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Fashion
from Palatinate 833
by Palatinate
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Seun Twins
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Durham Students’ Union President
As we mark the halfway point of the second national lockdown, the University has announced a mass asymptomatic testing scheme for students to get a test for Covid-19. In order to make sure that student departure this December can be as safe as possible, not only just for students but for staff, the local community and the communities they are returning to, the University has ensured that all students will have tests available to them.
I strongly urge everyone to participate in the University’s mass testing initiative. The easiest way to make sure that we mitigate the spread of Covid-19 is to get a test. These self-administered tests give you results in under 30 minutes and it is a great way to ensure peace of mind with travelling. In short: Get a test! Get a test! Get a test!
In SU news, the DSU democracy review is being finalised and the survey has launched! The Democracy Review survey is available on the DSU website and on all DSU social media platforms. Also, you all have a chance of winning a £5 Greggs voucher if you fill in the survey. It will take approximately 10 minutes so get involved in shaping the future of your democracy and fill in the survey.
It is common knowledge now that 10 core commissioners, including an independent commissioner, have launched the Culture Commission 20/21. This report and its recommendations must be shaped by the student impression of its own culture. This is why student engagement is fundamental to the success of the Culture Commission, so I encourage everyone to get involved in the back-to-back contribution sessions this November or look to the feedback form if you prefer to anonymously contribute. More about the research and the process behind the Culture Commission is on the DSU website, including my launch article and the commissioners’ profiles. Also, we will be announcing the open place commissioner very soon as well as the independent commissioner. Let’s all make the Culture Commission as great as it can be by getting involved. We want to hear from anyone and everyone.
Take care and get a test,
Seun
face me. They never stopped Palatinate took place in early findings, a University spokesperto talk to me and drove away.” November. The student said: “I son said: “The safety of our stu-
Continued from front Two students recounted a sim- had just got past the bus sta- dents is of the utmost importance ilar experience just days later, in tion, when two men in a dark to us. Durham is a safe place to
“The men didn’t try to com- the street next to the aforemen- coloured car pulled into the live, work and study and we are municate with me. There were tioned case. “We saw them in the road, slowed down to a crawl committed to making it safer still. two of them, middle aged, be- street before we were about to and ended up passing me. “That’s why we’re part of key tween 40 and 50. One of them leave our house, so decided to use “I thought nothing of it, until I partnerships such as Durham City was wearing a neon vest, the back gate to avoid being har- heard the car rev its engine, and Safety Group, why we work closeand one of them had stubble, assed as we’d already heard from turn around by using the bus lane. ly with Durham Constabulary’s I’m pretty sure. It was dark.” others that they were targeting “I noticed over my shoulder Police University Liaison and
Another remarked: “It seems students without real reason. that they were slowly follow- why we contribute to the costs to me that there’s a lot more ing me and looking at me. They of a term time police presence. sexual harassment nowadays. Me and my friends get cat“As a girl and a survivor this stopped, and I heard the passenger get out of the car. I sped up “Our key advice on staying safe is: if you choose to drink alcohol, called by people in cars a lot.” was incredibly frightening” to get to the roundabout, assum- please do so responsibly; always
The same student recount- ing they wouldn’t be brave – or plan how you will get home beed how, at the end of October, “We decided to take the al- stupid – enough to try anything fore going out; take safe routes they “saw this white car go past leyways behind [redacted] in- in the brightly lit roundabout. home avoiding the river; and really slowly, like crawling. stead of the main street. As we “The passenger was a slim look after your friends and stick
“It was these two men, both walked behind the houses, the… but tall man, wearing a dark together when walking home. white and middle-aged; they car followed along [redacted] hoodie. I managed to make “If students have any safeveered towards me and slowed parallel to us, revving its engine. it to the [redacted] accom- ty concerns, they can contact down more. They both looked “As a girl and a survivor this modation, at which point he their College or the Police Uniat me really intently; their was incredibly frightening.” turned off towards [redacted]”. versity Liaison Team via the whole necks were turned to Another incident reported to In response to Palatinate’s non-emergency number, 101.”
Martha McHardy
News Editor
Durham University will not reinstate the key worker allowance for staff working on campus during lockdown.
The University told the Durham branch of the University and Colleges Union (UCU) that it is unable to reinstate the key worker allowance for “financial reasons”.
In response, Durham UCU stated that they are “extremely disappointed” by the decision.
During the spring lockdown, which ran through Easter term, staff in grades one to eight who continued to deliver face to face teaching on campus for at least 3.5 hours every week received a flat rate of £75 per week. The University has doubled the annual emergency leave provision to help staff
Durham UCU delivered a series of letters to the University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart Corbridge, asking that all face to face teaching be suspended until it is deemed safe by scientific advisory bodies.
Durham UCU also requested that all staff across the University and colleges who are delivering in-person support and teaching are provided with a key worker allowance. The University told Durham UCU that the contribution of staff who are working to support students and essential in-person activities on campus is being recognised in “other ways”.
Joanne Race, Director of Human Resources & Organisation Development, told Palatinate: “During the first national lockdown, the University remained open but was operated by a much reduced skeleton staff on site. In accordance with Government Guidance at the time, these colleagues were considered to be key workers and were paid a special allowance for a short period to recognise the exceptional circumstances at the early stages of the pandemic.
“The University is now working much more normally, with many more students and colleagues on site. The Covid-19 pandemic is likely to be with us for some time and we expect this to be our normal operating practice for the foreseeable future. Colleagues whose role requires them to be on site are therefore operating under their (new) normal working conditions and so, in line with many other universities, key worker payments are no longer applicable.”
Mrs Race said the University had recognised the contribution of staff in a number of ways, including by encouraging nominations for the University’s Merit and Discretionary Awards.
The University has also added two extra closure days to the Easter break, and three extra days to the upcoming Christmas break. Any staff member who may need to work on these days can take additional leave at another time, with many also receiving premium rate payments. Staff members are also allowed to
carry forward some of their annual leave to 2021.
Mrs Race also told Palatinate that the University has doubled the annual emergency leave provision to help staff to juggle caring and personal responsibilities.
However, some staff members have not felt adequately supported by the University throughout the pandemic. Durham UCU told Palatinate: “Members of staff across the University, especially those in Colleges providing front-line care and support for students, are working under extremely difficult and stressful circumstances, and without their presence ‘on the ground’ the uni(Beatrice Law) versity would not be able to function.
“We asked the management to reinstate the key worker allowance from spring in recognition of the central and integral role that these workers are playing in the present crisis, and the added stress and burden that it causes.
“We have regularly raised issues of stress and anxiety that come from not only living and working in a pandemic, but also due to the added workload that blended learning and online teaching necessarily generate, and requested the University management for an institution-wide response to the stress caused by Covid-19, including a thorough stress risk assessment for all employees.
“Durham was happy to recognise the key worker status of this subset of its employees in spring and there is no reason for them not to recognise it now.”
