Your Union : Update
Snug, cosy greetings from your rather toasty Union Update! The weather at the moment is so cold, so biting, so… nippy that we’re going to do our best to bring you some good tidings! Like a great big cup of tea, your Update is ready to warm you up, so relax with your hot beverage of choice and take the time to learn what’s coming your way, because we’ll be keeping you moving and keeping your joints from freezing up during this chilly February!
Sponsor this week…
Entertainments 
Hijack is on its way next week people! Have you got your wristband yet? No worries if not, just head over to the Union box office this week to get yourself ready. But in the meantime it’s partying as normal round here, with the appropriate dosages of big nights, different nights and immense music being prescribed. So if the cold weather’s getting you down, we’ve got just the cure.
- Fri 3 Feb – AMNESIA – Whole Building, 9pm-3am.
- Sat 4 Feb – Live Sport and TV in HD – Scruffy Squirrel, free entry.
- Sun 5 Feb – Live Lounge – Scruffy Squirrel, 9pm.
- Mon 6 Feb – Lockdown – K2, 9pm-2am.
- Tues 7 Feb – Pool Comp – Scruffy Squirrel, 6.30pm. PLUS KUFS Film Screening – K2, 7pm.
- Wed 8 Feb – WIRED – Ballroom & Scruffy Squirrel, 9pm-2am.
- Thurs 9 Feb – KRAP – K2, 9pm-2am. PLUS Pub Quiz – Scruffy Squirrel, 9pm.
Hijack will be happening on Friday the 10th, and wristbands are only £6, so grab yours before they sell out!
Milk-It!
The campaign run by your KUSU Officers, designed to help you get the most out of Keele, is back and packed with good ideas! A whole new year and a whole new milk round:
- Fri 3 Feb: Election Drop-in Sessions, 10:00-14:00 in KUSU • Drop in Table Tennis, 12:00-14:00 in Dance Studio • No Strings Badminton, 16:00-18:00 in Wallshaw Sports Hall • Revelation Rock Gospel Choir, 19:00-21:00 in Keele Chapel.
- Sat 4 Feb: Drop in Table Tennis, 11:00-13:00 in Dance Studio, Sports Centre. Free to play!
- Sun 5 Feb: Quidditch Training, 14:00 on Sports Field • Parasport Day all day in Sports Centre.
- Mon 6 Feb: No Strings Badminton 12:00-14:00 at Wallshaw Sports Hall • Dancesport Society in the Ballroom, 16:00-17:00 Beginners Ballroom & Latin. 17:00-18:00, Novice Ballroom & Latin • Stitch and Bitch at 18:30, CBA0.003 • Absolute Beginners Italian, contact languages@keele.ac.uk for more info. £95 for 8 hours tuition; open to students, staff and external learners!
- Tues 7 Feb: Drop in Table Tennis, 14:30-16:00 in Dance Studio • LLU World Cinema Club, ‘A Very Long Engagement’ at 19:00 in CBA0.013 • Union General Meeting, 19:15 in the Ballroom • Zumba, 20:00-21:00 in Ballroom.
- Wed 8 Feb: Volunteer Induction and VE Awards, 14:00-15:00 in SU Meeting Room • Christian Union Gaming Night, 20:00 onwards in Keele Chapel • Absolute Beginners Mandarin, contact languages@keele.ac.uk for more details. £95 for 8 hours tuition; open to students, staff and external learners!
- Thurs 9 Feb: Make a Difference – Day of Volunteering at KUSU! • KUSU Officer Elections, nominations close 17:00 in KUSU • Nightline Information Session, 18:00-20:00. Contact nightline@kusu.keele.ac.uk for more info.
If you don’t already have your Milk-It! Calendar with all the details then just pop down to your Union and grab one for yourself, and get hold of an Ents Wall Planner while you’re at it! Or check out the Milk-It calendar now available here online! - http://www.kusu.net/tl_files/content/Documents/MilkItJan12.pdf
We Want Your Feedback! 
At KUSU we are doing an audit of services on offer to you, our students. As part of this we are reviewing the main taxi firms used on campus and we’re interested in hearing about your experiences.
Please email us at marketing@kusu.keele.ac.uk with any thoughts and know-how, because we would love to hear from as many people as we can to get a well-rounded idea of all your opinions. That's when we can provide feedback and improve what's on offer. Thanks for your help!
