Present: the President (Amatey Doku), the Vice-President (Ruby Stewart-Liberty), the Treasurer (Christina Lane), the Secretary (Freddie Valletta), the Services Officer (Aiden Goulden), the Communications Officer (Caroline Sharp), the Access Officer (Tom Hogg), the Green Officer (Tansy Branscombe), the Ents Officers (Xanthe Fuller and Amelia Oakley), the Male Welfare Officer (Ben Simpson), the Female Welfare Officer (Daisy Eyre), the Mental Health and Disabilities Officer (Harrison Packer), the International Officer (Marina Mayer), the LGBT+ Officer (Anthony Wheeler), the Women’s Officer (Eleanor Kashouris) and the Racial Equalities Officer (Nadine Batchelor-Hunt).
1. Committee reports of actions since handover
AD – been in contact with various people over small queries they had and would like to remind the committee about the buffet lunch with college staff next Monday (19th January).
RSL – started preparation for the 2nd year’s halfway hall, received the second stash order but says it is the previous Vice President’s responsibility to distribute, yet to receive vital documents and contacts from the previous Vice President.
CL – just successfully completed her handover with the previous Treasurer.
FV – been in contact with various people over small queries they had as well as organising the committee meeting.
AG – will be attending a pre-ballot meeting with the Housing Dept.
TH – helped MM with the arrival of Pomona students, organising the Shadowing Scheme dinner at Jesus and attending the CUSU Access forum this week.
TB – approved the new CUSU Green Policy.
XF and AO – organising the bop for this coming Saturday, sorting out the term’s ents timetable.
BS and DE – currently writing a comprehensive guide to welfare for students, raising welfare awareness to Freshers, sending out first welfare email soon.
DE looking into organising self-defence classes if there’s enough interest.
HP – emailed college about an internship opportunity for disabled students, writing first fortnightly email to college about beating the winter blues, organising Time to Talk Day (5th February).
MM – welcomed Pomona students and toured them round Cambridge, updating the international students mailing list.
AW – organised an LGBT+ pub crawl for 12th January, a formal at Downing in February and a grad mixer, organising events for LGBT History Month (February).
EK – written the Women’s Officer description for the constitution, organised a women’s dinner for 9th March, spoken to DE about bathroom bins.
NBH – spoken to the Senior Tutor about him being the first port of call for reporting racial abuse, organising an ethnic food formal.
2. Matters arising
(a) JCSU Constitution and Standing Orders updates
AD proposed that the JCSU Constitution and Standing Orders should be updated as they were last reviewed in 2009. This would include updating outdated information and making them gender neutral. AW reported that he has already drafted up some changes to the Constitution and Standing Orders to make them gender neutral and reminded the committee on how the changes get agreed on. For the Constitution it needs to be passed at an OGM, a referendum voted by college students and then at College Council. For the Standing Orders, they need to be passed at two OGMs. For the updating of outdated information, AD suggested organising a small meeting for JCSU members (AD, TH, HP, MM, RSL, CL, AG, AW, FV and CS) to amend details and then getting a non JCSU student to independently review the changes. Either the student College Council representative or another college’s JCR president were suggested as good independent reviewers. It was decided that the committee should all have a read of the Constitution and Standing Orders and that AD would get back to those involved in the small meeting.
(b) Rent rise approval
AD reported that the committee needed to approve the 1.7% rise in rent proposed by the Bursar. It was agreed that this was fair and that AD would report back to the Bursar.
(c) JCSU annual survey
AD proposed to carry out the annual survey towards the end of Lent Term. It was agreed that closer to the time last year’s survey would be looked at and necessary changes would be made.
