Following the success of the 'What Your Disabled Students Want You to Know' panel for staff in term 1, Warwick Enable and the Disabled Students' Officer are collaborating again to organise a second event focusing on mental health conditions.
Here are some events by our societies across the month. We encourage you to sign our pledge and sign up to the active bystander training. You may not be a part of the problem, but you can definitely be a part of the solution.
Since coming to university, I have often been confronted with how much my experience as a student with a visual impairment differs from that of my fully sighted peers. I am an English Literature student who owns no books.
When most people hear the word “consent”, they associate it with the word “yes”. If someone says yes, it’s seems to be an obvious sign that they are comfortable & wish to proceed. But there are other things to consider!
Does losing your virginity change you? Generally, the answer is no. However, what does change when you become sexually active is how you feel about your periods, if you have them. Their meaning changes. The sight of blood in your underwear is no longer an annoyance, but a relief.
Warwick SU’s Hidden Histories alternative lecture series seeks to explore often-erased stories of oppression and resistance. It gives a platform to academic narratives and discourses which are often neglected or even deliberately erased from mainstream curricula, and opens these discussions up for students from any and all disciplines to access and engage in them.
As a student community, we are actively building safer and more inclusive spaces. We're proactively educating ourselves and others about consent, and are responding to the endemic issues of sexual violence, harassment and domestic abuse by empowering our community with the knowledge, skills and confidence to intervene.
It’s a good idea to discuss what you’re into before having sex. You may have very specific kinks, or you may just favour certain things over others. It’s important to talk about your interests so that you and your partner both know what to expect.
"Whilst the queer community certainly has by no means perfected consent, I think there’s a lot that people of all sexualities can learn from queer culture and experiences."
Consent is a clear, consistent, coherent, enthusiastic and voluntary YES. If you do not have this, you do not have consent.
Read my 14 guidelines to consent for more.
I am diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, and an eating disorder. This combination of differences and issues has made my time at university more difficult, sometimes insurmountable, often darker. It has meant things have not been easy. However, I believe that this does not have to be the case. I believe people with mental health issues and neurodiversity should be able to thrive in academia.
As it’s Disability History Month, I wanted to talk about my experiences as a student dealing with an invisible disability that people don’t always expect to be a ‘disability’: my mental health condition. In fact, for people in their 20s, the most common category of disability, more widespread than physical, social or cognitive disabilities, is a mental health diagnosis.
This Pride Week we’ve compiled some great opportunities to engage with LGBTUA+ history, inclusion, and education!
In celebration of Trans Awareness Week we've organised events to progress trans education & inclusion work at Warwick.
All students should be able to engage with quality teaching & learning in a way that allows them to learn effectively and feel safe doing so. We have been working with the University to represent you on this basis, and want to share with you some of the actions we have taken.
The Black Liberation Project (BLP) is a forum for Black students to access information on all things Black Liberation. Read about its launch this Black History Month.
Find out what we have planned in celebration of Asexual Awareness Week
As part of the recruitment for new members to the LGBTUA+ Taskforce, we’re inviting expressions of interest for the positions of postgraduate students' representative, and the student co-chair.
As a global institution, the University of Warwick has a duty to confront its colonial past and acknowledge the violent colonial legacies of figures that are celebrated on campus. Radcliffe Conference Centre is named after Cyril Radcliffe, the first Chancellor of Warwick University, who was also responsible for drawing up the borders in 1947. The new borders that were imposed led to the death and displacement of up to 16 million people.
Now a collaborative project between 42 students' unions from across the UK, the Campus Pride 2020 project continues to organise events into July and August.
The University of Warwick LGBTUA+ Taskforce and Warwick Students' Union have today sent a joint letter to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Women and Equalities in response to concerns that the government may be slowing (or reversing) progress on trans rights in the UK.
One thing that stands out about discussions of body positivity is that still within such a discussion, there are missing bodies. To put it another way, there are bodies who exist at the centre of this celebration, and those who are made to exist at the margins.