Catering at KUSU has moved…
In line with the exciting redevelopment of the ground floor here in the KUSU building, our catering outlets are moving about a bit! The Scruffy Squirrel will continue as normal serving a great selection of fantastic food from nachos to sandwiches and bagels, wraps and hot soup! Available daily from 11am to 2pm. The Kiln favourites will be relocated and sold from the Kiln Cabin which you can conga on out too, and find just outside the front of the Students' Union building by the path that leads to the bus stop. Here you will be able to get your hands on our usual tasty nosh, from breakfasts to burgers and not forgetting our daily specials! Harvey's delicious hot food can be purchased in our Barista venue, where you’ll be able to find the following brilliant selection; jackets, oatcakes, pies, quiche, daily specials and much more! Meanwhile, Harvey's cold food such as; wrapped pies, oatcakes, hoagies, baguettes, sandwiches, pasta bowls, salad bowls, cake slices and quiche slices can all be purchased from the Union shop. So come on over to KUSU where we are dishing up all your favourites throughout this ground floor redevelopment!
Keele Unity 
The university will be holding a variety of interactive events throughout February 2012 to celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender (LGBT) History Month, as part of the Keele Unity series. The celebrations will begin with the LGBT History Month Symposium on 8th February 2012 at the Sustainability Hub from 8.45am to 1pm. This event will involve presentations from a range of speakers on a variety of interesting and pertinent LGBT topics and issues. This is an excellent opportunity for staff, students and visitors to engage in discussions and shape future equality initiatives within the University, whilst recognising the enormous contribution the LGBT community has made to our society. The Keele Unity series will also be hosting further workshops and film nights throughout February, alongside a range of student led events delivered by the Union and the Keele Postgraduate Association. The full programme is available to download from this email, or from our website: http://www.keele.ac.uk/lgbt-month/ . All events are free to attend, but early booking is recommended to secure a place. If you do wish to book a place, online booking is available here. Or you can contact Colette Smallwood, Equalities and Recruitment Administrator on Tel – 01782 33407 (ext. 33407) or by email; c.a.smallwood@per.keele.ac.uk . For any other query please contact Bal Everitt, Equalities and Workforce Planning Manager on ext. 33807 or by email b.everitt@per.keele.ac.uk
IAU Workshop – Finding
and Applying for Part-Time Work 
This workshop will take place in K2 on Tuesday the 7th February, from 12 until 1pm! Struggling to find work? Don’t worry, just come along and get some top tips and advice!
Assertiveness Skills Workshop
If you are looking to get some tips on how to be more assertive both academically and personally, Counselling are running a workshop in the Meeting Room on Wednesday 8th February at 2pm. If you are interested in attending, email studentcounselling@keele.ac.uk to book a place. Hope to see you there!
Farmers’ Market 
The market can be found outside the Union at the moment, and this week due to the work going on on the concourse, it’s being relocated temporarily onto the Chapel’s Plaza. With its big stock of fresh, local produce from Ted the Pie-Man; the London Road Bakery; Everyday Delicious tarts; Staffordshire savoury eggs; and Azorie Blue’s fresh coffee, it’s a great opportunity to shop locally, keep your cupboards well-stocked and stay on campus to do it!
Traders
On Monday Steve the CD/DVD Man will be setting up shop on the ground floor, while on Tuesday Lisa the Make-up Lady will arrive! Plus on Friday you can find Dove Valley Books in the Union’s foyer, stocking a variety of fiction and non-fiction; reference books; plays and poetry.
Keele Green Week 2012 
From the 6th – 10th of February the University will be celebrating our environment and what we can all do to make it better, with a series of activities and campaigns to get you going green! Watch out for the Green Teams roaming campus during the week, with face paints, green sweets and offering you the chance to make your own Green Pledge. Plus look out for the launch of the new Keele Sustainability Newsletter! Perhaps you’ll fill in your 2012 Green Pledge on the Environmental Pledge Wall outside the Comus Restaurant, (be the first and win a thermal mug!); or maybe enter the Green Week Art and Photography Competition for a chance to show off your skills? There’s a load going on in the Green Week, so for more information please click here: http://www.keele.ac.uk/estates/energyenvironment/greenweek/
Hard Rain: Whole Earth?
