Monday 04-05-2020 - 13:43

Your SU might be running a little differently, but we’re still here for you through Covid-19.
With Dunelm House empty, your Students’ Union Officers and staff are working from home. They’re still here to stand up for your rights and support you through this challenging time.

Some of the ways your SU is now working are necessarily different. And we have taken the difficult decision to place some permanent staff and all student staff on furlough. This is a temporary government measure aimed at supporting organisations across the country, who have lost revenue due to Covid-19.

We’re confident, however, that our core services will continue running for students and that we can still support you throughout Covid-19.

We’re the champion of every Durham student, and that won’t change.

Service updates – TL;DR
Our Advice Service has increased capacity as need has grown, and our Officers are busy lobbying for student interest as the University makes fast-moving changes. We’re also working on online versions of activities like student group events and Assembly. But Dunelm House is closed, some of us are on furlough, some of us have caring responsibilities and we’re all adjusting to working from home – so some queries may take us longer to respond to than usual. That said, we’re still here to champion all Durham students and support you through this challenging time.

Update

Since we adapted our strategy (see below), we've made some good progress towards those goals. Read about how your SU has been helping you through Covid-19 here.

Check these updates to services across the Students’ Union for more detail.

The building

In alignment with government guidelines, Dunelm House is currently closed.

Most of our services are now being offered online – find details below.

Advice Service

The SU Advice Service is operating with increased capacity and is here for all your Covid-19 enquiries, whether you’re worried about the effect on your housing situation, changes to your education, or anything else.

You can contact the Advice Service via one of the following methods, or browse the online resources available here.

Phone (available 09:00-17:00): 07922648802*
Email: dsu.advice2@durham.ac.uk
Online form: click here

If your enquiry would be best helped through an appointment with an adviser, you’ll be offered a call over the phone or via Skype.
*Please note: the Advice Service helpline is not a crisis number, in an emergency please use 999 as usual.

Riverside and Kingsgate Bar and Cafés

Our food and drink outlets, following government regulations, are currently closed.

Supporting student groups

Many of the SU’s student groups are continuing to offer events and activities remotely. Try following your favourite groups on social media, or check you’re signed up to their mailing lists to stay in the loop.

If you have an enquiry regarding your student group, please contact dsu.engagement@durham.ac.uk as usual.

Printing and binding

Unfortunately, we are unable to currently offer a printing and binding service.

Your Student Officers are standing up for your rights

Your five Student Officers are all still working and contactable via email or their Officer social media accounts.

They’re working hard in University meetings and committees and lobbying in the community to make sure that the changes to your education and wider Durham student experience are made with students’ interests at the centre. These changes are happening quickly in response to the crisis and the University decision-making discussions are happening thick and fast – so the Officers may struggle to respond to your emails quickly.

But your stories, problems and experiences are the examples and narratives that they use to lobby for your rights so please don’t stop reaching out – if you need a response, please also contact a staff member or the Advice Service, depending on your query.

Keeping in touch

Students’ Union staff can be contacted via their email addresses, available on the meet the team page here. Please do not try to contact staff via their phone numbers, as these are no longer available.

Similarly, the reception email address (dsu.reception@durham.ac.uk) is available for general enquiries, but not the phone number.

You can also contact Durham SU’s social media accounts as usual.

Please note: with many staff members working different hours, some teams working at a reduced capacity, and some staff members receiving an increased number of Covid-19 related enquiries, it may take a little longer than usual for us to respond. Please be assured that we are still here for you and will get back to you as soon as possible.

Assembly

A Covid-19 themed Assembly will be held online on 14 May. Your student representatives will gather to discuss and vote on motions that address the changes being made to your experience at Durham University due to Covid-19. 

Officer updates shall be shared on the SU’s Facebook channel prior to Assembly, along with a form that will allow you to submit questions to be asked at Assembly. You can also speak to your student representatives if there’s an issue you’d like bringing up.

As usual, the Assembly papers will also be made publicly available online before Assembly.

Student staff

With our building closed, and the services usually run by our student staff currently unavailable, we’ve taken the difficult decision to place all student staff members on furlough.
We have had productive discussions with the GMB Union to ensure this is done in the best way possible for our staff.

Our strategy

In 2018, we launched our current strategy, Forwards. It outlined how we envisaged making sure every student has the power and opportunity to transform their time at Durham.
Of course, the strategy didn’t foresee the disruption caused by Covid-19. And we would no longer be representing students’ interests if we continued to try to achieve the exact same goals in the exact same way we set out to in 2018.

So, we’ve built on existing work and the key areas originally identified in our strategy to create new goals that will be in place until August 2020. We’re confident these will help us adapt to support students effectively during this difficult time.

You can now check out our updated strategic objectives here.