May has flown by and that’s the end of spring lots of you will also be feeling that ‘end of year’ feeling as you wrap up on your courses. SRUCSA will put a bow on the challenging year of 20/21 by holding our Annual General Meeting and publishing our Annual report next month.

In May

• We announced our SRUCSA Awards winners.
• We are arranging our annual general meeting led by our communication temporary staff member Tinofara. Where we will be discussing our successes of the year and our plans for the year ahead of us.
• We had an awesome event at Barony where Amy, Cara and Kevin had pizza and games with students on campus.
• Kevin and Cara attended the SRUC Equalities Diversity and Inclusion Committee. We brought our Black Lives Matter policy that calls for SRUC to address the lack of racial diversity in the land-based sector. As well as plans for our campaign that will be raising awareness of Gender Based Violence.
• We introduced a draft of our new vision for the future of SRUCSA – tell us if we got it right.

• We called on SRUC to arrange a graduation ceremony for students who have completed their courses in the pandemic. Kevin and Amy have taken up positions on the SRUC graduation task force which was set up because we took your voice to SRUC.
• Kevin took part in a panel at a Digital Learning Communities event, fielding challenging questions at the Enhancement Themes event. This gave us a national platform to talk about the work we have done and the struggles our students are facing.
• We have been working with an SRUC board member to improve the communications between the SRUC board and the student body. The Student Liaison Committee will now be co-chaired by a Co-President and this will give students a direct link to the direction and growth of SRUC.
• We have our first-Class Rep Review working group with membership from students’ staff and members from external groups. This will give us a fresh approach and empower our class reps to make changes and make the role more rewarding.
• We met up together for a team bonding event only the first time we have all been together.
• The Co-Presidents continue meeting with the Principal and Academic Director on a regular basis. Which gives us a direct pulse on the ongoing situation of studying under Covid-19.
• Kevin recorded a video on lateral flow tests to show students how straightforward the process is.
• We met with Student Voice team about the Student Mental Health Agreement, and we decided it would form a part of SRUCs incoming mental health strategy to maximise the impact it will have.
• We met with Rape Crisis Scotland about the Gender based violence project we have upcoming. This will help us make the most out of our campaign and learn from everything Rape Crisis Scotland have done.
• We took part in the SRUC classroom capture project to ensure that recording lectures and teaching is done for the benefit of students.
• We are taking part in the work-based learner project which is helping to improve the experience for our apprentices and other students who study as part of their paid work.
• Cara visited the Elmwood and Aberdeen campus giving out goodie bags to students she met.Amy met with Muckers Nation Equine student community who are still looking for members.
• The Oatridge Rangers and Countryside Stewards Student group is having an event to attract more students to their conservation volunteering group.