Student Association Update

The second meeting of the executive of the new OCA Student Association took place last week and it’s time for an update on progress. The minutes of last week’s meeting are available on the student site, here:
http://oca-student.com/resources/News/ocasa-minutes
The Committee has been active in discussing issues raised by students between our first two meetings and you might be interested to look at two notes appended to the minutes regarding our consultation with OCA:
Tutor Guidelines on Assignment Submissions
Student Exhibition
The first of these two came up as an issue raised by students directly with their subject representatives as well as being a regular topic for questions in the discussion forums, especially for new students.  We went to OCA to ask for clarification and they agreed to issue new guidelines for tutors.  We were consulted on the content of those guidelines and were able to make suggestions for specific changes, which were acknowledged and implemented by OCA.  Both the OCASA Committee and the OCA Executive have seen this as an excellent benchmark for the way that we can work together to improve the student experience.
On the second topic, we were mindful of the discussions in the student forum about the idea of a student exhibition and thought it appropriate to clarify where OCA stands on the question. Can I also take the opportunity to say a ‘well done’ on behalf of the OCASA Committee to those students who are busy organising an online exhibition site. Good luck with the project and do contact us if you feel we can be of help.
The OCASA constitution is more or less in place and, in the minutes, you will notice that a number of other issues are moving forward for discussion with OCA and the Teaching & Learning Committee.  You will also see that OCA has been consulting OCASA on various matters e.g. study visits.
As well as pushing forward with a range of specific matters, we have decided to make the whole area of Communications a priority. That is a deliberately broad topic, which might link into many aspects of the student experience and we are sharing views between us with a view to bringing things together and identifying priorities and actions in the New Year.
If you have any view that you would like to share with us, on this or any other topic, you can contact your subject representatives, or me, via the following e-mail addresses:
fineart@ocasa.org.uk  for Mary Adam, Representative for Fine Art & Art History
textiles@ocasa.org.uk  for Sarah Dodds, Representative for Textiles
photography@ocasa.org.uk  for Stuart McQuade, Representative for Photography
viscomms@ocasa.org.uk  for Pam Wright, Representative for Visual Communications
music@ocasa.org.uk  for Chris Lawry, Representative for Music
writing@ocasa.org.uk  for Brenda Knee, Representative for Creative Writing
president@ocasa.org.uk  for Stan Dickinson, OCASA President
We would really like to hear from you.
Stan Dickinson, OCASA President