1) Branch Annual General Meeting, 13:00-14:00, Wednesday 5th June, 2024, Microsoft Teams
All Bristol UCU members are invited to the online branch AGM on Wednesday, 5th June@ 1pm.
One item on the agenda: election of branch officers and the branch Executive Committee for 2024-25.
One key issue: with long-standing branch officer and current Branch President Jamie Melrose standing down, and Joint Vice President John McTague on long-term leave, we urgently need new branch reps to represent members individually and collectively, to bargain and negotiate with management, to advocate for members’ interests, to administer and organise the branch.
Interested in joining our collegial branch officer team and becoming a branch rep? Interested and willing to take on some paid branch facility time? Email ucu-office@bristol.ac.uk.
2) Student Wellbeing Service Restructuring Proposals
The current consultation on proposals to restructure the Student Wellbeing Service Team is at its midpoint.
One initial staff submission notes the ‘very radical’ changes in the current restructuring proposals, not least the significant reduction in Student Wellbeing roles and the number of jobs at risk in the Service.
The consultation is ongoing, and all University of Bristol staff are invited to contribute. Full details of the proposals can be requested. For more details, please email the Director of Student Experience (steve.hall@bristol.ac.uk).
Initial responses from key ‘stakeholders’ —School Admin Staff; Senior Tutors; Student Reps—to the proposals have been shared with UCU reps. They highlight the incongruity of student population growth with job cuts in the Wellbeing Service; a ‘too short’ consultation launched at one of the busiest times for the Service to implement changes at the beginning of the academic year; and concerns that a service where students book straight into an appointment may be appropriate for neurotypical students, triage is still required for the diverse needs of our diverse body of students.
3) #CeasfireNow
University of Bristol Senate meets on Monday, 17th June to discuss, among other things, the University’s ‘impartial view’ on the defence industry and its relationship with it. Staff and students, in solidarity with the current Bristol Student Encampment for a Free Palestine, have demanded that the University Executive Board meet with the encamped students to negotiate an end to UoB’s complicity in genocide [link]
Members of Senate have been written to by Bristol UCU reminding them of current branch policy: to call on Members of Senate ‘to pass a resolution that commits to ending Bristol’s partnerships with arms companies, particularly those complicit in and profiting from the occupation of Palestine and assault on Gaza‘.