Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. Oprah Winfrey

Hello

Happy New Year and welcome to this, our first blog of 2018.

I shall be on my own for the next few weeks as Kayleigh is concentrating on her studies. She rejoins us towards the end of January.

I guess like many of you, I have started the New Year with thoughts of possible resolutions. It got me thinking, where did the idea originate?

The origin of New Year Resolutions:

According to History Stories the custom of making New Year’s resolutions is most common in the West. The ancient Babylonians are said to have been the first people to make New Year’s resolutions, some 4,000 years ago. During a massive 12-day religious festival known as Akitu, they crowned a new king or reaffirmed their loyalty to the reigning king. They also made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects that they had borrowed. A similar practice occurred in ancient Rome, after the reform-minded emperor Julius Caesar tinkered with the calendar, establishing January 1st as the beginning of the new year circa 46 B.C. For early Christians, the first day of a new year became the traditional occasion for thinking about one’s past mistakes and resolving to do better in the future.

Despite the tradition’s religious roots, New Year’s resolutions today are a mostly secular practice. Instead of making promises to the gods, most people make resolutions only to themselves, and focus on self –improvement. Perhaps this explains why so many are hard to keep to!

With that in mind, I might stick to work based resolutions and focus on developing more inclusive practice!

Short term activities:

We are:

• Arranging an event to bring our Aurora graduates together, identifying how we can support their continued development whilst contributing to the University’s priorities;
• Finalising work on our gender pay gap with a view to reporting ahead of the legislative deadline at the end of March;
• Collaborating with a number of universities to put on an event encouraging black students to come into higher education, and
• Supporting the Student Union campaigns as students return after the Christmas break.

We’ll also continue to improve our communication, ensuring we engage as many people as possible. This will be my personal challenge for 2018. I shall explore new and innovative approaches to try out. I am definitely open to suggestions from others so, if you have any ideas, please get in touch. We achieve much more by working together.

On that note, if you’re planning to set some personal goals, don’t forget to share them with your family and friends or join with others. You are far more likely to succeed with their support.