Phoebe Greenwold is a second year Liberal Arts student, often found in Unit 1, the Sanctuary, or queueing outside Pret, who took on the huge responsibility of becoming the Subject Chair of her degree. Our SSLC’s are the under-appreciated, over-burdened students who work tirelessly to represent our interests, and so definitely deserve some recognition. Balancing banter, SSLC, her course, societies and her crazy social life is no mean-feat, and so Phoebe tells us exactly how, and why, she manages to do it…
First and foremost… what is Liberal Arts?
Ahhhh… the dreaded question. It’s basically like the American system where you study a range of different subjects and you specialise as you go along. You come out with a Liberal Arts degree with a major and minor – there are compulsory modules such as a language and a statistical module, but you mostly get to mould your degree to suit your interests! It is not, I repeat NOT, anything related to art or the freedom to draw.
What exactly does the SSLC do?
The SSLC is essentially a body of students from each degree who attend meetings with lecturers and the Director of Education to feedback student’s opinions on all things academic. We then implement strategies to improve an arising issues and feedback progress to the student.
Have you noticed any significant changes to your degree?
Yes, we have recently introduced a Peer Mentoring Scheme for 1st years where they can have 1-1 support from a second year with the same major. We are also in the process of bringing greater clarity to the Study Abroad process.
Would you recommend it?
I would definitely recommend being a student rep- it’s next to no time or effort and a great thing to put on your CV. I would also recommend the Subject Chair role, you get to give your opinion on topics that students typically aren’t involved in, however it is definitely a lot of work.
Quick fire questions:
Favourite artist: Beyoncé
Tea or coffee? Tea, never had a cup of coffee in my life!
Club of choice: Unit…Fun
Anthem: No Scrubs
What do you want to be when you’re older? If I knew that, I probably wouldn’t be studying Liberal Arts…