My and Fabian's report from University Council, as sent to Sociologists and MCS students this week

Hi all,

So here is the report from University Council, where Sociology was discussed last week. The choice before Council was not whether or not to close the department, but whether or not to continue the consultation into the future of Sociology at Birmingham. All the comments made at Senate on the matter were presented in a report to Council to inform their decision.

Fabian, the Guild President, and I were called on to give the student view, and we did so, asking for rejection of the report and explaining why, and a long discussion ensued on a number of the points we raised. They were all taken seriously and discussed; but ultimately we were the only ones to put forward the case for outright rejection (although someone else did bring up the possibility of deferring the decision and several expressed that the preferred option was perhaps not the best) and so Council approved that consultation should continue.

The consultation period was a topic of great discussion and Council members expressed a genuine desire that all options remain live. Professors Edward Peck and Cillian Ryan restated their commitment to involve students as they wanted to be, on what they wanted, and will be continuing discussions with myself and your Student Reps as to how this should take place. More details of this will follow in the week.

So I’m afraid it’s as predicted, that part’s over and the consultation will continue: Now it’s up to us to take all that energy from the protests and the campaign and use it to make that consultation good and get what students need out of it. Please remember, the final decision on what to do with the department has not been taken, and all options remain open; it's so important that you engage in the consultation process now.

Thanks to all who have emailled, contacted us and turned up to the big meetings; although there wasn't time to reply to them all we read and listened to everything and used it all to help us argue for you in everything we've done. Please continue send us your thoughts, and contact your Student Reps who will be setting out the process for continued consultation in the near future.

Best wishes

Brigid and Fabian
VP (Education and Access) and President
Guild of Students

Senate Reps report to Sociologists, as sent to them last week.

Dear Students,

Apologies for the delay in this report reaching you, I thought it had been sent to you on Thursday but there were some administrative issues which resulted in its delay.

The protest last week was very impressive, congratulations on pulling it off; the chanting could be heard from the Senate Chamber! We wanted to give you our report of what happened yesterday.

When it came to Sociology being discussed, the Vice Chancellor first clarified the procedure. He stated that the role of Senate was to give its views to Council, and that all views given in the meeting would be passed in a report to Council to inform their decision on whether or not to continue the consultation. He emphasized that no decision on closure or any other course of action will be taken until April.

The Vice Chancellor further stated that should the consultation period continue, all six options considered in the report, a to f, would remain live, as would any others that may arise from the consultation process, and that all would be given thorough and equal consideration if the consultation moved forward and remain on the table for discussion. Professor Edward Peck confirmed that should the paper go to consultation, weekly meetings would be held for all students to attend to discuss aspects of the options, that weekly meetings would be held for the Student Reps to look deeper into certain aspects, and theme groups of students and staff would be set up to address the key areas of concern that you and the staff have raised. He acknowledged that the consultation with students had failed thus far and that the consultation process would have to compensate for this. These guarantees were confirmed to Senate and minuted.

A representative from the Staff union read out a statement on their behalf, and Brigid gave a statement on your behalf, which included all the concerns you have brought to us from the meetings and via email. It was stated that the view of the student body was that the paper must be rejected. Further comments from representatives were critical of the review process so far and the proposals that had been drawn up, and there was some acknowledgement from Senate members that the procedure for the consultation moving forward was now a positive one.

We were happy to see the new framework for consultation be confirmed by the Vice Chancellor and Edward Peck before Senate and these are now guaranteed should consultation go forward.

Please let us know what you think of this framework, and your thoughts on this moving forward.

