THE NEW Reading University Students’ Union (RUSU) president has laid out his intentions ahead of the upcoming year.
Reading Today sat down with Sheldon Allen, who was elected in February, to discuss his new role.
He said: “I’m really excited to get going. We’re in a really important time here at the Students’ Union where we’ve been in Covid for two and a half years.
“I think it’s really important now, as the new team in post, to charge ahead with actually delivering some quite exciting projects and initiatives for the students at Reading.”
Mr Allen joins a roll call of RUSU presidents which includes Conservative Party leadership contest candidate Penny Mordaunt.
Despite running in May’s local elections as a Labour Party candidate for Park ward, Mr Allen sees Ms Mordaunt’s success as a reminder of what is possible for Reading students.
He said: “At the end of the day, putting politics aside, whether you’re a member of the Conservative Party, the Labour Party or the Lib Dems, Penny, the person who got to potentially be the next prime minister, was just a student from Reading.
“That’s an important part to realise, not the views and opinions of that individual, but the fact that she went to a non-Russell Group university, got a degree from Reading and then nearly became prime minister. She wasn’t from Oxford and didn’t go to Eton.
“It doesn’t matter what university you go to or where you come from, if you’ve got that drive and determination to make something of what you want to do you can do it, and she did prove that.”
Mr Allen and his team have broadly identified three areas of focus.
They consider housing a critical issue and one that has not been fully addressed by previous officers.
According to the RUSU president, students who live off campus often find themselves renting in the private sector and require assistance when unexpected matters arise.
He also wants members of the public to feel comfortable coming on campus, and wants the university to engage with them through the upcoming community festival.
The third priority is based on an idea for students to be given a platform to deliver TedTalk-style talks on their research or topics they are passionate about.
With the student population readjusting to life after the pandemic, Mr Allen is keen to see normality resume, but is also excited to retain many of the things learned during the pandemic.
He said: “There’s two points to it, ‘what are the good things that we learned that we keep and what do we ditch?’
“I think ultimately what we need to ditch is this idea that we can never do anything in-person again. We need to do in-person stuff, we need to be face to face and we need to get students onto campus.
“But we also need to realise that there’s some really interesting stuff that we’ve learned 1about virtual learning, working from home and flexibility.”
A vast majority of incoming freshers will have experienced disruption to assessments during their secondary education as a result of Covid-19.
According to the RUSU president, this has encouraged the university to reevaluate their examination strategies, only holding in-person assessments where absolutely necessary.
He said: “Talking to the university, the view is very much ‘do you need to do your examinations or assessment in person? Can it be done as a piece of coursework? Can it be done online?’
“It’s realising, don’t opt for an examination in a hall if you don’t need to.”
Mr Allen admits that many degrees require in-person teaching and tests, but said lecturers are being asked to consider whether their current modus operandi is engaging students.
RUSU education officer Oscar Minto is keen to implement new aspects into the university’s teaching.
One of his ideas is to introduce feedback via voice note whereby lecturers can offer their comments orally in a more personal way than written communication.
The union’s advice service offers students support for a broad range of issues. Sessions previously took place in-person, before moving online during the pandemic, something Mr Allen is keen to explore the benefits of.
“The way people want to do things is changing and we need to adapt to that,” he said. “I don’t think we’re doing it quick enough, I think we can do it better, because we need to be leading the way.”
