Guild out of touch with students?

Students are unsure about what the Students’ Guild does and many do not know the names of the Guild Executive, an Exeposé survey has discovered.

The survey of 202 students on Streatham and St Luke’s found that 32% could not name a single member of the Guild Exec, whilst only 6% could name all six.

President Jess Dow was the most well-known sabbatical officer, with 36% of those who could name a Guild Exec member being able to identify her. Education officer Ashley Petrons was the least well known, with just 9%.

Many students appeared embarrassed at being unable to name the Guild Exec. One student said, “Good luck to them, I’m sorry I don’t know their names”, whilst another commented, “I clearly don’t know very much about the Guild, but I probably should.”

However, other students suggested that it was the fault of the sabbatical officers themselves. One student told Exeposé, “They could do more to publicise themselves. I consider myself pretty involved, yet I don’t know who they are.”

Another student agreed, saying, “Perhaps they should make themselves more well-known, as I can’t name any of them.” However, Jess Dow, President of the Students’ Guild, said that she was happy with the results.

She told Exeposé, “68% of the students questioned could name at least one sabbatical officer with 6% being able to name all of them. This is a fantastic result and we are confident this would be amongst the highest of any students’ union nationally.”

The survey also asked students how well they felt the Students’ Guild represented them. The majority of students felt that they were represented only satisfactorily, with 38% choosing that option.

Only 13% of students felt they were represented “very well”, while 2% of students told Exeposé that the Guild represented them “very badly”. In addition, 5% said that they did not know what the Guild was.

Some students felt that they couldn’t say the Guild represented them more than satisfactorily because they were unsure about what it did.

Some felt that the Guild needed to be better publicised. One student said, “They should be more visible, I don’t know what they do. They should do more stuff on campus,” while another commented, “What they do should be more available.”

Some students recognised the efforts the Guild had made through advertising, but felt it was not enough. One student argued, “They need to get out there more. They spend a lot on advertising but it’s not being channelled in the right places.” Steven Zimmerman, an MA student, agreed, saying, “Email is not a great way to communicate with the student body.”

However, other students felt a lot more strongly. One told Exeposé, “Things are badly publicised. There is minimal representation, and decisions are made, then they tell us.”

Another said, “Every time I’ve had an issue, they’ve never done anything. They are weak, they don’t make a difference, they say they’ll help and nothing happens. They want to make everyone happy, but by doing that they offend people.”

A similar view was held by another student who told Exeposé, “It is invisible to students, very hidden. It’s unfair to say the Guild represent students.”

However, other students praised the Guild. Liz Halliday, an MA Law student, said, “I love the Guild because they listen to us. They have really connected with the student body.”

Rachel Popham, a 3rd year Sports Science student, agreed, saying, “I’ve heard of a lot of improvements in many areas.”

Dow was again pleased with results, saying, “80% say satisfactory or above, which is really good. Ideally this would be 100% but that’s what we’re working towards. The new constitution and annexes should help this.”

However, the survey found that many students were confused about the new constitution, with the majority, 39%, saying they did not know what the constitution was, and 14% answering that they didn’t know there was a new constitution. Only 23% felt that the new constitution would benefit them as a student.

Dow responded by saying, “299 students voted in our referendum with 84% voting yes. This is as opposed to the old constitution which had been approved by 0% of the student body as it hadn’t been put to referendum.”

Throughout the survey, many students defended the Guild, with several saying that they did a “good job”.

The Guild at St Luke’s was praised for being “very accessible and friendly”, while one student said, “I think the Guild do a really really good job and it’s not their fault people don’t vote in things. I think students are a bit apathetic.”

Overall, Dow told Exeposé that she felt that the Guild has had a successful year. She said, “The Students’ Guild I inherited last year needed repair. Our structures were weak, our processes flawed, and our external relationships needed work.

“This is why we have pushed through a new constitution this year, we have looked to change our committee structures, making it more visible, accessible and understandable.”

She added, “This year has been an inward looking year for the Guild. The fact that we have done as well as we have in your survey considering this is very good news.

“A lot of the work that we do is behind the scenes. We could have been irresponsible enough to take the short-term view of promoting ourselves, but this year we had to lay the foundations which sets the Guild up to be stronger and fitter in the medium and long term future.”

She added, ”However, we will not rest on our laurels. We are fully aware that we can do a lot more.

“I know we are not perfect and there is still a lot of work to do, but we have changed beyond recognition and this is down to the work of students and staff at the Guild.”

She explained, “At the end of this year we will review our methods, such as fortnightly e-mails, and adjust them accordingly.

“We also need to budget more money for getting our message out to the students.” She added, “The strategic review that the Guild will carry out next year will tell us how students want us to communicate with them effectively."