Guest blogging for the EveryBody campaign, hear from Nick Cherryman how sport helped him become #BodyPositive.
If some men menstruate too, why are there no sanitary bins in men’s toilets? This question was at the heart of a paper presented recently to the University’s Social Inclusion Committee by student officers.
Eat well. This doesn’t mean “eat nothing but salad like a rabbit” (who am I kidding) but try to make sure the food you eat makes you feel happy both at the time of eating, and the time 45 minutes after eating.
Change your study space by working at your dining table in the morning and your bedroom desk in the afternoon.
To help me not feel the need to go on random websites, I find it useful to have something non-distracting to passively entertain me in the background.
after a task is complete, reward yourself with a small treat, or a 5-minute break. This way, you will look forward to completing the set task.
When you feel stressful clean your room and areas around you. The stress will get released with time and you will also utilize the time that would have otherwise wasted unproductively.
If you can’t reset your sleeping pattern (hi coronavirus) think about how your day is divided and when your meals should be so you don’t end up endlessly snacking and clocking off for the day too early.
Have a reward: When finishing a revision task, reward yourself with some chocolate or whatever suits you. This will provide a dopamine kick to train your brain into wanting to accomplish more tough tasks.
Opposite to usual: if its worth doing, its worth doing badly, both for studying and general life. Its better to read 1 page or learn 5 definitions than do nothing.
After realising that both I and my friends have struggled to do our daily work and been super unproductive, we started to schedule ‘study dates’. Just set a time to when you will both be studying.
It's vital to clear your designated workspace. There's nothing more satisfying than getting organised, so make sure you can revise quickly and efficiently by having your work station ready.
Sunlight is great for making you feel awake, helping you to sort out circadian rhythm. An added boost is the vitamin D and general well-being benefit of getting some fresh air.
Write a to do list every morning and aim to tick off everything you planned to achieve in the day. Don’t forget to also include fun tasks to motivate yourself, your to do list does not just have to be work.
My favourite way to work from home is setting up a cute workspace. Finding cute scented candles around the house, a clean and clear desk and cute stationary are all essentials when working from home.
Learn a new skill. I have picked up programming again although I am a social science student with zero coding background, however, after committing several hours to it (which is nothing during quarantine) I found it is much easier and more powerful than I previously thought!
I think the best studying suggestions I could give would be to make sure you run into things that you need to revise in your daily routine. This could be post it notes or a chalk board etc.
Exercise every day, spread out throughout the day. This could be skipping, doing press ups, going for a run. Go for a walk, ideally in nature if you live near a park or forest, every day.
In my three years at uni, I’ve tried it all: ‘chill’ music playlists, lo-fi beats, classical music, throwback tunes… But I am now 100% convinced that I am most productive when I listen to nature sounds (rain sounds are my favourite) or brown noise.
I use the KanBan listing method for my checklists which lays out your tasks so much better! Having it sorted into to do, doing, review and completed makes it look much less intimidating than as one long list!
Start the day at the same time and do yoga, mindfulness or exercise practice to refresh body and mind, and give a day off in your week to recover energy.
Because of the lockdown, we have been forced to work from home and that can sound impossible. Unachievable. All habits and routines are gone, along with the quiet working spaces and academic environment. But after all, is it that hard to recreate these, at home?
To keep focus on my studies, I installed LeechBlock, it is a simple tool that you could add to your favourite web browser and include in it the main pages that usually distract you.
Stay hydrated - drinking water will help you focus and improve your general health which will have a positive impact on your studies.
My tip for studying at home is to take regular breaks!
During quarantine, it’s really hard to stick to a routine, at least during term time lectures make me adhere to somewhat of a routine (or countless texts from friends in the library asking me where I am after promising for a morning study sesh the night before)
At the start of each day, set out a plan of what you would like to achieve by the end of it.
Study WHEREVER YOU FEEL WORKS BEST FOR YOU! If that is your desk, amazing, want to study in bed? Do it.