President's Blog - November 2024
So, I’ve been President for four months, and my word…. has it been a ride.
I know that many will say "it's only College", or that the future of this establishment isn’t determined by me and I shouldn’t feel the grand weight of that responsibility. But from using my time in this job, I’ve kept the same opinion:there is truly only one body of the college that can steer the direction and give the approval for a change, and that is the students.
So, what have I been up to in the meantime, well I’ve been meeting all of you lovely people, more specifically Class Reps. It has genuinely blown me away how many Reps we have this year, 541 of you guys registered after my video was sent out to your classes. The Class Rep training sessions went really well, and all of you that came were extremely engaged and enthusiastic about this opportunity.
I’ve also been simultaneously coming up with the new Lead Rep Scheme and perfecting the concept of it, the idea is to give more power to the students of Edinburgh College and give them a bigger say in the direction and decisions their school or department make.
Essentially, we aim to get two Class Reps per school to represent their department and similar courses, this way we could have curriculum staff and heads of school working side by side with the students to improve the overall experience of their course and Edinburgh College hopefully as a whole.
Once we did all the training, it was time for the meetings themselves. We discussed many things, like the online learning experience and how lecturers deliver their courses. I have discovered that the feedback from students aligns with my objectives on the online learning experience, and that there is a need to make the delivery of online learning simpler and easier for students, and to also make it more consistent across lecturers.
At first, I found the meetings quite overwhelming and my imposter syndrome began to build inside me once again. It’s my biggest flaw and biggest challenge. People look at me for hope and guidance for their courses and the direction of Edinburgh College. When I don’t feel like I have the confidence myself, it's worrying and infects me like a disease.
If you are reading this and your losing your own confidence in me as your President…. well I don’t really blame you. But what I will say, is this: in a time where leaders are egotistical and big headed, and want them to portray themselves as an ultimate godly power, I feel a strange responsibility even in junior politics to admit to myself that I am not perfect.
I will have panic attacks, I will feel anxious, I will feel my infectious imposter syndrome. But nothing will ever stop me from being your President, no matter how defeatist we are, no matter how faithless we’ll become, no matter how powerless things may seem, we are students and we will always rage against the dying of the light.