Graduates want ceremonies on NUI Galway campus

The head of the student body at NUI Galway has called on the university to ensure that an in-person ceremony takes place for this year’s graduates – with only an online function currently planned for.

President of the Students’ Union, Róisín Nic Lochlainn, said plans were already in place at DCU for the classes of 2021 to graduate on campus early next year, in the context of Covid restrictions.

However, the only plan at NUIG was to allow graduates from 2020 – the group that missed out on last year’s ceremonies – to have an in-person ceremony later this year or early next year.

“I have already asked the registrar for clarity on this, and if it would be possible to have an event, maybe with a marquee outdoors. We are meeting with the Dean later this week and one of the things we will be discussing is graduations. We know that the regulations allow for crowds of up to 200 outdoors.

“It is such an important event for students and their families,” said Ms Nic Lochlainn.

The lack of clarity was further confusing, she continued, as thousands of students would be returning to campus in a few weeks, raising questions as to why it would be unsafe to allow graduation ceremonies proceed.

“We are questioning how the university will be brining hundreds of new first year students on campus for orientation in a few weeks, but they won’t bring students who have paid thousands in fees over the last number of years back to graduate,” she added.

Meanwhile, she said the majority of students were looking forward to the return of on-campus classes in September, after two years of upheaval due to Covid restrictions.

However, that presented a series of difficulties, particularly as many of those who started college last year never had to opportunity to attend in person.

“From what we’re seeing, the vast majority of students are really looking forward to coming back and making up for lost time. There is, of course, a group of students who are a bit nervous and they have asked that accommodation be made for them to allow them to continue to attend without coming on campus.

“We have asked that accommodation be made for people who are immunocompromised and for students with disabilities and we have got confirmation that they will be accommodated,” said Ms Nic Lochlainn. “Those who can come on campus should.”

A large proportion of those coming to the university this year will be doing so with either limited or no experience of being there, she said.

“I believe we’ll need a reorientation for second years who don’t know where anything is, but third years as well who only got about half a year before the Covid lockdown [in early 2020].

And while many were looking forward to the return, the issues with securing suitable accommodation in the city continued this year, said Ms Nic Lochlainn.

“The trajectory of the housing crisis means it has just been getting worse every year. I was Welfare Officer last year, but even from being a student myself, I know it’s getting worse every year.

“There are so many students currently looking for accommodation and they can’t get anything. A lot of them are emailing hundreds of advertisers on Daft.ie and even with the few they are getting a response from, they are completely unaffordable,” said the SU President.

“The Government and the university need to realise that not every student has parents who can pay rent for them and the situation is not getting better – they need to build purpose-built affordable accommodation because it is pricing people out of education,” she added.