May Assembly: Covid-19, tuition fees and academic support

Thursday 21-05-2020 - 16:31
Assembly

Reported by Anna Marshall, Assembly Media Observer

Members of Assembly met for their first online meeting to discuss the Students’ Union’s response to the Covid-19 crisis last week, passing various proposals to reflect the changed circumstances for Durham students.

Predictably, the overall theme was adjusting to the coronavirus crisis.

Getting refunds of tuition fees
SU President Kate McIntosh addressed student reluctance to pay fees for services they hadn’t received, especially with 2019-20 being the year of strikes and the virus. 

“The University wants to ensure their financial stability in the coming years, and that has meant they’re not currently considering refunds. We need to be part of the national campaigns for this, but it isn’t one of our top concerns right now, because it’s a long-term, national issue,” McIntosh told Assembly, directing individuals to the SU Advice Service if they wanted to personally claim against the University.

Adding to this, Postgraduate Academic Officer David Evans responded, “I don’t understand why the University is continuing to charge full fees, other than that they are allowed to. I recommend people make notes of every opportunity that they have missed, keep notes of what you have lost as a result of your disruption this year. Use our Advice Service, so that we can help you address this either as an individual or as a cohort. Keep note of the things you were sold this education on, and a complaint is a route to challenge the idea that people should be paying full fees.” 

Covid-19 University response
The SU Officers’ joint motion set to outline the hard parameters within which the university could change in response to Covid-19. This motion outlined the specifics of what could change, whilst cementing a stance against changes which would remove students’ rights. 

Protecting disability support
Many of the changes which had been brought about by the pandemic have led to huge improvements in accessibility. Students with Disabilities Association (SwDA) noted the sudden shift which had led to concessions which had long been refused being granted across the board. In line with a current National Union of Students motion, Assembly therefore passed a motion to “get a silver-lining out of the pandemic,” according to Jess Madden. Undergraduate Academic Officer Sam Johnson-Audini added, “The university sometimes uses the fact that there is online teaching to shirk their responsibilities, [if you see this happening] please report that to us.”

Core position on academic support
Sam Johnson-Audini proposed the increased pressure being put on academic advisors to act as students’ first port of call for advice was problematic. The reality of the importance of healthy staff-student relationships should require some form of mental health training. Assembly therefore passed a motion, which included lobbying the University to deliver mental health training to academics. 

Beyond Covid-19
There was some discussion of the SU’s recently released democracy health check, which has caused controversy. Silas Welsh criticised the one-sided nature of the report, which relied mostly upon SU Officers and employees’ interviews. Welsh proposed questions to the current Officers about the report, which the Chair suggested should be answered in the next Assembly.

A new type of Assembly
In a tricky position, Assembly Chair Jonny McCausland organised the new Zoom format, which you can view as a video here. Despite the deafening silence of muted microphones before the meeting began, things soon became less awkward and quickly adjusted to near-normality – aside from a short disappearance of the Chair due to signal problems. Members even commented on the overall success of this changed format, which led to some of the smoothest discussions of the year.


To watch May’s Assembly in full, click here and select 14 May 2020.

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Anna Marshall, assembly, Covid-19, Coronavirus,

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