Being Disabled Students’ Officer is a great job, and very varied from day to day. Before applying I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to manage the commitment of working a full-time job alongside being generally a very sleepy person, but the SU is flexible with hours so I usually start work at 10 or 11am, meaning I can still get a good work/life balance and plenty of sleep.
I start my days by catching up on any emails or Facebook messages, and I normally have a few meetings each day. Some of these are internal meetings with the other sabbs to catch up on projects we’re working on, but also some external meetings with people such as John Harding, the head of the DRC. I also have a few committees to attend – not as many as some of the other sabbs, but there is usually around one a week. I usually have some papers to read in advance for these. My Monday evenings are taken up with SU Council or SU Exec, where students from all the colleges and campaigns come together as the SU’s decision making body.
A large amount of my time is taken up with Disabled Students’ Committee and related projects. This term I’ve spent a lot of time coordinating the Access-a-Ball project, and the Accessibility Pledge, both of which have been fairly time consuming, but really important! I also have around one event per week for the DSC to help run and attend with my committee, and those are always really fun! We’re starting to have some more in person events now which is super exciting after so long doing things online. Sometimes I have the occasional evening or weekend event to run, but I don’t mind because it means I can have an extra lie-in the next day!