N UAC HT
October 06 2020
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GNÉ -ALTANNA
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Issues with ‘blended learning’ #NUIGSafeCabs aims to make system leave students with nightlife safer for students unmanageable timetables By Valerie McHugh
By Fiona Lee Students have raised concerns over their timetables on account of NUI Galway’s new ‘blended learning’ system. Students will have both online and on-campus lectures as a part of the new structure. With online lectures potentially being scheduled directly before or after on-campus lectures, giving students only 10 minutes to travel between their homes and the college campus, which for most students is not doable. SIN spoke to students about their timetables and how the blended learning and lack of confirmed classroom space for online lectures on-campus will affect their college year. “My timetable currently has me down for six on-campus lectures and seven online lectures. This wouldn’t be a problem except many of them are directly after each other. For example, one afternoon a week I have a five-hour block of campus, online, online, campus, online lectures, in that order. “It takes me at least 20 minutes to get home cycling, so there’s no way I’d get between campus and my home on time for my lectures, let alone unlock my bike and set up my learning space. As a result, I have to either rush from place to place and miss a minimum of a 10-minute chunk from every lecture, or I have to pick lectures to miss so that I can attend other ones properly. Either way I’m going to miss out on valuable learning time” Commuting students are also struggling with the mixture on online and in class learning. One commuter spoke to SIN about the issues facing students travelling to and from college this year and called for every lecture to be made available online, “I’m a commuting student this year and my timetable is so awkward. With the mixture of online and in class lectures it’s very hard to gauge whether it’s even worth coming into college this year.”
“Some days I have to do a 2-hour commute for only 3 lectures! Everything should be available online in my opinion, it’s unfair given the situation, especially for students are vulnerable or live with vulnerable people.”, she said. SIN spoke to Student Unions president, Pádraic Toomey, who is aware of the issue and is working towards a potential solution. “We are looking for spaces on campus to facilitate online learning. We have been suggested that the Bailey Allen could be one of these spaces and we are pushing for that and more” he told SIN. The Student’s Union have been in contact with the members of NUI Galway’s University Management Team, outlining the issue in a letter, “Students will need spaces where they can participate in activities such as synchronous lectures and peer learning activities. These activities involve students using laptops and speaking. Obviously, the limited spaces in the Library and Reading Room are not conducive to these activities. Pod type spaces would be ideal for this.” The letter also highlighted the lack of sufficient social and study spaces on-campus. “Instead of telling students where they can’t go, they will need spaces they can go. Social spaces will need to be created as places they can go between physical lectures, labs and tutorials.” “Study spaces will need to be widely available for students to use between lectures, and for students who do not have suitable space at home or in their shared accommodation. The reopening of the library has been a welcome relief, but obviously space is very limited”. No plans have been confirmed for public spaces on campus as of yet, with the college year already in full swing.
