NUI Galway Students’ Union (SU ) has today launched a plan to help students connect with each other in what will be an unusual academic year due to Covid-19.
Each option allows students to get involved with the work of the SU during the year while also having a chance to make friends on campus and build connections all the time adhering to social distancing.
The plans all include online and socially distant offline options which can be adapted to the Government guidelines in place at the time.
NUI Galway Students’ Union president Pádraic Toomey said “We are very excited to launch our plans to help our students find friends and a sense of belonging at NUIG this year. This will be a strange year but we know that projects like our Charity Challenge will help students to meet new people, have fun, and also raise funds for charity.
"We are also very excited to elect more members to our SU officer team and our class reps this semester. So many students have become more politically active during the pandemic and the SU is the ideal place to channel that energy to bring about real change at NUI Galway.”
The strands of the plan are:
- Charity Challenge – each month students will take part on a different charity challenge to raise funds for the SU charities.
- Event crew – the crew will organise events during term to give students a chance to meet up on or off line.
- Class representatives – each class elects a class rep to be their voice.
- Welfare crew – the crew will organise campaigns on student issues such as sexual health, mental health, and equality issues.
- Elections – there are currently five vacant officer positions to be filled.
SU vice-president/welfare and equality officer Róisín Nic Lochlainn added; “We want to highlight these ways to get involved in university life to all students and their parents who might be worried that loneliness could set in when more lectures are online this year. Along with the welfare and events crew there are lots of support systems available for students including our own CÉIM peer learning programming.
"NUIG sports clubs, student societies, and the ALIVE Volunteering programme will also be working to ensure students have as many chances as possible to make connections outside of lectures.”
