What has my SU done for me? 2023/24 Officer Edition
Saturday 10-08-2024 - 11:24
This blog is usually reserved for the Officers to engage in some deep reflection about the end of their time at Durham and have an existential crisis for all of you to see. I regret to inform you that because I’ve been re-elected, that will not be happening this year. That is a problem for future me, and I wish him luck. Instead, I decided to use this to look back on the year we’ve had together and touch on some of the work we’ve done.
As another year ends at Durham, I and everyone at Durham SU wanted to congratulate you all on your hard work. Whether it’s your first year, last year, or somewhere in between, you should all be incredibly proud. I’m consistently humbled by the resilience and brilliance of our community, and this year has certainly been a test of both.
In particular, Durham Jewish Society, who have been nothing short of outstanding in representing Jewish students and building a safe space for them on campus. As well as the efforts of the Durham People of Colour Association, who, alongside Durham Islamic Society and Durham Palestine Solidarity Society, have been tireless in their fundraising for the Palestinian people and creating an environment of solidarity and community.
As we and universities up and down the country turned towards protest, our differences could have torn us apart. To the credit of all involved, we remained compassionate and reasoned, showing that it is possible to stand up for what we believe in, for what is right, and do so in a considerate way. The fearless activism of the students who encamped on Palace Green in solidarity with Palestine was instrumental in triggering a review of the University’s ethical investment policy and seeing them commit money to the rebuilding of education in Palestine.
There will be a social media post covering more of what we’ve worked on this year, but there are a few that we’re particularly proud of and will highlight here:
Securing the Durham Grant
Securing the £500,000 uplift to the Durham Grant and £25,000 for college hardship funds was an early and necessary win, which hopefully alleviated students' financial pressures ever so slightly. We’ve also been leading the conversation about affordability in relation to housing and the cost of learning and are working on articulating that more forcefully into policy.
Changes to the Officer structure
We’ve also spent the year updating the Officer team structure. The introduction of part-time roles aims to improve the shape of representation encompassing the various elements of the university, and shift power and resources away from the core of the SU into local communities. We’re particularly excited about the four faculty ‘mini unions’ and the first-ever Officer for international students!
Navigating Durham Housing
The national housing crisis hasn’t changed much. In consideration of what we can do locally, I think we’ve made some progress. Clearly, it is still an apocalyptic situation for renters out there, but with student numbers under greater control, there has been no significant queuing outside of estate agents, creating a panic scenario. This is also largely because students didn’t buy into any panic around supply. We made sure the University showed their maths and proved there was enough accommodation for everyone, and it seems people responded well to that. I’m sure that was an anxious period, as house hunting at Durham always is, so a massive well done and thank you for holding your nerve.
The elephant in the room remains, however, the University’s own status as a housing provider. The price of its accommodation is unsustainable and frankly scandalous. My questions remain unanswered about how this trend of annual price increases will change as their share of the housing market grows.On a wider policy level, we started the year by taking aim at the Code of Practice. It is an important pillar in a wider local policy landscape that the SU previously worked hard to create, but it could never be our only answer. To remedy this, we fought tooth and nail to see students considered in Durham County Council’s (DCC) Delivery Plan for improved housing in the city.
"Through our work, students went from being mentioned just once in the whole document to having a much stronger presence, reflecting our presence in the city."
We’ve started collecting evidence through our housing survey (fill it in if you haven’t already!) to make the case for additional licensing for HMOs, to improve standards and quality across the city. All of this is encapsulated in the new student living strategy developed with University and DCC. It is important that these two bodies are held accountable for their obligations to the people of Durham, this strategy will do that.
"Another bit of work in this area was securing the Rate Your Landlord platform to empower students against their landlords."
This will prove a valuable tool to identify and map trends in housing standards as well as allow landlords to be held accountable publicly by their tenants finally. Finally, we continue the not-at-all-simple task of buying a house to support the establishment of a housing co-operative. Finding an appropriate house is proving a pain, but we’ll manage it eventually.
Access and Participation Plan
Our work with the University on its Access and Participation Plan is a personal favourite of the work we’ve done this year. The plan is tasked with transforming the culture and makeup of Durham University by breaking down barriers underrepresented groups face in getting to Durham and participating in everything it has to offer. The University has a long way to go, but this plan starts that change in a really exciting way. It features interventions such as a coordinated university-wide outreach program in local schools, support for marginalised communities and seeks to tackle the attainment gap between students from less privileged socioeconomic backgrounds and their peers. It also provides the SU with £85,000 to distribute annually to student-led activities that are aimed at increasing students’ sense of belonging at Durham. Over the next year, we’ll work out the best way to help students access that funding and decide what our flagship projects using this money will be.
SU ranking delight (sorry, Oxford SU!)
Finally, the most culturally significant achievement of them all, and the result I delayed this blog in eager anticipation of: Durham SU is no longer the lowest-ranked students’ union in the country! Even better, we are now ranked higher than Oxford! This result is a testament to the fantastic work of the outgoing Academic Officers regarding student voice, which we will continue in the coming year.
This has gone on a bit, and I will shut up in a moment, but I absolutely have some thank yous. I’ve been blessed this year with an outstanding Officer team. As Officers, you’re often told ‘you can only do so much in a year’ as if it’s an invitation to accept doing little. As a team, we’ve worked hard this academic year to challenge that narrative and do as much as we possibly could, wherever we could. I believe we’ve done that, and I am so proud of the team for doing so. That includes working alongside this year’s common room Presidents, who we’ve collaborated with on a host of issues.
"They deserve all the credit in the world for managing as beautifully as they have to deliver a key part of the student experience. It might look easy from the outside; I assure you it is vastly different on the inside."
I’d also be remiss not to give a massive shoutout, and a thank you to the SU staff team. You don’t see them much as they do their work largely in the background, but without them, none of what we do would be possible.
Lastly, a massive thank you to all of you for supporting us throughout the year! You’ve kept us going through some incredibly challenging weeks, and being able to share the outcome of our work with you makes it all worth it.
Congratulations to those who graduated this year. I wish you all the best for your future. For those of you returning in October, I hope you have a lovely summer, and we’ll see you soon!
Dan