(d) ‘Listening’ and being engaged
AD requested ideas and suggestions as to how the JCSU could engage with the rest of college. AW reported that mailing lists (for example the International or LGBT+ mailing lists) and small discussion groups were great ways to get college students engaged. BS suggested that at the first welfare cake session that the entire JCSU could attend in order to get their faces known. DE and BS reported that the JCSU Welfare Facebook page would be brought back into usage and CS raised the point that all the JCSU Facebook pages (Freshers, Welfare and Ents) as well as the JCSU Twitter could benefit from increased awareness. AG proposed the idea of an anonymous suggestion box in the Marshall Room or an anonymous suggestion form on the JCSU website or JNet. AD suggested that there needed to be an improved dialogue with the Catering Dept. especially over Caff and dietary info, TB reported that there is often not enough dietary info on food and that staff weren’t sure over dish ingredients. It was decided that TB would look into the Catering Dept.’s vegetarian policy, AG would find out how to increase dialogue with the Catering Dept. and that DE, BS and CS would take the necessary steps to raise the JCSU’s profile on social media.
(e) Website changes CS reported that the college website is under review at the end of February and requested ideas about changes to layout and content.
TH suggested that the college’s Student Room and CUSU Alternative Prospectus web pages need to be updated and also requested ideas. It was reported that the College Website and JNet were very out of date, that it was difficult to find what you wanted due to a complicated layout and did not contain certain vital bits of information (eg welfare contacts and info, society presidents’ contacts). TH reported that the college’s Student Room and CUSU Alternative Prospectus web pages were both out of date and contained negative information about the college. He proposed that they needed to be updated with current statistics, info, photos and videos as these websites often attract students to apply to Jesus. AO offered to help shoot and edit a video as she had already helped her sister create one for Murray Edwards. AD suggested getting the college on board for financial backing. It was decided that the welfare team would provide CS with the info to update the JNet welfare page and FV would provide a list of society president’s contact details. It was also decided TH would email relevant committee members to request input and info for the other websites and would talk to Dr Rutter and the Schools Liaison Officer and request more input.
(f) Women’s Officer AD proposed a brief discussion about this role and what EK envisages it to be, for the clarity of the rest of the committee.
EK reported that her role entailed representing women as a whole. She would be responsible for liaising with the CUSU Women’s Campaign. It was reported that DE and EK would attend the CUSU Women’s conference on 18th January. EK also reported that she doesn’t think men should vote for the position (as is currently the case) but believes that women in college should be able to express their opinions as to whether they think men should be allowed to or not. BS raised the point that men could dominate the vote (due to the larger proportion of male students in college) if it went ahead but AW believed that men would not necessarily vote even if they had the opportunity to. It was decided that EK would do a survey amongst her mailing list to get views on whether men should be allowed to vote.
(g) How letters from college are addressed
EK feels that letters from college to parents are addressed in an inappropriate way and reported that a meeting with the Development Office has been arranged for 20th January in order to look into it further as they don’t want it to become an issue. AD and EK to attend the meeting.
(h) ‘No Bystanders’ campaign
AW proposes to run the Stonewall campaign ‘No Bystanders’ within college. The campaign proposes to get rid of insensitive and bullying language through people calling others up on it when the language is used. AW reported that he has already got the support from Geoff Howe and Tori McKee and proposes to get more college staff involved, especially the Master. AW proposed to email college, put posters up, raise awareness on social media through photos and videos and make a pledge event that could be combined with Welfare Cake one week. This proposal received the support of the committee.
(i) International formal swap
MM proposed to run an international formal swap with St Catherine’s and requested ideas for the organisation of the event. AW offered to talk to MM separately as he has had experience of organising formal swaps.
(j) Recycling
TB reported that there was a motion last year (which was passed) to put food waste bins in Malcolm Street houses and that it wasn’t going ahead due to health and safety issues. TB also proposed to put a bin for recycling plastic bags in the Marshall Room which she would empty. TB to email porters for confirmation.
(k) Ents
XF and AO proposed to run a pub crawl this term and requested ideas as to how to organise and lead it. It was decided that they would have a separate meeting with AG, FV and AW to discuss as they have had experience of running one. XF and AO also requested the committee’s help with setting up and clearing up events like bops which was agreed on. XF and AO to email FV with the ents term card to put in the next agenda once dates and times have been confirmed with college.
(l) The John Hughes Art Festival (JHAF)
AD and CL felt that JHAF should get JCSU endorsement and financial help and requested that RSL to report on the financial situation of JHAF as she has involvement with it.
