Monday 09-12-2019 - 11:46

Well hasn’t that gone quickly! It seems like just yesterday that we were squelching through the mud at Welcome Fair and now it’s December. Hasn’t it been quite the year?! Have a look below to see what we got up to in 2019, and be inspired for what 2020 has to offer. 

January

2019 kicked off with exams, but we put on lots of wellbeing events in the newly opened SU Living Room so that you had time to relax as well. 

And we ended the month on Refreshers week, including the first ever Refreshers fair so that you could make good on those New Year’s resolutions and join some clubs and societies. 

February

The shortest month is always one of our busiest months and 2019 was no different. 

We saw lots of events taking place for different campaigns including Give it a go, Interfaith Week, LGBT+ History Month and many more. 

There was a packed programme for Sustainability Month which culminated in a motion passing at AMM to “Declare a Climate Emergency”. 

March

March brought in another wave of SU elections, voting in a whole new full-time officer team for 2019/20 and bringing the team up to seven. 

We introduced our new International Students Officer, and our new network chair for the Multifaith Network. 

March also saw Bristol take on UWE for Bristol Varsity Week, with over 5,000 students, staff, alumni and the local community coming together to participate, volunteer or spectate. 

April

The University of Bristol became the first UK university to declare a climate emergency. 

April also brought national success for Bristol SU Societies as Chaos: University of Bristol Physics Society won Best Society at the National Societies Awards. 

May

May began with over 800 staff, students and alumni taking part in the first ever Varsity wave in the Bristol 10K. 

Exam season swept through and the Bristol SU Wellbeing Network helped you meet the challenge with their Mind Your Head campaign. 

We also saw the launch of our Trans Allies on Campus campaign, supporting trans people across our community. 

June

As 2018/19 drew to a close we celebrated another top 10 finish in BUCS! 

We also had a wonderful week celebrating student achievement at our Society, Sports and SU Awards. 

When letting agency fees were at last banned by the government this month, Bristol SU Lettings had already saved our students over £1million - we have never, ever charged fees! 

Summer

Bristol celebrated its graduates over summer with six days of ceremonies.  

Thanks to our officers, graduation was more accessible for students as they managed to secure a graduation bursary from the University to cover the cost of gown hire for approximately 200 students.  

And our Just Ask team could reflect on a year where they helped over 1200 students through academic processes like appeals, extenuating circumstances and plagiarism. 

 

September

Our new academic year kicked off in style with Welcome Week bringing thousands of students to over 100 events and Give it a Go sessions.  

The rain didn’t keep you away at Welcome Fair as it continued to be our biggest event of the year with 13,000 of you coming to The Downs. 

We welcomed the government’s announcement of a new 2 year post-study visa extension for International Students from 2021. Our International Students Officer Julius was one of 48 student leaders to ask for this change to be brought forward to 2020. 

October

October saw us smash some more records... our biggest ever Black History Month events programme, 2000 sports fans coming down to Halloween SCORE at SWX, the most students ever signing up to take part in Intramural sport and the highest voter turnout – 4300 of you - for our term 1 elections. We introduced our new reps including the new chairs of the Care Leavers & Estranged Students, and Parents, Carers & Mature Students Networks. All of them are already hard at work for their new constituents. 

We also launched the Global Lounge with the University – a new welcoming space for our members from all over the world – with pop-up events for Diwali, Day of the Dead and Thanksgiving. 

November

November saw our busiest ever Student Council, where student leaders voted on motions from supporting the Climate Strikes, to moving the Welcome Fair to a time accessible to all. 

We campaigned hard this month, offering My Rent My Rights for housing advice, This Girl Can Week to get over 1000 women into sport, and Reclaim the Night against gender-based violence. 

We celebrated our groups with our revamped Student Group of The Month. Beating 31 other nominations, Coppafeel! were our first winners. 

Plus we supported UCU members in their industrial action, and urged students to register to vote in the latest general election... 

December

December kicked off with the celebration of the Bristol SU Living Room’s first birthday. Now a second home for 700 students every day, the SU Living Room has hosted almost 100 society events in its first year and we received over 700 birthday cards from students at our party! 

By the end of the first term of BUCS, our sports teams have played a whopping 630 fixtures with over 1200 of you playing for a #WeAreBristol team. 

And of course, we’ll be welcoming in a brand new government just before Christmas! 

As we write this thoughts are turning to the holidays and exams. Make sure you check out all of the events taking place before the end of term and over the holidays if you're staying in Bristol. 

You can see even more about Bristol SU does for you at bristol.ac.uk/impact  

We’re looking forward to supporting you even more in 2020!