Crime Prevention message from West Midlands Police

As the end of exam time approaches, you will soon be celebrating the end of another academic year. West Midlands Police are urging you to remain vigilant of your surroundings and your belongings whilst enjoying yourselves in the city centre.

Most people will have their bags, wallets, mobiles and cameras with them whilst enjoying the end of year festivities. It is important to be watchful of them in order to maximise enjoyment of the city’s entertainment venues.

Whilst out, police urge that belongings are NEVER left unattended, as others may take advantage. To minimise the risk of being a potential target the message is simple, don’t leave belongings on show and don’t travel around the city alone.

It is recommended that you stay in groups whilst out in order to keep safe. Don’t leave yourself vulnerable through drink, drugs or isolation. Avoid subways wherever possible and keep to well-lit main roads. Preferably we advise you to make use of taxis to get home and to seriously consider any walking routes that you use.

Always seek help from security staff or police and report any incidents that occur.

Contact the West Midlands Police on 0845 113 5000 and ask for your local police. Alternatively, dial 999 in an emergency and help us to help you.

West Midlands police work hard to keep Birmingham one of the safest cities in the country and by working together we can make sure that it remains so. As part of the valued student community your help is very much appreciated. Only by working together can we make a difference.

For more information visit the Safer Student Website at www.west-midlands.police.uk/saferstudents

Best Mates Play Together Stay Together.

Nightbus

Everything is slowly coming together at long last.

Last week I met with the Police who are going to part fund the project, in addition to seeking match funding for their contribution from other funds.

Video reports are here to stay!

Starbucks Forum

June 4th: Subway: 10am-4pm

As you may or may not be aware, a Starbucks Coffee Company Store will be opening on the podium of the Muirhead Tower.

I understand that some students may be uncomfortable with the presence of Starbucks on campus, and it is for this reason that Starbucks have requested to host a question and answer session for any students who may be concerned with their ethical or environmental policy.

On the 4th of June, Starbucks will be in the Guild all day, along side Culture Festival.

Come along to Subway at 11am and 3pm to watch presentations detailing Starbucks CSR and ethical policies, or pop along at any time during the day to question the representatives.

There will be free coffee and possibly biscuits all day for anybody wishing to come along! Drop me an email at h.jones@guild.bham.ac.uk or leave a comment at the bottom of the page if you have any more questions.

Margot Wallstrom

This week some Guild Officers went with other students from the University of Birmingham to meet the EU Commissioner, Margot Wallstrom.

Below is some coverage of the event

Travel Home for Student Staff

After speaking to some student staff, I am currently working on providing transport or subsidies for student staff who work in the Guild late at night. A paper is going to R and HR Committee (that I chair) in June and the new initiative will hopefully be in place from the new academic year!

The Birmingham Pledge

I am currently working with the regional TUC, local MPs and local employment agencies to develop a pledge. This is an initiative similar to one that has been successful in Northampton.

The pledge gives employers an "accreditation" and so they are identified as a good employer. It also makes them identifiable as a good employer, and enables the Guild to hold them to account.

Local agencies will conform to a 10 point pledge, which covers the following areas: working within law and regulations, prompt pay (including holiday and sick pay), ensuring any deductions are reasonable, fair and subject to audit, promoting trade union membership and a particular clause about treating students fairly.

The project is very much in it's infancy and I am hoping that Johnny will be able to take it forward next year.

So far I have completed the following: authored the 10 point pledge, designed literature, got buy in from student unions across the city and got the regional TUC office on board in addition to local MPs.

To do: take the pledge out to agencies and look to involve even more potential stakeholders in the project and finally take it out to local agencies.

Accomodation Management Group

In Oggy's absence today I chaired Accomodation Management Group, which is a meeting with representatives from Hospitality and Accomodation Services at the University, Guild staff and officers.

Some interesting things came up which I thought would be worth blogging about...

-> We discussed the refurbishment of Tennis Courts in the summer. Every flat in Centre Court will get new windows. Half of the flats will be fully refurbished (the rents will reflect this- with the half that aren't included will pay less rent)

-> The Community Warden Scheme has been given funding to continue operating

-> HAS have made a deal with Ask 4 and are increasing bandwidth in all University residences

-> A Starbucks branch will be opening in the new Muirhead Tower. The Guild will be hosting a forum with Starbucks, hopefully during Culture Festival

-> It was reported that it will be 5-7 years before the redevelopment of Chamberlain is complete. The first stage is going to be started soon, which involves getting approval for the "vision" from University Council and appointing consultants to take the project forward. The Guild will be involved thoughout the whole process.

A letter I never imagined having to write...

Being a sabbatical officer is many things... predictable isn't one of them. Myself and Sparky are currently acting on behalf of a mature student at the University of Birmingham, who feels he is being discriminated against by local businesses because of his age.