RSL reported that the organisers had been to see the college Bursar who said that the JCSU Enterprise account could be used to contribute to the festival. The current JHAF budget comes from Jesus College Arts Council (£500), a £2 subsidy on the masquerade formal ticket sales (£204) and other various things sponsored by college. The proposed costings on top of those already covered by their current budget are a worst case scenario and are subject to change following a JHAF Committee meeting on 13th January. They sum to a worst case scenario total of around £1,000 (including a drinks reception in the Forum costing around £300) but will likely be less. AD reported that a budget change would have to be approved at an OGM which there was not time for before the festival started, however AG reported that money taken out of the JCSU Enterprise account does not need to be passed at an OGM. AG suggested that the money donated from the JCSU Enterprise account to JHAF is then added to the budget and the change proposed at the next OGM then, if passed, the money would be put back into the Enterprise account. It was decided that RSL would organise a separate meeting with CL and other relevant people once final costs had been decided.
(m) Bar quiz
FV felt that there were not enough volunteers from the 2014 JCSU Committee to run the bar quiz each week at 8pm on a Saturday evening and proposed that this year every committee member should run at least one. FV reported that running the bar quiz is the responsibility of the JCSU and proposed to write up a rota so that people knew well in advance when they had to run the quiz. TB suggested that the college should be made more aware of the charity that the money goes to. AW requested a slot in February for LGBT month and that the money should go to Stonewall. It was decided that FV should create a Google document for committee members to sign up to.
(n) Student assistants
Mark Zaki proposed that student assistants should be introduced within college. AD reported that the Senior Tutor requires a letter of endorsement from the JCSU to trial this scheme in the Engineering Dept. TH reported that the student assistants would be students in the year above who could help those in the year below with academic issues in an academic training sort of role. This doesn’t happen so much within the college parent scheme and it is good to give people experience in a teaching role. AD suggested that it may not work in some subjects due to syllabus changes or large choices of modules and EK said it could give some students a significant advantage due to the inevitable difference in abilities of student assistants. It was decided that AD would write a letter of endorsement to the Senior Tutor.
(o) Meeting times It was decided that the JCSU meetings should occur every Tuesday evening at 7.30pm in the Library Court Seminar Room.
DE reported that the provisional times for Welfare drop in sessions were on Monday evenings.
3. Any other business
(a) Facebook or meeting worthy AD reminded the committee that smaller issues could be discussed on the JCSU Committee Facebook page, whereas larger items could be discussed in the meetings themselves.
(b) Channel Islands ‘international status’ TB reported that students who reside in the Channel Islands have ‘international status’ as they pay increased fees however they do not get the benefits of being an international student (formals, swaps etc). MM suggested that she emailed the entire college to ask if people wanted to be on the international mailing list.
(c) Welfare budget queries NBH queried how the £2,000 welfare budget was split between the officers on the welfare team. AW reported that each officer on the welfare team (Disabilities and Mental Health, International, LGBT+, Women’s, Racial Equalities) had an unofficial budget of £100 each which was taken out of the £2,000. However it is at the discretion of BS and DE to decide how much each officer would get. FV reported that last year, any money that the welfare team wanted for events they would get due to the size of the welfare budget.
(d) Minimum caff card top up on JNet NBH queried the minimum caff card top up of £40 on JNet and said that people may not be able to top up that much right at the end of term due to financial reasons. AG reported that this large minimum top up was due to the high cost of debit card processing. AW reported that students can top their caff card up in the bar where the minimum is £20 and suggested that students could be made more aware of this fact. AG said that he’d check with the bar staff before publicising this fact as well as making the request with the relevant people that the minimum JNet top up should be lowered.
(e) JCSU website biographies CS reminded the committee that certain members still needed to write their biographies for the JCSU website including relevant info and their JCSU email address. AO offered to take individual photos for this which could also be used for the JCSU grid of faces which would go up on the JCSU noticeboard and in kitchens on freshers’ staircases. FV to organise.
AD thanked the members of the Committee for a very helpful and successful meeting.
The meeting closed at 5.00pm