I may have gotten here a little bit early.

Barely a day after being introduced to one another for the first time, the school representatives for the Faculty of Science & Engineering regrouped for a second training session. Each of us will be the chairman of a staff-student forum, in which course representatives and members of the faculty will discuss issues with their respective courses, possible changes to teaching methods, feedback and general improvements to be made. We in turn will relay the outcomes of these meetings to higher representatives and organisations to be processed and acted upon. Crucially we also needed to give correspondence on staff-student relations for statistical purposes, including the National Student Survey.

At this session we were asked to explain how we would deal with potential problems in our fora, such as lack of contribution on an item, overlong conversation without progress and attendees airing personal grievances. It was generally agreed that we would have to develop tactical methods of telling certain forum members to shut up.

On the way out I inquired as to when we would receive the badges and “other items denoting the position” as hinted by the union website. It transpired that they might their delivery had been delayed a few weeks to reduce transport fees.

Last week was election season at the University of Hull, with various representative positions going up for grabs as the new academic year gets underway. Though a few hundred votes were cast it was not unusual for a candidate – such as myself – to be co-opted unopposed.

On Friday I received a message from Hull University Union congratulating me on becoming the School Representative for Mathematics. This afternoon I attended a training session in student central where I met my new colleagues and was briefed on what the job would entail.

First we were addressed by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Susan Lea. She told us she would be happy to talk with anyone encountered her, provided she wasn’t rushing to a meeting.

After having our official portraits taken, we split off into faculty groups to discuss our priorities for the year. Steven Storey, the Faculty Representative for Science & Engineering, told us about the work involved in lobbying teachers, managing student expectations and getting reforms delivered to schedule. We were also given copies of the National Student Survey to review and discuss areas of improvement for our schools. There seemed to be a general consensus that our success as representatives depended on how regularly we could get students to check their e-mails.

With the original meeting completed, we were led downstairs to talk with some of the senior staff. It appears that I arrived during a long transitional phase at the University, as most of my new colleagues remembered the system being rather different last year, as well as a different system of names and abbreviations. Some said my status as a newcomer might be an advantage in that it saved me from having to learn everything twice.

Tomorrow I return to student central for “Chair Training”. Hopefully that will be more important than it sounds.

…and hopefully I’ll get to the buffet earlier.