Keele University is the venue for the official UK launch of a new display of the ground breaking, internationally acclaimed touring exhibition, ‘Hard Rain’. The original exhibition has been expanded to include 'Whole Earth? - Aligning human systems and natural systems'. Set outdoors, adjacent to the Claus Moser Building, students, staff and visitors will see powerful photography and words illustrating both our global problems and the solutions available to us – “if there is the political will to invest in sustainable technologies and development strategies around the world.” In 2006 environmental photographer, Mark Edwards, launched an exhibition of photographs, in collaboration with Bob Dylan, entitled ‘Hard Rain’. It explored the state of the planet with each line of Dylan's song Hard Rain being illustrated by an image. The new display, ‘Whole Earth?’ presents solutions to the problems highlighted in ‘Hard Rain’, but governments need grass-roots support if they are to scale up these solutions and move towards sustainable development. The official opening of the exhibition will take place on Thursday, 9th February at 3pm with Jonathon Porritt, who will be installed as our new Chancellor at a ceremony earlier in the day, and creator Mark Edwards, which will be followed by Mark's inspirational talk, ‘Hard Rain: Whole Earth?’ at 4pm in the Westminster Theatre. All are welcome, and admission is free.
Keele Makes a
Difference Day Feb 2012 
Keele Makes a Difference Days have been set up by VE @ Keele to encourage students to take part in one off volunteering events that might not normally have time to commit to a long term project but still feel that they want to make a difference. The January Make a Difference Day was a great success, with thirteen students attending the day which involved being collected from campus at 10:30 and taken to Silverdale Country Park to take part in a tree and hedge planting activity. Over 100 trees were planted on the day and it was a great success with students asking if more trips to Silverdale could be planned so that they could continue to help in the development of the area! Well, the good news is there’s going to be another Make A Difference Day on the 9th of February, where we will be in Crackley, just north of Newcastle-under-Lyme, working with Aspire Housing to do a scrub clearing on a local estate that needs regeneration. Join us in helping out the local community, and click here for more info: http://www.kusu.net/ve.html
Concourse Online 
The magazine for Keele’s students, by the students is branching out into virtual reality, so check out their polished new website for lots of shiny articles and good things! http://www.concourseonline.com/
Face-Off! 
Last week saw the launch of the 2012 University Face-off Competition! Last year Keele finished 3rd, narrowly missing out on awesome prizes. Follow the link, like, tag and comment with your chance to win an ipad3 and give Keele the prestige of winning that massive trophy! https://www.facebook.com/universityfaceoff
Paralympic Sessions
Fancy trying something new in the run up to the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics? Get down to the Sports Centre between 11am and 2pm on Sunday to have a go at 6 different Paralympic sports including Wheelchair Basketball and Blind Football, all for free! More information here -http://www.facebook.com/events/285336604856822/ or contact us on vp.sport@kusu.keele.ac.uk.
YMCA One Big Sunday 
From 11am-5pm on Sunday the 5th of February come over to the opening of the YMCA North Staffordshire’s Youth Campus! Have a go at climbing, art activities, dancing, abseiling, free running, the roller disco, gym and beauty sessions and even more! All the sessions are FREE! For more information contact Nicky Twemlow on 07969 951021, or call 01782 222376. Alternatively, visit us at www.northstaffsymca.org.uk, and our address is Edinburgh House, Harding Road, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs, ST1 3AE.
Teach Abroad Scholarships
Teaching abroad is a great way to experience a new culture while earning a good wage, boosting confidence and self-reliance, and gaining professional work-experience. The large and increasing global demand for native-speaking English teachers offers graduates the opportunity of a lifetime! We are already working with University Careers Centres and Alumni Offices throughout the UK, and are currently talking to the NUS about how they might be able to help at a national level, but we want to let as many students as possible know about the opportunities available. Our Programme combines a professional distance-learning TEFL Course (giving you the qualifications, skills and confidence to teach English abroad), with an intensive Job Placement Service, designed to ensure you’ll find appropriate and fulfilling employment. We have relationships with quality Schools and Agencies throughout the world (who between them recruit thousands of teachers each year), so we can either provide you with opportunities directly, or use our expert knowledge of the industry to help you write successful applications for jobs you might find yourselves! Please feel free to take a look at the Scholarship page on our website for more information: http://www.englishlanguagecentre.org/tefl-training-for-unemployed-graduates/tefl-diploma-scholarship
