Lent term update: Sabbatical Officers

Lent term is officially over and over the past few months your Sabbatical Officer team have been busy campaigning, running events, representing students on University committees and making change. 

A lot of the work they do goes on behind the scenes, so let’s see what each of them have been up to: 

Matthew Copeman: 

• Worked to save the Vet School by:

  • Speaking at the Regent House Discussion

  • Writing and recording an Instagram Reel on the SU’s Instagram account to explain how we got here, which received over 18k views. 

  • Developing campaigning strategies with vet students, staff and allies from around the University

  • Helping to read and index all 1000+ pages of papers before the meeting

  • Lobbying members of the University Council to speak up for the Vet School

  • Securing the rewriting of a proposed highly biased Notice to prevent further reputational harm for the Vet School

• Designed a Grace to trigger divestment using a previously unnoticed provision in the University’s Statutes.

  • Spent weeks drafting and redrafting it to be legally valid and effective, with input from other academics

  • Worked to ensure it received 155 signatures from academics in less than a week

  • Wrote and recorded an Instagram reel on the SU’s Instagram to explain it, which received over 17k views alongside writing a blog post

• Taught mock supervisions to year 12 students from underprivileged backgrounds for the SU’s Shadowing Scheme

• Met with the women’s football captains and the University Sports Centre to try and find a trans-inclusive solution to women’s football going forward.

• Delivered a session for the University’s professional staff to encourage greater engagement with the SU.

• Continued to meet with JCR presidents and provide support where needed.

• Helped in the redrafting of our Articles of Association, and ensured they were passed in a quorate referendum, keeping us legally compliant, and able to adapt the organisation as we grow into the future.

• Encouraged participation in our elections, including by flyering out and about, chairing hustings, and making social media posts. We achieved the same turnout (18%) as last year, which was far higher than the year before (11%), and higher than the national average.

• Continued to work as Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees, and Chair of the Governance & Compliance subcommittee, ensuring that the SU as a charitable organisation runs effectively and legally.

• As always, I spent a lot of time in committees! 19 in total this term.

Augustin Denis: 

• Relaunched J4CS contract discussions with colleges

• Currently Initiating a divestment grace that would change the responsibilities of the university's investment body

• Worked with CCJ ( Cambridge Climate Justice) to create a working group for the ethical careers fair 

Jessica Asiedu Kwatchey: 

• Advocated for vet students at General Board, contributing to the decision not to close the vet school

• Supported another year of the SU’s Shadowing Scheme, aimed at prospective students from widening participation backgrounds

• Launched surveys for Black British and British Bangladeshi students to better understand their experiences of the ethnicity awarding gap

• Presented a paper to the Undergraduate Bursary Scheme Committee, highlighting the need for more transparency about financial support

• Currently working with JCRs to produce comprehensive guides to financial support, tailored to each College

• In the process of renewing the SU’s Alternative Prospectus, with updated insights from Academic Reps and JCR Access Officers

• Building support for the introduction of bridging weeks across all Colleges, through conversations with Access Officers, Schools Liaison Officers, and Senior Tutors

• Supporting the Head of Student Funding and Fee Policy’s work to increase the Cambridge Bursary in line with inflation and streamline the hardship funding application process

Melanie Benedict:

• Organised the Decolonisation Conference, where we explored decolonising education, trauma-informed healing, and frameworks for decolonial living

• Supported the organisation of the annual Reclaim the Night march against gender-based violence

• Organised an MP letter writing session, encouraging MPs to not ratify the EHRC’s new guidance on trans rights

• Organised weekly body doubling session, in collaboration with ADHD Society

• Organised an activism training workshop from the Palestinian Youth Movement, in  collaboration with student organisers

• Organised a disability advocacy session, in collaboration with the Disability and Neurodiversity Alliance

• Organised a welfare event for University Mental Health Day, in collaboration with Student Minds and Psychology Society

• Leading weekly support groups for students campaigning on college divestment

• Launched an open letter on lecture capture for academic reps to sign, with the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education being present at the launch

• Building an ongoing knowledge base for the lecture capture campaign, through conversations with departments that both do and don’t have lecture capture, as well as with the Head of the ADRC

• Building support for my proposal that the first two UCS counselling sessions be combined, through conversations with the Student Advisory Forum and the Head of Counselling and Wellbeing

• Established a Trans Inclusion Working Group for trans student representatives, to share their insights in University meetings

• Supported the SU’s BME Advisor to create and publicise a survey about BME students’ experiences of support services and reporting procedures

Olivia Ledger: 

• Launched the Societies’ Forum, a key space for students to come together and feed into the work the SU is doing

• Attended a Russell Group Students’ Union conference, and joined a sabbatical officer group campaigning to Make Misogyny a Hate Crime

• Spoke at and led chants at this year’s Reclaim the Night rally

• Began work to reform the Society Grants criteria

• Began collating feedback and preparing an impact report for my Winter Holidays Activities Project, in order to futureproof it!

You can expect to see lots more from your Sabbatical Officer team next term, so keep an eye out on our social media and website for more updates. Until then, have a lovely easter break!