Tuesday 19-07-2022 - 11:00

Jonah Graham reflects on his year as Welfare and Liberation Officer

My year as an Officer has been one of the most rewarding yet challenging experiences of my life. Overall, I am proud of myself for being able to represent Durham students. Whether that’s been with senior university management, or the national press. I am one in a long line of Welfare and Liberation Officers and I’m very satisfied that I’ve been able to continue and complete some of the work started by my brilliant predecessor Ewan. I am ready now to leave Durham knowing my successor Laura, will make me and the previous ‘welflibs’ proud.

Many students don’t know what work Officers do - which is a shame because I get to work alongside some truly wonderful colleagues who do lots of brilliant things. It has been a pleasure to work with the Association presidents, student leaders, and the Durham SU staff team.

The things I am most proud of are:

· securing more funding for student mental health support

· successfully lobbied for the provision of BAME counsellors

· helped change data sharing systems so students don’t have to repeat their stories numerous times doubled the amount of welfare training we offer

· and (almost) finished writing a report on student support after talking to over 500 students

 

On sexual violence, we have expanded our active bystander training from Freps to sports teams, championed the work of the student conduct team to give experts in Durham a greater voice, and worked with the University to implement robust anti-spiking measures.

Finally, it has been a joy to work alongside the eight Associations creating a training course to help them better represent students. A highlight for me was also celebrating their work in our first ever Association’s week, where many of the groups picked up new members. There is plenty more from reimbursing international students after visa issues to working to change drug policy – put simply, the welfare liberation remit is huge!

Part of me is surprised we achieved so much given the year my team have faced. Responding to the spiking increase and subsequent insensitive hashtag and tweet, the supporting of the student sex worker training following a global scandal, the CSFOs racism rumourmongering, and the South College formal incident proved an exhausting experience. It meant my aspirations for the role and work priorities being put on hold for a time.

When the team were personally targeted in the national press, we were subject to hateful online comments, emails and messages from strangers. Seeing my team go through this was horrible. Add to this the angry Durfesses, some valid, others completely unfounded. It showed that working for the SU can be a strangely isolating experience. If the SU spent all their time putting right all the reported wrongs, there would be no capacity to focus on ensuring services and activities meet the needs and benefit the experience of all students at Durham.

I’m not saying all criticism of Durham SU stems from misinformation; there are many things the Union needs to improve upon. However, it has had an undeniable impact with Officers becoming caught in the crossfire with little regard for the work we do and for the people who work here. I would however like to praise Palatinate for their coverage of my work, which was far more accurate, nuanced, and balanced.

When student leaders and those students who publicly put themselves forward to speak about issues facing our members, are subjected to abuse from their own community and external world beyond Durham. We need to have their backs and support them when they’re being attacked. It is

this uninformed, intimidating, and unconstructive content that suppresses our students, particularly those from under-represented groups.

However, saying that, I have still had a dream year. The hard experiences taught me a great deal about myself, and the person I want to be. The year has pushed me in ways most 23-year-olds would never experience. How many graduate jobs involve being asked “what to do about sexual violence?” by a University Vice-Chancellor? This has been a fitting epilogue to my time at Durham that has given me innumerable skills and a wealth of experience, as well as some lifelong friends and colleagues.