Below is an extract of the letter that we sent on his behalf...

We are writing on behalf of a student who has expressed concern about the “student discount” that you offer on tickets. The student has written to you, however does not believe that he has received a satisfactory response.

You state that “To qualify for a student concessionary ticket you must be in full time education and aged between 16-21 years old. Valid NUS cards are required at the time of purchase and at the turnstiles on the day of a match.”

Any student in higher or further education, of any age is entitled to purchase an NUS card, which provides them with discounts. However, it would appear that you are actively discriminating against a significant demographic of the student community and indeed, NUS card holders by restricting this discount according to age.

31.3% of students at Birmingham City University, 34% of students at the College of Food, 8.5% of students at the University of Birmingham, 28.5% at Newman and 8.9% of students at Aston University are “mature students”. Individuals are defined as a mature student if they are aged 21 or over at the start of their course. In addition to “mature students” we have a number of students registered who have taken a gap year before coming to University, and therefore turn 21 in their second year of study, in addition to a number of students who are enrolled on four year courses. It is also worth mentioning that just under 15,000 students in the city of Birmingham are in postgraduate study, and would also be over the age of 21. All of these students would miss out on the “student” ticket rate that you offer.

We have been in touch with trading standards regarding this issue, because the discount you are offering is clearly not a “student rate” and we ask that you investigate this matter and act accordingly.

Voter Registration

Today myself, Hannah, Jen, Emma and Lucy from NUS took on the gradball queue. In just over an hour and a half we got 301 students registered to vote.

The return of the Nightbus....

The Guild of Students Nightbus service will relaunch on the 8th of June for the last two weeks of term.

The service will run from 12:30am - 3:30am on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, picking up from Oceana, Risa and Gatecrasher every 15 minutes, dropping off to all halls of residence, the Guild, Selly Oak (Tesco, Soak, Hubert Road) and Pershore Road.

Voter Registration

Over the Easter holidays, I spent time planning the activities to get students registered to vote.

This week has been the start of the final push to get students registered to vote in time for the next set of elections and the whole officer team have been helping me out.

We have set up a unit outside Spar as a voter registration station- this is open and manned 12-2 each day and students have been coming along to sign up to vote!

Gradball queue- The whole sabbatical team are going to be taking on the gradball queue tomorrow, offering incentives to register and hopefully getting as many people to register as possible!

Academics- I have been working with academics from the European Research Institute, and will be doing a voter registration session along side Margot Wallstrom, Vice President of the European Commission at conference they are holding on the 14th of May. If any first time voters are interested in meeting Margot Wallstrom, please get in touch with me at h.jones@guild.bham.ac.uk

Press Releases- Press releases for Redbrick and local papers have been prepared to highlight the work we have been doing to increase voter registration. The electoral commission are also sending us a giant inflatable X to do some photo opportunities with next week.

Selly Oak- All students in University accomodation are automatically registered to vote, so we have been targeting Selly Oak.
I wrote a letter to residents on behalf of the whole officer team with information about registering, including deadlines etc. With these letters will be registration forms and a stamped addressed envelope.

The electoral commission have marked our registration forms especially so that we can measure how effective our efforts have been!

So if you haven't registered to vote already you have until the 19th of May to do so. Visit the about my vote websiter here to fill out a registration form, or come along to the Guild!

Taking on Taxis

I often hear about students who have been overcharged by taxi drivers, particularly companies who claim to offer student specific fares and then do not deliver.

I have been working with trading standards in Birmingham to try and conquer this problem.

Before my term of office ends, I will create a section of the website for students to report being overcharged, or other problems for us to collate and take forward, working with trading standards to overcome the problems.

I am also working on a simple card that can be filled in and left at reception, for us to use in the same way.

The section of the website and system will hopefully take off properly during Welcome Week next academic year, where full attention can be given to promoting the new reporting scheme!

European Parliament: Capping Mobile Phone Charges

I have been commuting into work over Easter, and found out the following from The Metro one morning:

People on holiday or travelling in Europe will now be able to send texts home for 9p- enjoying a 60% cut in the cost of texting.

This came after a decision made by MEPs to cap the cost of roaming texts from July.

The rules also hold companies accountable in internet usage about (mandating them to be clearer about the costs) and also hold them responsible for letting customers know once they have spent 50 euros.

Caroline Flint, Europe Minister said "This is a good example of how the EU can bring real benefits to the British people"

Who said Europe was boring!!!

NUS Conference-> A selection of Birmingham speeches

Some of the speeches made by Birmingham delegates at NUS conference are online (although there is some trouble with Jen's- hopefully that will follow soon). A range of speeches from Blackpool are available here