Redphone: President Sam Brosnahan signs off
Kia ora Everyone,
Exam time can be pretty stressful, so hopefully among the hectic lecture catch-ups and late-night cramming you find some time to look after yourself, catch up with mates, exercise and get perspective.
Since it’s my last email to you before signing off, I thought we’d look back on 2019, the highs and lows. One of our absolute highlights this year was finally opening the doors to our new UCSA building, Haere-roa, after an 8 ½ year wait. Since opening, we’ve held over 430 events with thousands of unique visits through the building over that time. While feedback has been great overall, you may know we’ve had challenges around the toilets at high-capacity events. This will be addressed over the summer break when more toilet capacity will be installed.
On the CANTA front, you might be up to speed on the fact that your student magazine is going editorially independent in 2020. It’s your student magazine and it’s clear that this is how you’d like it to be run from now on, so it was important we listened to this. We’d love your feedback on the kind of content you'd like to see in CANTA moving forward, so feel free to click on the survey link below.
You’ll also know we’ve had a change in UC leadership this year, with new VC Cheryl and Chancellor Sue coming on the scene (what a pic!). With this new leadership, came a new UC Strategy for the next ten years (2020–2030). UCSA helped facilitate nearly 2,000 students who fed back on this, and they strongly prioritised:
- Supporting student success and wellbeing.
- A sustainable university by 2030 (socially, financially and environmentally).
- Improving UC’s teaching and research.
Elsewhere on the student representation front, we provided feedback on:
- 35 new course proposals,
- 12 course/programme reviews,
- 16 new UC proposals, and
- 10 policy reviews on your behalf.
The UCSA Exec also tweaked the club grant policy to allow clubs to apply for food. A brand new medical prescription grant policy was also introduced to cover those unexpected prescription costs after heading to the doctors.
Obviously 2019 will also stay in our minds as the year of March 15th – crazy to think this was over seven months ago now. Through what was a deeply tragic event, we saw the best come through our community. I’ll never forget the 5,000–6,000 of you that turned out to pay your respects. It was also great seeing our Muslim Student Association (MUSA) taking out the Small Supreme Club of the Year Award for their incredible work for their Muslim student community following the attacks.
Last of all, we’d like your feedback on how you reckon the UCSA has gone this year in the areas of events, food on campus, MONO, CANTA and Haere-roa. It’s really important we get the feedback we need in order to know where we’re tracking well, and where we need to improve. By completing the survey, you'll also go in the draw to win yourself one of ten $10 UCSA cafe vouchers!
Well, with that being my last email update, that’s a wrap from me. This year’s had its challenges, but it’s also been a blast. It’s been absolutely epic serving you as President and I have to thank our 2019 Exec Team for being so great. We wish the 2020 Exec all the best! That’s it from me – enjoy the rest of the term, smash those exams and have a well-deserved break, why don’t ya. E noho rā!
Arohanui,
Sam Brosnahan
Tumuaki