HANNAH NIMMO YUSU ON COST OF LIVING

IT’S NO SECRET that the cost of living crisis is having a profound impact on students. They are cutting back on expenditure across all aspects of their life - doing food shopping less frequently, turning their heating off more and cutting back on spending on social activities, just to name a few.

Naturally, being restrictive in such a way, with no governmental direction indicating that this situation will improve for students, is going to take a huge toll on students’ wellbeing across the country. As your Community and Wellbeing Officer here in York, this is a huge concern to me.

Data published by the National Union of Students (NUS) in November 2022 has indicated that 90% of students say that the current cost of living crisis is having an impact on their mental health, with a quarter reporting a major impact. This includes being unable to sleep for worry of how they will manage to feed themselves, feeling anxious and depressed about their current financial state, and how this might change in the future.

Considers The Beauty Of

Scottish Parliament, Heathrow Terminal 5, The Gate to the East in China and Moscow’City Palace Tower.

Moscow’s City Palace Tower, their portfolio is anything but modest. The biggest problem with CLASP buildings is, you can probably guess, asbestos. Rife in post-war construction was the use of asbestos insulation boards.

Asbestos is a mineral that is highly heat resistant. However, its fibres, when released into the air, can cause severe lung damage when inhaled. This is because of their jagged, needle-like shape.

Awareness about asbestos only came about in the mid-late 80s, where a national ban was placed on Blue and Brown Asbestos. However, for the University of York, and the multitude of other buildings and institutions all over the country, this was of no use – asbestos was lodged in between the walls of all their buildings and there was little that they could do.

Asbestos is harmless if it is contained and its deadly fibres are not disturbed. However, the problem with CLASP buildings is their biggest asset, modularity. In modular, slotted-together buildings, there can be many gaps through which cheeky asbestos can escape and become air bound.

Asbestos removal is incredibly costly, particularly if you are not demolishing buildings, as trying to remove it from walls while maintaining the wall structure is incredibly difficult.

For this reason, CLASP constructions are now basically extinct; the last CLASP building was a school in Manchester, constructed in 2005. However, the legacy of CLASP remains – and it is inspiring. Derwent College, and its many concrete panelled siblings around the university and the UK, are a reminder of human ingenuity, postwar problem solving, and an emerging mindset in the architectural community; buildings didn’t need to be just red brick and mortar, they could be dynamic, modular, flexible, affordable and quickly assembled.

CLASP was an adventurous project that shaped modern architecture, founded in a wholly decent desire to construct buildings for the public good. It’s because of CLASP that Derwent College stands today, and will remain standing for some time to come.

Those who were most likely to report major wellbeing impacts were, perhaps unsurprisingly, from under-represented student groups - including mature students, student parents and carers, disabled students, care leavers and estranged students, and those from the lowest socioeconomic groups. Worries from students encompass their family, support systems, and local communities too, whereby they are worried about how everyone will get through this crisis, not just themselves. Interestingly, those who reported major wellbeing impacts in the NUS research were also more likely to be renting private housing.

With how much the price of renting houses has increased, especially those in bills-included contracts, is

this really any surprise?

Students come to university first and foremost to study, but more students than ever before are having to take up part-time employment, multiple jobs and are applying for emergency financial aid and bank loans in order to make ends meet. This means that students have less time to prepare for teaching and also complete assignments.

As students, their first priorities and concerns should be about their academia and not about paying their rent or affording their grocery shopping. They shouldn’t be cutting financial corners and having to go without essential items. It is important that institutions and Government alike take notice of this and do all that they can to support students. At York, your Sabbatical Officers are committed to ensuring that the University provides adequate support for students at this challenging time, and are continuing to lobby for better conditions and financial support.

The strain on students’ wellbeing is likely to continue as the crisis continues, and this is concerning for me. YUSU has its Cost of Living Resource page for practical information and guides on cost of living issues, but please use our signposting guide (yusu.org/signposting) for information on how to access a range of wellbeing support.

If you are struggling with the crisis right now, please know you are not alone and that support is available for you. If you’d like to talk to someone, my inbox is always open - h.nimmo@yusu.org. No one should suffer in silence, but especially at this additionally challenging time for all students. I am here to fight for you and help you to reach support to succeed in your academic journey, so please reach out!

EMILIA VULLIAMY QUESTIONS IF COVID HASRUINED ‘NORMAL’ EXAMS?

WHEN WE WERE all told that school would be closing for two weeks in March 2020, I don’t think anybody expected the predicament we find now.

Just two and a half years ago, it was not only normal, but expected, that part of your school life would involve sitting in a hall with your peers; silent, timed and tested on the year’s content. Now I find myself amongst disgruntled students who feel it unreasonable that open exam periods across departments are being cut down.

Pre-COVID, open exams were seen as an ‘easy way out’ that defeated the entire purpose of an exam. Post-COVID, we find ourselves not only hearing, but telling, a different story; open exams are a more conclusive way to demonstrate your academic ability.

I am a History and Politics student and, last year, like many others, my course involved 24-hour online, open exams as part of the summative assignments.

Having a 24-hour window in which I could research, write, and edit essays meant that I could have multiple drafts, each one better than the last, and take breaks to ensure that I could continue to eat, sleep and rest as if it was a normal day which alleviated unimaginable amounts of pressure.

This year, however, the Politics department have reduced the exam periods from 24-hours to just four. Despite the twenty hour decrease in the time we have to complete our exams, the exam requirements remain the same; two essays, complete with referencing and

bibliographies.

In articles written by students themselves, along with reports on online exams (the one by Kerryn Butler-Henderson and Joseph Crawford is very interesting), online examinations where students are given ample time to submit the best work they are capable of producing are favoured far more. Longer online exam periods not only allow students to submit work that is of a much higher quality, but also reportedly come with less assessment anxiety - two hugely positive side effects of a forced and unexpected move away from traditional exams.

Within the Politics department, we have not been given a definitive answer as to why our exams have been reduced so drastically in such a short period of time. After speaking to many students within the department, the general consensus is that four hours simply is not enough time to produce and submit work that we are proud of, especially considering that our academic careers have been devoid of traditional exams for over two years.

Has COVID ruined our ability to take ‘normal’ exams? Perhaps it has. The solution to this, however, is not to throw us back into exams that look more traditional for the sake of moving back to what used to be the norm. I pose the question of whether or not we need a solution. For me, and many others, the 24-hour online exams are the most fair way we have been assessed in our lives. Just because it took a pandemic to get us here, does this mean we need to go back?

BY AMBER HANDLEY

SO FAR, SECOND year has been extremely hectic and fast paced.

Despite moving closer to graduating and being forced to actually become an adult and decide what I want to do with my life, I rather worryingly, still struggle to figure out the correct setting to use on the washing machine.

Apart from dealing with the daily tasks which accompanies living in an actual house like a proper adult, such as what goes in what bin, making sure you don’t exponentially exceed your houses monthly bill cap, and as I have already mentioned, the pressure which comes from doing your washing, second year has evoked the resounding fear in me which accompanies the little phrase, ‘this year counts’.

Despite the pressure of assessments and the struggle to balance work and social life, second year has been full of amazing moments and that’s largely due