The first term of 2011/12 is over already! 

We hope that you have all had a fantastic term. There have been so many things going on that we've put together a few of our highlights from across all areas of LUSU. 

If you want to keep up to date with what's happening next term, make sure you follow LUSU on facebook.

If you're aroud over the vacation the LUSU website has up to date information about what's going on and what's open on campus.

Democracy

In the recent cross campus elections, the voter turnout from Post Graduates was up by 150% as a result of extending the voting period to 4 days.
We also were pleased to see higher numbers of international students voting in the elections and a wider demographic amongst candidates in the elections.

Congratulations to all our newly elected officers!

Activities and events

We had a fantastic Fresher’s week: the Activities Showcase saw crowds of spectators in Alex Square seeing what some of our Activity groups do, and was a factor in the large number of sign-ups from new members at the Fresher’s Fair.

Our International Student’s Welcome was a brilliant evening which saw a huge turnout in the Great Hall Complex enjoying food from around the world, before entertainment from our student groups.

In week 8 LUSU held a Cultural Fusion event in the Management School. This involved groups such as the Indian Society and the Malaysian Society, LUDanS, LULangs and the Cheerleaders, plus involve International volunteers. This was a very enjoyable evening which celebrated diversity on campus, and was attended by a range of students and families.

Finally the LUSU Christmas Market in Fylde on Friday of week 9 saw market stalls, reindeer, a Chair-O-Planes ride, Santa’s Grotto, a UPP raffle and many more attractions, plus performances from our student groups and local band Fables. It was a hugely successful day which attracted large numbers of students and members of the local community including local schools despite the weather! A good time was had by all and it was a great chance for people to get into the festive spirit while finishing off their Christmas shopping.

Campaigns this term

This term:

• Lancaster Students raised over £1000 for the Movember campaign.
• Over 500 students engaged with the Easy Tiger safe drinking project.
• The Still Human mental health awareness event raised over £300 and had over 200 people attend.
• Around 20 PG students attended our postgraduate experience panels so LUSU can start to better engage with them.
• We put on a variety of alternative events for students in intro week.
• We have worked to ensure there is provision for students staying on campus over the holidays

LUSU have also fought PPL on a severe fees increase; lobbying the secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport and our local MP to ensure the rise did not occur. This would have had a detrimental effect on our events and the Sugarhouse if it had come into effect. PPL will be revisiting their licensing fees in 2013.

Education and support

Here's a little of what Education and Support have done this term:

• Welcomed the Easy Tiger to LUSU and during the fresher’s fair he brought a round of 500 mocktails and also handed out 350 prizes (ears and t-shirts). He also currently has over 300 friends on facebook – popular chappy!
• Distributed 2200 branded water bottles to ensure that students are hydrated and also aware of our service
• Distributed 800 branded folders to ensure that the students' work stays dry in this terrible weather
• Held a plagiarism awareness week, which saw Polly Parrot roaming around campus performing real life plagiarism and raising awareness about how to avoid plagiarism
• Helped first year students who were not offered on campus accommodation with finding accommodation and contract checking, and then held  the welcome weekend lunch for off campus students with 160 students attending
• Registered over 250 and trained over 150 Academic department reps across the University
• Assisted in excess of 150 people with welfare and academic casework issues, including assisting students who are in other countries (via skype) with academic issues and mediating between landlords and students.

Sports and Societies

This term has been busy with regard to sport being played both on campus and across the country. On campus the Carter Shield has been taking place on Sundays in the Sports Centre with Volleyball being won by Furness, Dodgeball won by Graduate and Uni Hockey won by Fylde. There have also been 27 teams competing in three 11 a side football leagues, 16 teams competing in two netball leagues, and 22 teams braving the elements on a Sunday evening competing in the 6 a side league, and these will continue and come to a conclusion next term. The George Wyatt leagues have also been taking place with over 400 students competing in the popular bar sports; pool, darts and dominos. The results of all these leagues are on the results website.

