Our Impacts 2019-20
Introduction
Measuring our Impacts in unprecedented times
The last year has been a challenge for the whole world, and the COVID-19 pandemic has changed every aspect of our lives. At Leeds University Union, like every charity and other campus operations, we have adapted and changed to meet the needs of students.
Success in the last year can’t be measured in outputs, but absolutely in the impact we are proud to still have maintained for our members.
Izzy Walter, Union Affairs Officer
Case study
Helping students financially through furlough and COVID-19 relief
By keeping students on our payroll, furloughing them and paying them under the government scheme, LUU has been able to make a positive impact on students’ lives in 2020. In total, LUU has paid £360,000 to students whose roles have been furloughed between March and December 2020.
“This job and furlough has been a lifesaver due to me seeing patients and not being able to work elsewhere.” 5th year dental student, University of Leeds
Last year due to increasing demand, the university provided additional funding to our emergency hardship fund.
- From April – December 15th 2020, we gave out over £54,000 to help students buy food and pay essential bills such as rent and electricity.
- In the 10 days before Christmas we gave just under £4,000 helping international students pay for COVID-19 tests so they could return home to their families.
- In the 10 days before Christmas, we gave just under £5,000 to students at risk of homelessness or being threatened with eviction due to rent payments.
Ready for your future
No matter what our members’ ambitions are, we want to help achieve them.
We continue to represent or members’ academic interests, working with hundreds of academic reps to ensure that students being examined in 2019-20 received no detriment to their predicted grades. Our academic societies have also taken on a new dimension, in some cases also acting as the only way of forming relationship groups across a course.
Carolina Hall-Rodriguez, Education Officer
We are driving towards a position where all our student staff and volunteers feel we are supporting them to learn and develop, using bespoke training modules and platforms accessible to all our Student Leaders. Despite the different periods of lockdown, we were able to adapt and still managed to create employment opportunities for hundreds of students, through diversifying our services, our Joblink service and working with other employers and the University.
Lotti Morton, Community Officer
Case study
Helping students survive lockdown
One of the biggest challenges of 2020 was how to keep students entertained and also develop a sense of community when so many were confined to their accommodation. LUU’s ever popular Fruity club night went online, enabling “club-goers” to chat to each other, take part in polls and quizzes, send in photos and request songs.
Around 2,712 people enjoyed the online Fruity experience, with an average of 4 people per household attending. There were 123 quiz teams and 1,014 WhatsApp messages sent throughout the night.
“Legendary! Not a lot to make you smile these days, but tonight certainly did” via WhatsApp
“Loved it, should happen again soon, spiced up lockdown for me!” via WhatsApp
Happy, feeling good and having fun
Student life isn’t only about the grades, we want to be a positive presence in all our members’ lives.
Wellbeing is one of the key pillars of our strategic plan. Responding to our programme of activity, we had thousands of attendances or engagements with wellbeing activities last year. We track activities which align to the NHS ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing’, including giving to others through our volunteering societies, being mindful with specific wellbeing sessions in yoga and meditation, and learning something new by tapping into our development opportunities.
Sophia Hartley, Welfare Officer
Our clubs and societies are an integral part of what we do. We are missing sports and performing arts in the normal form, but the innovation our groups have shown this year to keep activities alive sets them apart. Whether it is an online variety show and celebration or a fundraising expedition to run marathons from home, our groups do it all and challenge us to keep pace with them.
Lucy Murphy, Activities Officer
Our events offering could have suffered during lockdown, but strong planning from our team enabled us to transition some events online, and convert others into new formats. We have come through the year with an even stronger commitment to equality and inclusion, with a recognition that being seen as anti-racist must be a feature of our work going forward. Our liberation work and black history month in particular has gone from strength to strength.
Laila Fletcher, Equality & Diversity Officer
Case study
Helping students with advice during challenging times
Another significant challenge during 2020 was how to best communicate the changing lockdown regulations, tier system and the different restrictions which vastly impacted many aspects of student life. Through a combination of digital channels; website articles, social media posts, videos from the Exec and weekly newsletters, LUU managed to ensure students had the latest information in an understandable format. In fact one of our most-viewed website articles was a feature explaining how to work out who counted as your ‘household’.
In response to issues raised by the Help & Support team LUU also created content around:
- Advice on how to get help and support during the holidays.
- Tips on avoiding conflict with other members of the household.
- Making the most of spending dates such as Halloween and Bonfire Night during strict restrictions.
Valued member of LUU
We want every member to be engaged, feel supported and know that they’re a valued part of our Union.
LUU launched a brand new website this year, and created a web-app to make our services easier to reach. To keep our services still safe and relevant, we accelerated change in operations to introduce contact-free ordering in our bars and cafés, and set up delivery services so students could use our food and retail in the community. We are proud of what we provide, and from our Political Engagement to our club venues, we see our service standards as core to what we do.
Izzy Walter, Union Affairs Officer
Earlier in the year the daily footfall to our building was averaging over four thousand people a day, and in total we processed over a million transactions. We naturally put safety and health first, but we have been proud to keep our building open as far as possible throughout the pandemic, and see that students always have a safe place to go for study, help, advice, support, or to stock up their cupboards from our Co-op store.
Franks Feng, International Officer
Case study
Helping students with new educational challenges
This year saw students face unprecedented challenges when it came to their education; from the move to remote learning, to the closure of study spaces and the loss of access to resources such as libraries. Exams and assessments were of particular concern, therefore LUU Student Exec has worked in partnership with the University on a policy to ensure degree classifications are not affected by the pandemic.
LUU has been there to represent students’ academic interests in many ways such as:
- Providing information on support available such as study spaces.
- Re-purposing parts of the LUU building which were closed to offer more study facilities for students.
- Regular updates from the Student Exec on partnership work with the University.
