I am Kieran Bevan the Part-time Environmental Officer, who will be at the centre of student engagement regarding the environment and sustainability of the university.
Welcome Freshers and returning students to Cardiff Metropolitan University!
I am Kieran Bevan the Part-time Environmental Officer, who will be at the centre of student engagement regarding the environment and sustainability of the university. I am a 3rd Year student, studying Business and Management Studies with the Law Pathway, and will be actively campaigning to ensure students engage themselves in increasing the sustainability of the university.
My year as the Environmental Officer started just under a month ago through the Students Union training week.
Training Week -
Across the training week; which began on the 2nd September 2019, informative presentations, workshops, talks and networking sessions were held, aiming to encourage our reps to be creative with our thoughts, produce new initiatives and begin to build action plans for the academic year ahead. Alongside the serious stuff, we shared many laughs and were treated with the odd free coffee here and there as well as breakfast and lunch.
Towards the end of the training week, we attend a QED Conference. A QED conference is an event which aims to engage the whole university community into conversations of how our curriculum might look like. The conference was a great opportunity to be a part of the educational development for Cardiff Metropolitan University and its community, it offered a real insight into what goes on behind closed doors for the university to provide relevant and up to date courses. I was able to listen to very interesting ways of teaching and experiences and took a lot from attending.
To finish the training week on a high everyone went to Bingo Lingo to celebrate. We all had many bevs across the night, I ended up with a waterlogged bingo sheet, had a great laugh and ended up having a messy night in Pryzm – ‘Highlight of the training week’.
Overall, the training course ran smoothly and was a huge success. Strong relationships were built, skills and abilities were developed and most importantly everyone enjoyed the process.
Freshers Fayre & MetFest -
With our training being completed it was time to take our first steps in our roles and begin to engage with the new and existing students. Freshers Fayre was a perfect opportunity for this to happen. Businesses and societies were invited to NIAC, Cyncoed campus hold and run a stall to promote themselves. Everything from pencils to KIND bars was being given away to entice students to sign-up for this and that. McDonald's offered free McFlurry’s and Dominoes gave away free pizza; what more could you possibly want?
The week after Freshers Fayre was held, MetFest took place down at Llandaff Campus. Fair rides, free pizza, a silent disco, a live band/DJ, cocktail masterclasses were just a few of the events taking place throughout of the day to ease the freshers into Uni-life. The day was great, us reps were allowed to relax and engage with any of the events of our choice – straight to the cocktail masterclass I went.
Once the fun of Freshers Fayre and MetFest finished, it was time to get down to business.
Repair Cafe Wales -
The first step of my role was taken when I was able to cement a very strong relationship with the environmental department of the university which would ensure that I can comprehend engage students at Cardiff Metropolitan University with the environmental and sustainable activities which take place on campus.
My first involvement was when I helped run the Repair Café Wales. Repair Café Wales if you didn’t know is a non-profit organisation which aims to reduce landfill, teach repairing skills and build local communities. My role was to ensure the event ran smoothly and each customer left with a smile on their faces. This event was the first-ever Repair Café Wales held at Cardiff Metropolitan University and it was a huge success. The communication department of the university asked me to take part in an interview in which I evaluated my role as the Part-time Environmental offer and explain how I believe that events such as the Repair Café Wales are important to increase student engagement.
Re-useable SU Coffee Cups -
The biggest movement that I plan to achieve in my time in this role will be the introduction of SU branded reusable coffee cups. Soon we will be promoting and selling reusable coffee cups within the SU. In return this will offer students 10% off each Starbucks purchase they make when bringing in their cup. This will aim to reduce single-use coffee cups being sold and as a result, increase the sustainability of the university.
Future Campaigns -
Moving forward I aim to liasez with the catering department of the university in order to change the way food is served at Cardiff Met's catering locations as well as to hold an Environmental Festival during Go Green Week in February.
Thank you for reading and if you have any questions regarding the university environmental and sustainable activity or would like to get involved with my campaigns, please feel free to email me @ suenvironemental@cardiffmet.ac.uk.