The thirty sports clubs LUSU support to compete in British Universities and Colleges Sport have been competing from week one with a total of 112 away matches and 108 home matches. At this stage we already have some top teams: Men's Basketball, Women's Hockey, Women's Netball, Men's Squash, Men's Rugby League, Men's Football, Women's Basketball and  Women's Netball who have all performed particularly well. To check out all our teams' scores go to the BUCS website. 

We will have affiliated another 16 groups throughout the term and have supported a large number of other groups in their funding requests and in putting on additional events. This term also saw some major competition wins for members of the Ballroom Dancing society and the Dance society.

LUSU Involve

So far this term, LUSU involve have recruited 1333 student volunteers and this year we are working with 17 community organisations and 27 schools
We have sold 214 bikes, held  2 volunteer socials and organised 21 volunteering events, including the safe xmas party, bonfire event at Lancaster city library and conservation events at Fairfield orchard.

In addition to this, we have piloted 2 international trips to India and Malaysia; taking 54 Lancaster students outbound.

Purple Update

The Purple card has expanded during the term with new businesses joining up to offer Purple card discounts: Anne Helme Service station, Munch, The Gatehouse and Donatellas (to name just a few!) have all joined us this term.

We offered discounted Everton tickets to Purple card holders for the first time this term which proved very popular so we will be expanding this to other football clubs in the New Year.
We ran the 12 Days of Purple Christmas across the last 12 days of term and have recieved great feedback - we will be running several more events over the rest of the year.

We gave away a whole bedroom, 2 HD Televisions, 2 iPads, hundreds of packets of sweets, loads of gig tickets, free entry to Sugarhouse and hundreds of Santa hats and Christmas stockings!
We conducted research to find out what Purple card holders would  like us to change and will be rolling out improvements from January. Finally, we now have a Purple Facebook page so you can keep up to date with the offer of the week and general offers available throughout Lancaster.

Award winners!

GreenLancaster won the Green Gown Award for Student Initiatives and Campaigns and was Highly Commended in Red Rose resource Awards for the Exodus project.
The involve Schools team were Highly commended at the Children and Young People Now Awards.
LUSU involve International Projects received a special recommendation in NUS Internationalisation awards.
One of our students' businesses was shortlisted for an award with Deborah Meaden

Sugarhouse

After some record breaking nights this term we’ve ended on a true high and want to thank all our lovely customers for making this one epic. Roll on Term 2 when we’ll have more delights for you all including many more Purple card offers, rides, themes, games and general craziness. 

Happy Christmas from your Sugarhouse!

Our shops

Our retail shops; Central and LUSU Shop now employ over 30 student staff.
LUSU Central is the largest supplier of Fairtrade goods on campus, and we will be aiming to build on this more in the coming term.

Also this term we gave away the contents of the LUSU shop window display from Freshers' week to one lucky Purple Card holder. The prize included an Apple iPad 2, flat screen TV and various student essentials. You can read about this and other prizes we have given away on our winners page. 

Living

LUSU and Lancaster University's joint housing talks were attended by over 1200 students this term.

Since the housing talks LUSU Living have successfully accommodated 886 students across 212 properties for the 2012/13 academic year.

LUSU Communications

After a busy Intro Week and continuing into the first few weeks of term, LUSU Information Desk assisted many students (both new and returners) with their Purple card requests, bus pass issues, private landlord accommodation information service, general help and directions about the campus and the JobShop.

LUSU Communications has conducted research into students and staff members’ thoughts about intro week, and have been using the findings to think about how we can make it even better next year, and make sure there are events suitable for all students to enjoy.

We're please that more and more of you are connecting with us on social networks. We've improved our presence on Facebook and twitter, and we’re trying to make this more coordinated across LUSU. Most recently we have set up a facebook page for Postgraduates following feedback from the postgraduate experience panel.  We’ve also tried to make sure Squeak is informative and has information that all students are interested in.