N UAC HT
October 06 2020
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GNÉ -ALTANNA
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University Parks Bus Service for Semester One Paddy Henry Editor.sin@gmail.com Students have been left disappointed by the cancellation of NUI Galway’s on campus Park and Ride service for the first semester. In an email sent to all registered students in the college on the 16th of September, it was announced that; “Regretfully, the Park and Ride shuttle service will not be operating this term. When viable, the University intends to reinstate it in the future”. The news has caused outage among Student’s Union Representatives who have called on the University to reinstate the service as soon as possible. Disability Rights Officer Trish O’Mahony spoke to SIN venting her fury at the decision, highlighting the issues it will cause for people with disabilities on campus. “It is an utter disgrace for
students with disabilities. It is a long distance from one side of college to the other and the service is absolutely essential to all students.” she stated. O’Mahony reflected on her own experiences as a COPD sufferer and wheelchair user to highlight the necessity of the service, telling SIN “To be quite honest, I’m a COPD sufferer and a wheelchair user and if I had to go to the other side of campus I would need oxygen.” “I can’t see why if anything, they don’t put on extra buses,” she stated. Student’s Union President Padraic Toomey also expressed his concern regarding the situation and asked the University to reconsider their position on the matter, “We are very concerned that the bus service operating between north campus and south campus is not running this year. “This service is invaluable to students with disabilities as their only means for getting around campus. Bus
services elsewhere are operating with required safety measures, so it seems short sighted to completely cancel the service” he stated. “We ask the University to review the decision and ensure the service is in place when campus reopens.” he continued. Due to the suspension of the bus service, the Student’s Union have called for a 50% reduction on the cost of car parking permits on campus. SIN understands that the fees generated by the University from parking permits have been used to fund the Park and Ride service in the past. Toomey also implored the University to “show compassion” towards students in line with the principles of the University’s recently published Community Promise , “We’re hoping the University shows compassion, we need to see them working towards that ‘collective good’ that our President has talked about and not to cut resources”.
CityDirect, the company who has run the Park & Ride service have also expressed their disappointment at the decision. In 2018 the company signed a contract to continue to provide the service for 5 more years, however the University have “indefinitely paused” this agreement. “The University are using Covid-19 and the fact that a lot of staff and students are remote working this semester as their reasoning for stopping the service.” said CityDirect General Manager Gerard Bartley. “We still have buses on leases and they’re lying idle at the moment. To secure our contract with the University we had to purchase two low-floor wheelchair accessible city service buses, which seat 39 and can accommodate for 23 standees.”
“We’re paying €6,000 a month on loan repayments, that’s how much it’s costing us, for buses we bought specifically for the University.” “We were carrying people with disabilities and mobility issues who rely on good public transport.” Bartley added. SIN reached out to NUI Galway’s Buildings and Estates Department for comment on the matter but did not receive comment by the time of printing.
International students living off-campus during Covid-19 pandemic face lack of support from University By Caoimhe Killeen International students at NUI Galway living off-campus have voiced their concerns over a lack of support from the University during the ongoing Covid19 pandemic. Despite free transport being provided by the University directly from Dublin Airport to Galway, as well as rooms in Goldcrest and Corrib Village being offered for the mandatory two-week quarantine, students have experienced difficulties in areas from receiving course information to lack of mandatory testing upon their arrival in Galway. Marlon Shoo, a Higher Diploma Psychology student from the Netherlands, was only sent questionnaires by the University to check for Covid-19 symptoms The first one was sent two weeks before leaving for Galway, and every day during his 2-week quarantine offcampus. But he was not advised to get an in-person test for Covid-19 by the University. “It was nice, but there was no actual (in-person) check-up,” Marlon stated.
“There was no one who checked if you really didn’t have any symptoms...I think mandatory Covid testing would have been a good thing to install upon arriving in Galway.” While he has begun to adjust to student life abroad, Marlon also added that there is room for improvement regarding orientation for non-Erasmus students. “I’m not an Erasmus student so I don’t get information. I have one orientation hour, which takes place next week Monday (28th of September) after I’ve already had my first class of the semester.” I just hope the University acknowledges the fact that incoming postgraduate students are in some cases also completely new to the university and therefore some more information would be reassuring for us.” This lack of information may stem from the fact that no one was elected to the position of International Student Officer in the last round of SU elections, leaving the position vacant. NUI Galway’s Student’s Union President Pádraic Toomey stressed the importance of protecting international students during this unprecedented time. “International
students have come from abroad to a new country and we need to protect them and make sure they aren’t forgotten. Most students from Ireland can call home for when things get too tough, but our international students are here for their full term and we need to make sure they can make friends and have that opportunity they came here for.” he said. “We need the university to have support in place to help them transition to their life here.” He also stressed the need to elect a new International Students Officer as soon as possible: “As soon as elections can be held in person on campus, we will hold them. It’s important that all
these positions are filled, so that all our voices can be heard, and to know what’s important for international students.” Even for returning students, supports outside of the campus space have been a huge help. Sina Ahmadi, a third-year PhD student in Computer Science and Engineering has been studying at NUI Galway since April 2018 and was living in off-campus accommodation. After taking necessary Covid-19 precautions for over five months this year, he left Ireland in August to visit his girlfriend and family in his home country of Greece and planned to self-isolate upon his return- despite Greece being on the green list at the time. However, his accommodation unexpectedly fell through while he was in Greece. Sina was able avail of information as a tenant through Threshold who guided him through what to do when he was told he could not return to his accommodation after being abroad. he was able to resolve matters with his landlord, and he eventually found a new place in which to self-isolate. The student described the experience as a big lesson to him, telling SIN: “We
all try to be kind and to compromise in many ways in our lives, despite all the difficulties, but some people don’t take the two sides of the story into account. Covid-19 is dangerous, and we should all do our best to break the chains of transmission.” These sentiments have also been echoed at a national level in Government not just for international students, but for those who are coming from other parts of Ireland to attend University. Sinn Féin spokesperson on Higher Education Rose Conway-Walsh spoke at special Oireachtas Covid-19 briefing last week, stating that among those starting University this September are young people who will be living away from home for the first time. “Considering that Dr Ronan Glynn tells us that Covid is disproportionately spread by younger people, is it realistic to expect them to adhere to the rules on and off-campus? Circumstances that expose students and their families to infection must be minimised. The creep of Covid from campus to county cannot be allowed,” she stated.
