University should be a time of discovery and expanding horizons, a time to broaden your mind and education, and to plan for the future. It is also a social experience, a chance to meet people from all walks of life, and where you will form some of the most enduring friendships of your life.
Students living in the Ireland of the housing and accommodation crisis, and the Covid-19 pandemic, have been denied such an experience of university, and with the new academic year about to start, these remain pressing problems - problems very much on the mind of the new Students Union president, Róisín Nic Lochlainn.
Róisín was elected to the post of president earlier this year, taking over from Pádraic Toomey, and will now represent more than 19,000 students at NUIG. She previously held the roles of vice president and welfare and equality officer.
Students in a time of Covid
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Photo:- Mike Shaughnessy
Students will be returning to campus in the coming weeks, at a time when Covid-19 figures are again on the rise. Last year’s controversies over delayed messages to students regarding what format lectures would be in, and the linked issue of accommodation, with students having paid large sums for places they would not be living in as long as the pandemic continued, are something the SU does not want to see repeated.
“None of us anticipated the year that we got,” Róisín tells me as we sit for the interview in Sult, the college bar. “The big issue was accommodation. Colleges had told students to secure accommodation, and that information was sent out last summer. Students did, and they were told classes would be in-person, but then classes had to go online, and people had already paid thousands in fees. With the restrictions, many students couldn’t come to Galway.
“Accommodation is not cheap. People can’t afford to be throwing money down the drain but that is what happened. That was the big thing, trying to get refunds for accommodation, which wouldn’t be an issue in a normal year. I was trying to get €7,000 back for families.”
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Photo:- Mike Shaughnessy
For the coming academic year, the Student’s Union is pushing for a blended approach of on campus, wth some online and remote lectures/classes.
“I’m optimistic that everyone will be back on campus,” says Róisín, “but there will be certain classes that will be online and masks will have to be worn in lectures. We’ve been told that for students who can’t come, that there will be accommodations made for them - if someone has an immuno-compromised family member, or an illness themselves, but the message is whose who can come should come. As such we are encouraging everyone to get vaccinated.
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Photo:- Mike Shaughnessy
“Large lectures are the only thing there is a question mark over at the minute, but in terms of orientation, we will be in Quad handing out Fresher’s Packs, there will be walk’n’talks, and outdoor cinema. Last year’s first years never got that.
“For students, this whole thing was really hard. For Third Years, they’ve only had half a year on campus; the second years have never been on campus; and the first years coming are hopefully going to get some kind of a normal year.
“It’s why I want a re-orientation for those going into second year, as they don’t know where anything is on campus. There needs to be a lot of support for them as they are going to be just as lost as the first years.”
The accommodation crisis
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Photo:- Mike Shaughnessy
While the logistics of managing large numbers on campus during a pandemic is one issue, the problem of accommodation is another, one that is longer term, and with no clear end or solution in sight. Student accommodation rates can range from c€4,000 a year to c€8,000 a year - vast sums for people barely out of their teens, and their parents, to have to consider - and allied to that is the difficulty of demand outstripping supply.
“The housing crisis is dire,” declares Róisín. “It’s demoralizing for students having to spend every single hour of every single day refreshing Daft, Rent, and the Facebook groups looking for somewhere to live. It's depressing. It drains your energy. Many genuinely think they are going to have to drop out, and some have because they can’t find accommodation. We get so many messages and emails saying ‘Can you give us any advice at all? We can’t find any accommodation, we’ve been searching for weeks and months.’”
Róisín is better placed than most to understand the stresses and pressures of trying to find accommodation, and the dispiriting choices the situation forces students to consider.
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Photo:- Mike Shaughnessy
Róisín is originally from Randalstown, County Antrim, and came to NUIG to study sociology and politics. She had no idea what awaited her when trying to find somewhere to live.
“I was the only person in my year who applied down south. NUIG was my top choice, but no one told us about the CAO or SUZI, no one told us about the housing crisis - ‘Oh that’s a Dublin problem,’ my teacher said. We got no information.
“It was so, so difficult to find accommodation. I was desperately trying to find something from Daft, Rent, Facebook groups, I just couldn’t. I thought, ‘I’m not going to be able to go to Galway as I can’t find a house’.
'For a lot of students, the choice is between having to eat for the month, pay rent, or be homeless'
“I found digs eventually, and then moved into private accomodation in town, but then the rents! I was originally going to Queens, I paid my deposit there for an apartment in Belfast. That was £200 a month. Coming here it was €450-500 a month. I thought, ‘I’m not going to be able to afford college’. I’m a working class girl through and through, my parents can’t help me with rents and finances. I thought I was going to have to drop out.
“I went to the financial aid fund, the emergency hardship fund in the college, all of that. I was that vulnerable student that went to the welfare officer for accommodation and financial help and advice. Being that student, and with those experiences, thinking I’d have to drop out, that I wouldn’t get my education because I can't find a roof to put over my head, that’s why I ran for the Students Union.”
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Photo:- Mike Shaughnessy
Two of Róisín’s core beliefs in terms of education are that it should be publicly funded, and that there needs to be purpose built, affordable, student accommodation.
“That’s the key word, affordable,” she said. “NUIG are building their new ‘affordable’ accommodation, but it starts at €800 a month. Working class families can't afford that and surveys during the pandemic showed students were the worst affected financially and mentally by the pandemic. Financially, accommodation is not affordable, and it is not sustainable for students to live. For a lot of students, the choice is between having to eat for the month, pay rent, or be homeless.”
‘I think I’ll stay an activist’
In her post as president, Róisín wil be joined by Cora Clarke (vice-president/welfare and equality officer ) and Clodagh McGivern (vice-president/education officer ) - the first time three women have been elected to the top SU posts. “It’s a nice feeling and we all get along really well, we’re a really good team,” says Róisín.
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Pictured (LtoR ): Cora Clarke (NUIG Students’ Union vice-president/welfare and equality officer ); Róisín NicLochlainn (NUIG Students’ Union president ); and Clodagh McGivern (NUIG Students’ Union vice-president/education officer ). Photo:- Oisín Bradley
Aside from accommodation and Covid, the other issue the three women will be pursuing will be consent. “We are all really passionate about the issue of consent,” she says. “I think having three women leading the SU is really positive in that regard. Obviously it also affects men, non-binary, all genders, but it is predominantly women weho are affected by issues of sexual assault. This is the year that free period products will also be available in all bathrooms, so it’s fitting that this year is the year the SU is all women.”
Finally, a number of prominent individuals have previously held the post of NUIG SU president, most notably Uachtarán na hÉireann, Michael D Higgins, in 1964. Does Róisín see herself becoming involved in politics outside university?
“Not electoral politics!” she says. “I don’t really have any faith in electoral politics, I don’t think it’s achieving anything for working class people. Trade Unionism is what I want to go into. I’ve been involved in politics before, but I think I’ll stay an activist. It’s more advocacy that I’m interested in.”