Galway LGBTQIA+ Students left devastated at loss of An Teach Solais Resource Centre By Caoimhe Killeen An Teach Solais Resource Centre which provided support and resources to the LGBTQA+ community in Galway has closed, leaving the city without a vital centre for the community. The closure of the Victoria Place office was announced last month by AMACH! LGBT Galway on their social media platforms, with the centre closing its doors on August 31st. It cited a lack of sustainable funding and government support as the reason for its closure, as well as the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The centre had faced closure since last November but had been able to stay open thanks to crowdfunding efforts of the local community via GoFundMe and through protests over its closure. AMACH! LGBT Galway stated that the decision to close An Teach Solais was not an easy conclusion to come to, saying that: “We must focus on the future and continue to work hard for our community with the resources we currently have. We look forward to continuing our work building a safe, happy and supportive environment for LGBTQ+ people in Galway and the West of Ireland.” AMACH! LGBT Galway was set up in November 2009 by members of the Galway LGBT community, with its official launch as a non-profit organisation in July 2010. Its mission statement is to “reflect equally the diversity within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community by encouraging positive participation from the community.” They also provided support though educational and training workshops, peer support groups, free HIV testing through AIDS West, as well as a drop-in
service for appointments, and An Teach Solais was embodied in one of AMACH! LGBT Galway’s aims as “an accessible and safe Resource Centre that can be utilised by the LGBT+ community.” While the centre had been holding online dropin clinics via Zoom since the start of the nationwide lockdown, the loss of the centre is still felt by many, the centre was described by An Teach Solais themselves as “a centre for the community run by the community.” Some NUI Galway students who benefited from their services also expressed their sadness over the closure of the centre. “Teach Solais represented community, and the simple act of popping in for a cuppa and a chat was enough to brighten your week. You could live your best queer life free from the fear of judgment or harassment,” said Callum Boyle-Ferry, Vice-Auditor of NUI Galway’s Bródsoc, a society for members of the LGBT+ community as well as anyone interested in LGBT+ rights, who organise social events on campus. Callum also added that An Teach Solais was regarded as “a symbol of unity, and the loss of the centre is devastating to the Galway LGBTQIA+ population.” Maeve Arnup, NUI Galway’s Students Union Gender and LGBT+ Rights Officer, and former Bródsoc Auditor also spoke to SIN about the centre’s closure: “I think it’s going to be a very difficult year for students in general, but even more so to LGBT+ students, who often first explore their identity in college. “Usually they could find support and friends through the LGBT+ society, Bródsoc, or though Teach Solais, but now with college being mostly online and the closure of Teach Solais, I think it’s going to make things a lot more challenging for them,” she stated.
NUI Galway Young Fine Gael members have been lobbying for the Student’s Union to liaise with local taxi companies to create a contingency plan for students who find themselves unable to pay for a taxi home late at night. The plan would allow a student card to be exchanged with the driver at the end of a taxi ride instead of payment, with the bill being reimbursed by the SU. The initiative aims to reduce the number of students taking unnecessary risks by walking home alone late at night due to not having budgeted for a taxi journey home or by accidentally running out of money. Sarah Canavan, a member of YFG in NUI Galway says, “It’s an idea we got from UL that we thought would really benefit NUIG students. It worked for them and it has been in place there for six or seven years. You hear all these horrible stories of people getting attacked on a night out, or something awful happening when someone is walking home alone. This plan aims to stop people endangering themselves by walking home alone.” The YFG petition was welcomed by many students, receiving over 250 signatures. The petition has since been brought to the SU and a proposed plan has been established. The plan would allow the Student’s Union to pay the taxi driver for a student’s taxi trip if a student card were given to the driver. Responsibility would remain with the student to collect their student card from the Student’s Union the next day and reimburse the Union for the taxi charge. Sarah continued to say that having this initiative in place could help students out if things do not go to plan on a night out.
“We all can overspend on a night out, or you might think you are going to split a taxi with someone and that might not happen. A lot of the time, you hear somebody saying that they didn’t have the money to get a taxi home late at night.” The YFG and Student’s Union are continuing efforts to get the University to implement this contingency plan as soon as possible. Canavan stated that: “No one has picked up on it yet as Covid-19 is the priority with people getting people back to college. Our hope is to have it implemented after the Christmas. “We did want to start it this semester if we could, but with the timeframe it wasn’t possible,” Sarah finished. Pádraic Toomey, NUI Galway’s Student’s Union President, agrees with the Safe Cab initiative but feels as though there is complications with its implementation this year. In a statement to SIN, he commented: “We met with some of the committee over Safe Cabs a few months ago. We are happy to support any initiative to help students, but the program has a couple of issues if we were to run it.” “The problem we have with running the program this year is that any cards collected by taxi drivers would have to quarantine for 72 hours. When they would be left in our office, they would also need another 72 hours to quarantine before a student collecting them to ensure there is every measure taken to ensure people are kept safe. “We are happy to support them and we feel if the Student Information Desk got involved to run the initiative, it would work better. They have more capacity for storage and to manage student cards as it stands,” he concluded.
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