Best wishes

Brigid, Claire, Hadrian, Simon, Simon and Vicky
Your Senate Reps

In the last fortnight

• I have attended one Fitness to Practice Hearing
• One College Misconduct
• One Appeal
• Three member disciplinaries (I don't like doing these, please stop doing bad things all of you)
• Met with Sociologists and MCS students three times
• Answered and read God knows how many emails from them
• Attended Senate and Council to represent said students and oversee the covernance of the University, both broadly and academically
• Held five college Student Rep Forums, where Student Reps tell me everything that's going on in their worlds and I ask for feedback on what my priorities should be and get them to feed into what I'm doing
• Attended Educational Enhancenent Group, which is a Uni committee of a fairly self explanatory nature, and am now on a sub group looking at improving module evaluation
• All the other little things that I do inbetween, like attend Sabbatical Officer Group meetings, read for the above meetings, negotiate with the Uni and listen and answer the queries of numerous students.
• Seen the Guild Musical Theatre Group production of Sweeny Todd and had to be told it's not a true story, despite its magnificance (well done guys)
• Drunk the new Real Ale in the Guild! A welcome return, yum yum!

So... any questions? :)

Sociology

Why have I been so quiet on the blog?

Sociology has consumed my life.

My involvement in the Sociology affair began on the 28th August when I met with the Head of the Review Group. It quickly became apparent to me that things weren't adding up, and I soon uncovered the fact that students were at this stage unaware of the review and how this had happened. Since then I have implored the Review Group to give students another chance to have their input.




I've been in contact with the students every few weeks to keep them updated on my actions. Since the news broke two Tuesdays ago I've been working more or less non-stop on Sociology. I was at both the meetings where the proposals were explained to students, and straight after each I held meetings between them and the other Senate Reps for them to give us their view and inform our lobbying. I've been in constant contact with the Student Reps.



My line on the protest has been that students can organise that themselves, they don't need my help; I felt my efforts were best concentrated behind the scenes lobbying people I had access to and they didn't. Since that Tuesday I have met with the Head of the College of Social Sciences, the College's Head of Learning and Teaching, departmental staff, the Registrar and Secretary of the University, the Uni's Head of Finance, the Pro Vice Chancellor for Academic Quality and Students, and the Vice Chancellor, and we have drawn up a framework for the consultation period that will follow, with a level of student involvement unprecedeted in its breadth and depth. This framework was confirmed at Senate last Wednesday, where myself and the other Senate Reps made the chamber very aware of exactly what students thought of the proposals and where it should go from here. In addition to this we have had it confirmed that closure will not be the only option the table. We have got to a stage now where all of the six options outlined in the report, from keeping the status quo through to full closure, are now back on the table.


This work was supported by the President who joined me in much of this and lobbied through his channels too.

From here, the proposal to go into consultation goes to University Council this Thursday. The decision on what to do with the department will not be taken until April and there is no certainity that the debate at that stage will even involve closure.
 
COUNCIL WILL NOT BE DECIDING ON THURSDAY WHETHER TO CLOSE THE DEPARTMENT.
 
Hope this clears some things up. If anyone wants more info, please leave me a comment or drop me an email at b.jones@guild.bham.ac.uk
 
Cheers!
 

Hats

It's funny, all the different interactions you have with people and the hats you have to wear in this job.

On the panel with me at the afore-mentioned School Quality Review, was one person I sit on other committees with, and one person I've had to defend students to in appeals, whilst also helping one of her students in another matter. On the other side, being reviewd, were a couple more people I've met in appeal and misconduct hearings and someone I sit on Council with. Wrapped up in this were the students I represent, including a number of my friends who have studied at different levels in the school. All very interesting stuff...

School Quality Reviews

On Tuesday I spent all day sitting on the panel for a School Quality Review of the History and Cultures Department.

"What's that?" I hear you ask!

Well, a School Quality Review happens to every school in the University on a six or so yearly cycle. The school submits a self evaluation about everything they do, and a panel of academics, plus an external academic from another university and a Guild sabbatical office (normally myself, but I delegate when I don't have the time) goes in and questions them on the whole thing. For you sciencey and PhDy types, it's a bit like a viva.

It's a really interesting; you get to look at everything the school does to make sure their procedures are up to scratch. So we looked at things like admissions, welfare provision, quality assurance in teaching and learning, provision of learning resources, and pretty much everything else. We scrutinise everything, and make reccomendations for change and give commendations for good practice.

Just one of the many fun things I do...