Become A Class Representative

Who is a class representative?

Michael Zaipt

In my eyes it is a person willing to become the voice of their fellow classmates. It is a person who is willing to give up a proportion of their own free time for the well-being of their class and university as a whole. Also they need to be able to tend to their duties as our rep.

You might ask what the duties involve. It is mainly gathering feedback from your classmates and presenting it at various meetings as SSLC (Student-Staff Liaison Committee). At various meetings and committees you will listen to many plans and developments taking place in the City Law School or University, so you might wish to comment on some of them if you wish. You are not expected to be a master of administrative arts or to know everything, but if you are a hard worker then it will certainly be appreciated by many.

Aspiring to be a good rep

I have met several people aspiring to be class representatives (or those who actually become one) who delivered awe-inspiring speeches to get elected and yet I had seen them only once in a meeting. You might hear that you are not doing it for your CV, but the truth is you are enhancing your CV with the experience, so if you just put it down and never attend meetings or never talk to anyone, it will be to your detriment as you will be expected to have learned a thing or two as a class rep.

If you are worried that you are not cut out for this role - do not run away from it, take it as a challenge and improve that skill you think you are lacking. There will be many marvellous people around you that will happily offer you a word of advice, so there will be plenty of opportunities to improve.

Aspiring to be a lead representative

Anyone who aspires to be a Lead representative for their course will b expected to put in more effort than other reps. My experience being LLB lead representative was very positive, but extremely busy too. I had to make sure all committees are staffed by a representative from the LLB. In the most specialised committees I took the liberty to attend them myself (and sometimes other reps) as I was running for second consecutive year as a representative so I had the most experience in that aspect, and I could contribute to the meetings more effectively.

As the role is relatively new it will be up to every lead rep to form their policy on the role they have decided to undertake.

My message to all future reps is :

Remember you are a like a voice. The class alone whispers, you can talk, but together you can shout and can be heard far away.

Thanks to Michael Zajpt. Michael graduated from the LLB programme at City in June 2014.