Equality Week, Women's Party, Education Funding and More!

My week started off with a trip to Manchester to represent the Union at NUS Regional Conference. I then rushed back to Sheffield in the evening to speak in a debate organised by Sheffield Debating on the motion “This house believes all doctors should advise on abortion”. I’m happy to say the motion passed overwhelmingly, showing that people recognise the important of ensuring women can access impartial, accurate and confidential advice about abortion.

Throughout the week I’ve spent time planning the Women’s Party which is taking place on Sunday November 18th. If you’re free and fancy a fun chilled-out party evening then please come along. There’ll be a veggie food buffet and non-alcoholic drinks, as well as dance performances, henna tattoos and DJs willing to play all your requests.

Wednesday saw the first meeting of the Ethical & Environmental Week organising committee. This brings together all the political and campaigning societies to organise a fantastic week raising awareness of E&E issues and encouraging students to take action. It’s not until February so if you’re interested in getting involved please email me for more information.

Thursday involved even more planning meetings! This time for Equality Week, which begins on November 26th. This brings together all of our representative committees (which includes Women’s Committee, Black Students Committee, Disabled and Dyslexic Students’ Forum and LGBT Committee) to highlight the inequality the students they represent face, and to highlight the work they do both in supporting individual students and campaigning for equality. Again to get involved please email me.

This week I’ve also been working on plans for Palestine Solidarity Day, which our Union is required to commemorate as part of our “End Israeli Occupation” policy. We’ll be holding a debate on Thursday 29th November which is a good chance for students to learn about the situation in Palestine, and there’ll be a ‘mock checkpoint’ and stall out on the concourse where students can pick up information and ask questions.

Thursday was of course interrupted by the university-wide powercut. The union still wasn’t up and running by Friday morning so I took the opportunity to go down to Hallam Union and meet with students and officers from Hallam and Sheffield College to discuss how we can work together to run a campaign on education funding.

Student debt is a huge problem for all students, and it’s especially significant for women students. With debt set to increase to between £20,000 and £30,000 following the introduction of top-up fees, pay discrimination means women graduates will take an average of 19.5 years to repay their debt compared to 15 years for male graduates.

With a government review of higher education funding due to report in 2009, it is vital that we lead a strong campaign which explains why the current system - which has led to rising levels of student debt and continued underfunding of universities - has failed both students and universities.

The meeting at Hallam suggested some exciting plans – including the possibility of holding a Sheffield demonstration next year, and organising a debate on top-up fees. Watch this space for more information or email me if you want to get involved.