Three months in the making, the Culture & Enterprise social happened on the last day of the Summer term. Working with C&E programme chair Richie Manu, the food and beverages were covered by the programme. Staff and students were both invited and 30-40 people were there over the course of the evening.
Process:
I began by mentioning the idea of a cross-C&E space to come together to course leader Richard Reynolds the week after Easter break. He liked the idea and said he would speak with Richie. I also mentioned it to course tutor Zuleika Lebow who suggested I get in touch with the programme liaison and cc her. I did and had no response to either of these. I emailed Richie and eventually arranged a meeting to discuss it. Following numerous email exchanges and meetings, details and designs emerged. I wrote text for Richie, framing the event, and set up an Eventbrite to record RSVPs.
I also messaged my contacts in the different courses via WhatsApp, so the invite went out over different channels. Monitoring RSVPs, I found little engagement (~12) responses to the official email that was sent compared with utilising the WhatsApp network, furthering what I see as a need to establish more unofficial communication channels. I’m discussing some possibilities around this with the Arts SU of linking Course Reps.
Response:
Despite it being the very end of term and feeding into a general sense of being busy and exhausted on a hot day, and CCC’s final presentation running over time until 8pm that night, there was a good turnout. People from all of the courses were there, including the part-time MBA and Arts and Cultural Enterprise.
One mature student coming back to school for his BA in CCC said “I have been waiting all year for something like this, that I can meet more people.”
Another graduating MAAI student opened up about her isolation and exclusion within her course: again, wishing for more avenues to create community outside individual courses.
A graduating ACE mature student said she had really been hoping for more opportunities to create community.
Richard Reynolds and Richie Manu both said they didn’t know of any event like this happening in the history of the programme.
Reflection:
The length of time it took to set this intervention up was discouraging, but not hopeless. Despite worries from Richie and others about the environment, it was just fine to have it in the C&E classroom, especially with assistance from other students moving chairs and getting the room ready. Classmate Sujay Sood was kind enough to DJ and created a good atmosphere.
Richie did not want to have nametags, saying it would be too corporate, but I had a handful of people who had been at the previous social lament their absence. I need to stick with the elements of gathering that have worked in the past to add to social cohesion and can aid in creating an easier exchange between people. The catering team was very easy to work with as they wheeled up the food and beverages in a cart.
I observed many people having discussions and making connections, and tutors from CCC and IM were there engaging with students as well. I had some great discussions, in particular with graduating MBA student Ve Dewey who I will be speaking more next week about her engaged critique of the MBA program.
Next steps:
I suggested more of these sorts of events as an opportunity for Culture & Enterprise to cohere into some sort of community. Richie Manu suggested one at the beginning of the next term, in September, and another in December. I’m awaiting confirmation of a meeting time to discuss this.
I’m also awaiting a reply from Dean Rebecca Wright to discuss the possibility of such an event happening between C&E, Spatial Practices, and Graphic Communication Design.