Connor Bayliss

Hi, I’m Connor and I would love to be your Student Full Time Officer, helping you unlock your Students Union!

I’m here to listen to your voice, get your opinions and help get your needs heard!

I’ve been at Staffs for 4 years now, on top of all the nights before deadline library sessions, I’ve also been a regular face behind the bar in LRV,  more recently as a Team Leader, making recommendations on the menu to club nights and ensuring that myself and all the staff run the venue and club nights to the best of our ability, listening to customer needs, your needs and doing my best to help make it happen.

Someone once said Change isn’t made in a day, but nobody said we can’t get damn close. I’m not going to make empty promises to anyone, there’s nothing worse than someone promising to get things done and it not happening, but after listening to students around me and applying some common sense, here is what I propose would help me to help you.

 

      

 

My Policies Focus On:

Life is hard - Student friendly schemes to help your university life feel smooth and easy.

Campus Safety

Representation Of You!

Clubs and Societies

Value for Money

Welfare and Mental Health
 

Key Policies

Life is hard, maybe these might help!

 

Accessibility Funding- A chance for students and student group to apply for money to help them do anything the want. Want to join the swimming team? Want to perform on stage? No barrier should stop you!

Home Away from Home - Moving into your own place is such a big thing; you’re independent, you’re providing for yourself, there’s no parent there to tell you you’re doing things wrong. Because of this, moving away from home can be quite daunting and often people don’t know what to do with themselves, I even know someone who couldn’t use a hoover because they’d just never done it before. To combat this, I want to create an easy to access area where students can go and find several How-To guides to give students cleaning advice, cooking advice, washing advice, advice for how to pay bills, and most importantly how to keep themselves and their new houses safe.

 

“I just want a bed not more deadlines” -  When it comes to moving out of halls, not many people actually know what they are doing as it is something that many students have never done before. When it comes to moving into student housing, students are faced with more forms than they know what to do with and the whole process can be difficult to understand. Included in the How-To guides can be simple and easy to understand explanations of how to fill these forms in, where to go, who to speak to, how rent and bills and taxes work, etc. On top of this, having people readily available to help support you writing these forms.
 

Job Doctor - This is a service I would like to introduce as an extension of the careers hub to help students get part time jobs while they are at university. Having a job while at uni gives students extra income throughout the semester and improves their CVs; I myself have worked all through my time at university. However, for students who have never worked before, finding a part time job can be difficult as they don’t know who to contact, how to apply, etc. This service would be in touch with employers in local shops, restaurants, businesses in Hanley, etc and would be able to advertise availabilities to students so that the students know where to apply for. This could be run as a stall during the welcome fair at the start of the year then would be a continuing service throughout the academic year.

 

Safety

Out and About - No one wants their university experience to be tainted by something bad happening to them on a night out, whether that’s getting lost on the way home or something worse. I want to promote night out safety and help prevent instances like this happening.

Police and Security - As many people know, we already have PC Simon Stone working with the university to target crime that affects the university and its’ students and staff, but I believe it would be good to link this up with union and work more with the police to keep students updated on what is happening in their area, have more workshops and talks about how to keep safe and keep their houses safe, and even how they can get involved in helping keep people safe around campus.

 

Representation

Information Access - Something that I have noticed is that there are several students who, although they know that the union exists, they don’t actually know what it is or what it represents, and they don’t know where to find this information. I want to make it easier for students to find information and for the information available to be simple and easy to understand.

Keeping you Updated - A commonly felt thing is that there is not enough known about what the officers actually work on and achieve. I plan on keeping everyone informed on what is actually happening so that students are aware of everything, not just the easily visible stuff.

Awareness - There are already services and systems in place which allow students to get their opinions across and offer ideas for how to improve the student experience, however they don’t get used often because people aren’t aware that they are there. I plan on changing that by increasing awareness of these services to increase student involvement so that your opinions are put forward and implemented.

 

Clubs and Societies

Matchday Moral - Sports team’s matches and competitions will be more advertised so that other students know when and where the games are taking place and will be encouraged to go support their teams, raising moral for both the teams and supporting students and helping them to feel more “Proud to be Staffs”.

Spread the Word - When clubs and societies hold events, achieve a milestone, win a competition, etc, it will be more advertised about so that students’ achievements are more celebrated and will be more known, for example when teams win games, when a society hosts a fundraiser, etc.

Women in Sport - Sport at Staffs is such an important aspect of the university experience. Being a member of a sports team allows you to meet new people, it adds a social aspect, it keeps you in shape. However, something that is sad to see is statistically how much more popular the men’s teams are verses the women’s teams, which is something I want to change. I want to increase the number of women involved in sports by working with the committees of the women’s teams to advertise them more, hold more give-it-a-go sessions to bring in more interest, etc.

Varsity Transport - Transport back from varsity events as well as to them

    

 

Welfare and Mental Health

Providing the Best Tools to be Yourself - It is a sad fact that there are many people out there who have talents that they don’t know about, they have things that they want to try but never have chance to, areas that they want to improve but don’t know how, i.e. so much untapped potential. I want to encourage people to join societies, get involved in volunteering, learn new skills, etc because university is the best time to develop yourself and unlock your full potential and there are so many ways you can.

Mental Health Services - The university already has brilliant mental health awareness and with this comes good quality mental health services and support, however due to increased awareness, there has been an increase in demand for these services. It has been known that wait times for appointments can increase throughout the year, and although this is not ideal, it is something that I hope to improve. I am hoping to have a consistent wait period through the academic year along with off hours for students that stay during holidays.

Drug addiction and Assault Counselling - Crime with students doesn’t go unnoticed and I’d never want any student to feel like they cant get access to help. I’d like to implement more support for physical and mental assault victims, enabling them to feel that they are heard and listened to and that we are here to help them. I’d like to collaborate alongside this a drug addiction support for those needing these services. Studying can be a stressful time for all students and this means that students can turn to all sorts of methods to cope, I want to help these students and show them that there is help available and that there are ways out with a light at the end of the tunnel.

Shop Prices - I would like to work in partnership with NUS representatives and our suppliers to get the best prices possible. This would allow products to be sold at a cheaper and more student-budget friendly price.

 

Hopefully my ideas mean something to you and you want these to changes to happen!

Keep an eye out for me on campus as I’ll be floating about with my mascots! Feel free to come and have a chat or even just say hello and grab a quick picture! Im sure you'll recognise the cow and bull from your club nights out!

 

Social Media

Feel free to also pop onto my social media and take a look at what I’m doing over the next few weeks!

Personal - https://www.facebook.com/connor.bayliss.9

Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/pages/?category=your_pages

Twitter - @ConnorForOffice - https://twitter.com/ConnorForOffice

Instagram - @ConnorForOffice - https://www.instagram.com/connor_for_office/

I am here to help be the key to the unlocking your Students Union.

I am here for you.

#UnlockYourSU

Ohana.