Review of the Year
Wednesday 20 Jun 2007
It has been an extraordinarily busy year for Imperial College Union, and I am proud to have led this organisation through an intense period of change.
This year we have delivered a £1.8 million redevelopment project and we are set to invest a further £3.2 million into the Beit Building next year. Thanks to this investment our students can enjoy a brighter and more accessible Union Building, and the College can enjoy a revitalised historic corner of the South Kensington campus. Should funding for the next phase of the Beit Master-plan be secured, then future students can look forward to a state of the art student services centre that will provide much needed support to our core business.
It has been a pivotal year for external relationships. In the largest referendum ever to be held at our College, our students have chosen to re-affiliate to the National Union of Students for the first time in thirty years on a turnout of over 30% - the highest ever recorded. Whilst we are sad to lose our ties to the University of London when Imperial becomes an independent university this July, I am delighted that our students have chosen to embrace the rest of the student movement and play a significant role in our national body.
We have also played a major role in the new London Student Assembly, a body that feeds advice directly to the Mayor of London, and we look forward to developing the role of this new body next year.
Our new website has grown to become the most visited student website in the UK, and probably Europe, turning over £300,000 in its first year. This new website has not only improved our ability to communicate with our members, it has also streamlined many of our administrative processes.
We have boldly chosen to reform our governance and embrace best practice in the third sector. From Autumn 2007, ICU will be governed by a highly skilled Trustee Board, bringing in expertise from external members to give us a long term strategic vision.
Our centenary events have engaged and entertained thousands of members of the College community and raised tens of thousands for Centenary appeals. The highlight of the celebrations was marked by our tremendously successful Centenary Ball, which was attended by over 2500 guests in June 2007.
Throughout the past year we have actively sought to work with Imperial College to improve the service both organisations provide to students. In January 2007 we launched a Sports Partnership with Sport Imperial to bring joined-up thinking to sports development and strategy across the College. We have drawn up new agreements that will see much needed and appreciated support from the College’s professional service divisions next year, and we have used our influence to shape College policy on a range of important academic issues, such as PhD students’ pay and degree class awards.
Our students have shown that they wish to see a fairer and greener world, and I have been delighted to see several strong campaigns come to fruition this year. Following well co-ordinated campaigns and petitions of thousands of signatures, the Union Council have endorsed a radical new environmental and fair-trade policy for the whole organisation.
Managing change is never easy and all of these achievements have only been delivered thanks to the dedication of our officers, staff and volunteers. Some of these changes have been painful, but I am confident that they will make our Union stronger and more sustainable in the long term.
It has been a pleasure and a privilege to lead Imperial College Union this year and I would like to thank the students of Imperial for giving me the chance to make a difference to this Union this year. All this leaves me is to wish the new Sabbatical team and trustees of the Union the very best of luck in the next academic year.
John Collins
President 2006/2007
