Thursday 06-10-2022 - 11:42

Joe McGarry, your SU President, shares a warm welcome to all students who have recently joined Durham University.

Hi everyone – I’m Joe, your SU President and I'd like to formally welcome you all to the student body at Durham University. Over the last few years, you've been on an academic and personal journey to get to Durham, and I’d like to say massive congratulations for making it here!
 

I hope you're settling in, and I hope you haven't tired your freps out too much. I know just how hard they work to help you settle into college life. As a former head frep I've spoken to other students' unions and common rooms at other universities and can honestly say that nowhere else do students have as much say in how your freshers' week is run. It’s run by students, for students – and the great thing about Durham is just how much say you have in curating your own experience here. Whether you’re involved in sport with Team Durham, your common room or SU societies, we have student leadership at all levels of the institution, and this university is so good at fostering a culture which supports student initiative.

 

I get the sense a lot of you are really proud to be here – and you should be. I speak to a lot of recent graduates, and they’re extremely proud to have left here with a degree from a world leading university. What’s also true, is that when they started, they didn’t know what other things they’d be proud of achieving here would be. Some of them were involved in Durham Theatre, and went on to be actors. Some of them were involved in wider social campaigns and continue to work with regional, national, and international charities.
 

I’m very proud of how Durham students support their friends through the exciting, challenging, and ultimately transformative experience which is higher education. And a lot of people are rightfully very proud of how they organised and came together to help their more vulnerable neighbours get their prescriptions and shopping during the covid pandemic.

 

This is your education.

 

In February, many of you were doing mock-exams – and something obviously went right because here you are. I was planning the upcoming open days with my team in Aidan’s, then I went for a drink with the other JCR Presidents to plan my campaign for this role. The John's president came up with the campaign slogan “Ready Steady Joe” – but, because I’m not Ainsley Harriot, we changed it to ready set Joe. We liked that because it sounded dynamic, and proactive – like we wanted to do things, and we need a union that will do things and fight and win for students.
 

We said we were going to find common ground with common rooms, and with the help of your JCR presidents we’re showing that students can make Durham better.

 

We said we wanted to work on the Advice Service, with more focus on not just housing but energy and bills. This was an immediate priority, because the cost of living crisis will uniquely affect students – and it’s been done.

There’s still so much more we want to do.

 

We want to tackle the cost of learning, by pushing for pilot schemes for free lab coats and text books, with more free online pdfs of learning resources.

 

We want to work to expand and update the representative framework that the SU and common rooms use, so that the student voice I’ve spoken about is not just present in practice but protected in policy.

 

We want to continue to show that students are mature enough to have brave conversations about topics which can be uncomfortable. We’ve seen Durham lead the university sector in making progressive changes as a result of conversations about mental health, and sexual misconduct and violence. I think the next big conversation nationally will be about recreational drug use. We need to once again lead the way by pushing for evidence based harm reduction drug policies that have student safety at their heart, not student discipline.

 

There are many challenges facing us – and I’ll be honest, we won’t overcome them all in one year. But as students, you deserve to know what we’re trying to achieve.You can’t ask us to win every time, but you can ask that we be transparent and tell you what we’re trying to win. You can ask us to actively seek out your opinions and you can demand that we always unapologetically act in student interest.

 

What we can ask of you, is that you get involved. If you’ve got an opinion – share it, write for Palatinate. If you like netball – help get others involved by becoming social sec of your colleges team. If you want to part of the big conversations, run to be an elected representative in the SU Assembly. You won’t just be building your Durham experience, but everyone else’s. And the most heartwarming and reassuring thing for me, is I know a number of you will be back here next year as freps.

 

Get involved. It’s going to be fun! Welcome to Durham.