run with it. Why? 'Cos Guild Council are entitled to censure me If I don't.

Continuing a very old tradition; the first person to ask a question of the SSO in GC wins the prize of a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Return to Selly Oak Campus

On the 2nd October 2008 I was delighted to return to the lovely Selly Oak Campus. This was a visit long overdue but essential to my ongoing campaign to reinvigorate student participation and democracy on the site. In a way the delay had its benefits for I was able to see for myself the change that has transformed the groundfloor of the Orchard Learning Resource Centre (OLRC). An extensive refit over the summer has given the site a facility fit for 2008 - indeed, I enviously remaked that the Library services there were better than those on the main campus.

While I'm on the subject, I should probably mention that the official opening of the new facilities - imaginatively named 'The Green Room' - is on the 16th October, and that myself and as many members of the Exec that I can drag along shall be in attendance. Any excuse to dress up, ay? With luck there'll be some photos I'll be posting too. Too quote the VPW: "Looks like the p-a-r-t-y of the century".

Returning to a more serious note; the new facilities will further my opportunities to reach out to the students on the campus. Already my first Guild-Outreach is planned for the 15th October within the entrance to the OLRC. This will consist of the Guild having a stall where it can talk (and listen) directly to the students. The first shall be about introducing myself and the Guild to the students of Selly Oak Campus. Following on from this, the second Guild-Outreach a fortnight later will be when I start collecting nominations for the Selly Oak Campus Committee (or SOCC for want of a better acronym.

It is my goal to have a functioning campus committee up and running by the end of Semester 1. Wish me luck.

The Institute Visits

In the last week, visits were paid to both the Shakespeare and Ironbridge Institutes on my behalf by the VPDR. Much as I wanted to go myself, lecture timetables did not facilitate it. My thanks go out to Hannah for her work here.

Nonetheless, important feedback was gathered from both visits, which I (with assistance from the whole Executive committee) shall very shortly be looking into. Even better than that, on Friday the Guild received a reciprocal visit from a number of Shakespeare Institute PhD students. I took this opportunity to speak with a number of them and hear their concerns. Foremost among these was the relative isolation the face through being at the Institute. The limited rail services between Stratford and the main campus do not make it easy for them to access the facilities here - access which is essential for their projects.

In the past, a shuttle bus service existed which helped someway towards alleviating this issue. Now this no longer exists leaving these students with little alternative but to limit their access to the main campus or pay the high prices for overnight hotel rooms in the city. When one considers that the Postgrads at the Shakespeare Institute are paying around £9500 in fees, plus up to £800 a month for accommodation, it seems only fair that they should demand value for money. It is my belief that the university should step in to help solve some of these issues. The University of Birmingham prides itself as a top university, and while there is no denying its academic status, some would argue that more could be done to assist those postgrads who have made the commitment to study at the Shakespeare Institute.

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On a related note, the rest of the Executive committee shall now be subject to a gentle persuasion from myself and the VPDR, with the intention of getting them all to visit these institutes.

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(The visits to the Shakespeare and Ironbridge Institutes were carried out by the VPDR on the 6th and 8th of October respectively)

The Summer of '08

Now where did that go?


And more importantly, what did I do with it? Obviously a long summer is both good and bad for a Non-Sabb. Good because I could get on with a lot of actual planning for the year ahead without having to worry about my course. Bad because with no real students around, there are limits to what noticeable



So what did your beloved SSO get up to over the summer? Well, from that which I'm actually allowed to talk about; rather a lot. With, admittedly rather a lot of time on my hands, I managed to lay much of the groundwork for my priority campaign for this semester: Increasing representation and democracy on Satellite Sites (with particular focus on Selly Oak Campus). More detail on this in later posts.



Other links have been successfully established with students and staff on all sites.



Further work is being undertaken at my request on expanding the distribution of Redbrick to addition locations.



Unfortunately (for me at least) I wasn't around for Freshers week; course commitments come first after all. Hopefully though, with plans well set in motion, plenty can be achieved over the course of the next semester.

(Updates to follow)