CUSU BME Campaign stands for the
Cambridge University Student Union Black Minority Ethnic Campaign
It's a liberation campaign
which is one of several under the CUSU umbrella
and then we work within the BME community here in Cambridge
One thing that we've learnt about working in this campaign is that
collective voices are really powerful
Because there's so few of us, often in Cambridge,
we feel very scattered and, like, isolated
So this campaign has given us a chance to come together
use our voices for a greater good
And essentially our committee is like a family where we all work together
to help each other with our workload and tasks
What's next for the BME campaign
is raising transparency about the Prevent Strategy
It's not a very transparent policy
and we want to raise awareness and work very closely with colleges to ensure
that Muslim students are not disproportionately stigmatised under it
We're also really anxious to make sure that language is accessible here
and for that reason we would like to hold talks and forums that we have
the ability to talk to people who are in the same boat as us
who're academics of colour who feel the same way that we do
and allow us to access the language that we need
to express and articulate our struggles
You can find out more about BME CUSU Campaign on Facebook
Twitter
and Instagram
So as the street dance team
our main focus is competing nationally
against other universities
We also do May Ball performances
and perform in the CUTAZZ Dance Show
and we also set up regular workshops that
kind of is open to anyone in Cambridge to take part in
We cover a wide range of styles including
Hip-hop
Commercial
Dancehall
Afro-beats
Breakdancing
So I really enjoyed street team because
it's taught me to
balance my work and my extracurriculars
but it also doesn't actually feel like an extracurricular commitment
It just feels like I'm getting together with my friends
and just having a dance, just like if you go to club
The thing I've enjoyed the most is the
incredible amount of diversity in the team in a team of 20 people we have 13
different nationalities and we have people from all sorts of degrees and I
think that what that has taught me is to push completely outside of my boundaries
push beyond what I am comfortable with and learn from others
So if you want to find out more about Street Team
we have auditions in early October and they are open to everyone
If you enjoy dance, you know, no matter if you've danced before,
come along, because it would just be the best thing you ever did
I was a beginner when I went along
Also the CUTAZZ Facebook page covers the street dance team too
and the Instagram page as well
and just, yeah, all the socials
So the aim of our society is fundraising for UNICEF
but also raising awareness of UNICEF's work
and because we're pretty new, only started in 2017, we've been able
to do loads of stuff from scratch which has been amazing
One of my favorite things about
UNICEF Society has been meeting amazing people not just on the committee but
also at UNICEF HQ and at UNICEF societies all over the country at
different universities
Being president of UNICEF Society has really helped me
learn how to work with people, how to motivate people, how to come together as
a team and also how to raise the most money possible when you're on a tiny
shoestring budget
In the future, UNICEF Society just hopes to keep expanding
into every college and really putting on so many more activities and helping
raise even more money
If you want to get involved, you can search 'UNICEF in Cambridge'
on Facebook and on Instagram or find us at the freshers' fair
What's really exciting about the Wilberforce Society
is that for most students
it's their first opportunity
to get involved in policy paper writing, research,
and really seeing their work have an impact for the first time
An example of where we've been very impactful is that we
wrote a policy paper that advised the Tunisian government
on their constitution which is now in use
So we also had a policy paper related to Brexit
and that was like a really big paper because
we had, basically, sort of, different teams
looking at the different impact of Brexit and that was something that was
pushed for in kind of like in Parliament as well so there's something they were
really proud of in the society
We also run panel events for each of our policy papers
in which we bring together experts on the subject of the paper and
then every February, we run our annual Wilberforce Conference we bring
together large different group of world experts on different areas
together to discuss various policy issues
The union is Cambridge Debating Society
It was found in 1815
so it's more than 200 years old now
We have debates every week
where we bring in famous people, interesting speakers
and we also have really regular speakers events, where we have, for
example Prime Ministers or famous actors who come in and speak to us about
the work they're doing and it's really exciting
So the next 6-12 months, the union is moving in a couple of interesting directions
We have access initiatives to bring disadvantaged students to the
union, teach them how to debate, get them involved in what we're doing
Also we're going to have a lot more BME speakers coming
so we're going to widen the perspective
here at the Union
And also we're opening the Union up
which means that you're going to get to hear behind the scenes
from the speakers that come and visit us
And it's going to be a lot more exciting in the next few months so
Looking forward to seeing you