NUI Galway plays the Grinch in exams’ pantomime  

Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column with Dara Bradley

Covid-19 may put the kibosh on pantomime season but fair play to NUI Galway for filling any potential void left by NPHET’s Grinch-like restrictions.

The university’s decision to proceed with in-person exams – and the Students Union’s reaction – has made up for the loss of any festive theatrical entertainment.

The SU’s stunt of dressing-up as Santa Claus and presenting NUIG President Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh with a ‘naughty list’ was innovative slapstick that proved a social media hit.

But there was a serious message too. The SU did what it was elected to do – represent its members by advocating for their health and safety.

Galway’s third level students aren’t necessarily popular and this campaign didn’t generate widespread support among the wider population.

As students advocated for NUIG to put exams online, people wondered why they hadn’t been so concerned about catching Covid-19 while getting locked and acting the maggot in Christmas jumpers during ‘Christmas Day’ – a city centre drink-fest – during November.

And in fairness, it’s hard to have sympathy for a group who lobbied to get back to in-person learning on campus but who are back-tracking now. If you can attend lectures in person, surely you should have no problem attending exam halls?

It’s a fair point, but it’s also an argument that misses the point.

The SU was correct. On balance, NUIG was wrong. It should have followed the lead of University College Cork, which moved exams online, “as a precautionary measure” to “remove any ambiguity and anxiety that students may have in relation to sitting in-person examinations during the current wave of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Some accounting and engineering exams have professional accreditations and that’s why on-campus exams are preferred by NUIG.

And let’s be honest, it’s easier to cheat during online assessments than it is in crowded exam halls with invigilators watching. But some NUIG lecturers have shifted their modules to take-home assessments, which students are given a few hours or a few days to complete.

“Yes, they can ‘cheat’ but the learning and quality of submissions have been far greater doing it this way instead of regurgitating onto a page in an exam hall,” confided one NUIG lecturer.

Most staff were mortified by the negative publicity that this avoidable controversy created.

NUIG’s threatening missive to the SU only added fuel to the fire.

The tone of the letter expressing “disappointment” with the SU, was condescending. The content – requesting the SU delete “potentially threatening” and “inappropriate” tweets – had more than a whiff of censorship to it. Hinting that the SU may have breached copyright with their Santa stunt smacked of corporate bully-boy tactics.

On Monday, news filtered out from students and invigilators – denied by NUIG – that exam halls were closer to 100% capacity than the 40%-60% promised. It even made it onto RTÉ Radio One’s Liveline – the university lost the PR battle.

NUIG took measures to make exam halls safe, but the reality is that in-person exams are potential super-spreader events. Attending lectures is optional; exams are a requirement to get on.

Many students – some of them unvaccinated – have multiple exams, and chose not to defer them until April, because they will already have Semester Two exams to sit then. Instead, they took a calculated risk. And that means potentially far more young people catching the virus and bringing it home to their loved ones this Christmas.

(Photo: A member of NUIG Students Union dressed as Daidí na Nollag presents university president President Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh with a ‘naughty list’ as part of stunt to embarrass management into moving exams online).

This is a shortened preview version of Bradley Bytes. To read more, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.