Jake Baker

 

As the current College Officer for Social Science, I’ve lead real and positive changes which all students will feel the benefits of.

I understand the needs of students and believe that there are crucial changes that must be made to ensure students get what they need from their University experience.

My aims if elected:
• Ensure students have access to building 24/7, especially during assignment periods. This also includes the expansion of current and opening of new buildings.
• Improve student employability and university services by having new, part-time roles just for current students, in services such as The Library, Catering and IT- developing both students and services.
• Campaign for more effective, appropriate and prompt timetabling.

24/7 Building and Software Access
The current 24 hour space (The Library) is pushed to its limits by the lack of available space elsewhere. A priority of mine is to campaign to expand the opening hours of buildings such as the Minerva Building, David Chiddick and others- especially the other computer labs across campus. A great idea which I’d like your support on is signs which indicate live statistics of number of available computers, and where! I’d also like to have specialist software computers available in more areas, to ensure students are not limited to when they can work.

Creating New Spaces (Library Expansion, and other new buildings)
If the University wants to expand by recruiting new students, especially in areas which need labs, studios and specialist software- then we need to make sure all students have access to the spaces they need. That means bringing forward the development of new buildings, such as the Isaac Newton (Science) building and Sarah Swift (Psychology) building. If elected I’ll commit to ensuring these building are suitable for our students from the start and for years to come. In addition the influx of new students, and the growth we’ve already seen means we need to expand our library, and fast! I will push to have the University to commit to Library Expansion plans.

Developing Our Student Employability- Developing our Student Services
Students want to get the most from their university experience, and university services want to offer great experiences to students. I believe one way to achieve both of these aims is to have more student, part-time opportunities in core services, such as the Library, Student Services and ICT. Students will benefit greatly from the experience, and they will develop better services for their peers. This is a win-win situation for students!

Effective Representation
The effectiveness of our representation system can be largely affected by the different dynamics cross-school. My experience as a senior representative has shown me this. I would make the system more adaptable and this includes a comprehensive review of what we do now, and gathering students, reps, staff and the SU together to really tackle the issues we face.

Vote #JakeTheBaker VP Academic Affairs