Before saying anything – have you double checked you have applied for a tuition fee loan? Hundreds of students might not have filled in their loan application form correctly and it means that they will lose their internet and library access, as well being billed the full amount for the year. Ouch. If you are unsure contact the Union Advice Centre immediately, more of that on Beth’s blog.

Last week was a MASSIVE one for the Union. Some might go as far as saying it was pretty Hollywood.

Marina and the Diamonds - Hollywood (Fenech Soler remix)

First of all local MP Mark Hendrick has publically pledged that he will vote against any rise in tuition following the fees review in Parliament and that he is committed to working alongside UCLan SU and NUS to fighting against a rise in fees. You can check the news story on Pluto Online.

This is fantastic news not only for our own students, but for students across the rest of the country. Every MP that signs up to this pledge puts us one step closer to our goal: stopping a rise in tuition fees.

Alongside this we have had an incredibly productive meeting in regards to our Town Takeover. In essence, this will be a day of campaigning and action all over Preston in order to make the general public aware that fees are such a hot issue. A rise in fees would affect EVERYONE and not just the students. Are Mum and Dad going to be better off if we have to pay £7,000 a year in tuition? Probably not.

In other news, Lord Young (who is the Under Secretary for Business, Innovation and Skills) paid a visit to UCLan on Thursday to speak to a panel of UCLan students about their experience at university. The meeting was on the whole very positive – Lord Young was very keen to develop more internships and jobs for graduates. However his stance on fees was not so clear-cut. Again, check the write-up on Pluto Online.

A great piece of news from the Times Higher Education survey: UCLan Students’ Union has been ranked as 5^th best in the country – up from 10^th last year. Wow! Massive shouts to everyone involved in the union as either a staff member or volunteer – I think its further proof that we are making those steps to make life better for students.

More exciting things on the horizon: today are the first news meetings for the next edition of Pluto. If you want to get involved it’s not too late to come along – the meeting is at 5pm in Meeting Room 1 in the SU (on the first floor). If you can’t make it drop me an email at SUMedia@uclan.ac.uk and we can talk about how to get you involved. I’ve also switched Frequency back on this morning – with the first shows of the decade having been on air already. To tune in just visit http://frequencyradio.co.uk and get listening. If you want to get involved with Frequency drop an email to CFrequency@uclan.ac.uk to find out how.

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had an absolute corker, I certainly did (shameless plug for my music blog, read it here).

After returning to Preston in early January whilst a lot of students are still enjoying their home comforts, your elected SAC members are straight back to work.

Every January the SAC travel to Bibby’s Farm near Chorley for our winter residential. This is where we go away for a few days to get our heads together and plan for the term ahead.

The Great British weather had its own ideas (as I’m sure you can imagine). We woke up on Tuesday morning under at least six inches of snow, meaning that any Union staff member that was due to come up and work with us couldn’t.

We had to play in the snow didn’t we? Here are the results:

Not to fret, some “proper” work did get done. At the moment I’m working on a three-year strategic plan for student media in the Union. Don’t switch off – it’s actually pretty exciting. The idea is that we develop some sort of long-term strategy for student media in the union, giving it a long-term vision as well as some continuity in the years to come.

One of the inputs to this is the student media survey which we sent out just before Christmas. If you want your say on how we can develop media in the union then just check out the survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FHPYKSQ.

If you are lovely enough to take the two minutes of your time to fill it in there’s a chance you may win some Promo tickets for January. Please leave as much feedback and comments as you can, every little helps.

For the folks that are back on campus you may be scratching your head as to where Pluto is. Not to worry: the next edition of Pluto will be out on January 29^th. If you are hankering to get involved with the next issue then come along to the news meeting on Monday Jan 18^th at Meeting Room 1 in the Students’ Union.

When travelling in please do take care and wrap up warm. On a musical note, stick your dollars on Ellie Goulding being announced the BBC Sound of 2010 tomorrow. This tune is sort of relevant to this post, Preston is “under the sheets” of ice right now, anyone?

Under the Sheets (Jakwob remix) - Ellie Goulding

Merry Christmas! The Union is feeling pretty festive this week, my office is no exception. How untidy is my desk? Very.

Here we are. My brand new shiny blog, it’s exciting. I’ll be totally honest, crotchformedia-dot-info went down pan months because I never posted.

However, our lovely President Beth Woodthorpe Evans has given us all a kick up the backside and it’s been decided that all members of the Student Affairs Committee (your elected Officers in the UCLan Students’ Union) will blog.

So here’s mine. What’s going in it? This blog is here to help communicate what I do in my role to students. It helps with transparency, and my hope is that it will encourage students to stand for election in March, as well as encourage people to get involved in volunteering in student media at UCLan.

Feel free to ask me any questions you have, or drop me an email at any time at sumedia@uclan.ac.uk