Key summary for Durham SU student Groups

• 26th April – Student groups can meet outdoors with up to 30 members at any one time with 2m social distancing required between members of separate households. Evidence of testing twice weekly with tests normally taken 3-4 days apart. Your Covid Officer will need to check testing evidence when attendees arrive for a session. Trips are permitted outdoors with groups of up to 30 as long as you can fulfil the transport & travel arrangements detailed later in this guidance. Sporting activities with continue to follow the requirements of their National Governing Body (NGB).
  • Outdoor activities in outdoor spaces owned by external businesses/organisations separate from the University, including licensed premises, are not permitted from this date. All outdoor activities should take place either on University premises or public land. Locations chosen must enable social distancing and not cause groups to use spaces where a significant sized group would cause concerns with being able to maintain social distancing from others e.g. Durham city centre.
  • Student groups cannot do social activities outdoors within this 30 person framework as the exemption only applies to organised WSE activity and not social activity. WSE activities include: physical activities (exercise classes, hillwalking for example); outdoor guest speaker events; outdoor discussion events etc. Social activities include: drinking events, picnics, outdoor chats / gatherings etc.
  • Student groups still need to let us know about any and all events that you are planning by using the Trip & Event form, we will then review it and let you know if the activity fits into the WSE framework and can go ahead as planned.
  • University indoor spaces will open up to accommodate student group activity with up to 30 members at any one time subject to room capacity. 2m social distancing required between members of separate households and face coverings should be worn where practically possible. Evidence of testing twice weekly with tests normally taken 3-4 days apart. Your Covid Officer will need to check testing evidence when attendees arrive for a session. More information about the re-opening of Dunelm House for WSE activity will be sent out in due course.
  • Outdoor and Indoor volunteering projects can recommence with maximum participation of 30 people at any one time with the requirement to 2m social distance between different households and wearing face masks indoors wherever practically possible. Testing regimes the same as above for this activity type.
  • The 30 person exemption for indoor activity only applies to University spaces, meaning that at this point in the roadmap, indoor activities cannot be permitted in alternative indoor venues outside of the University, including licensed premises, outside of the parameters in the government roadmap.
• 17th May – from this date larger scale events can take place with the condition that they can only operate at 50% of their usual capacity, that 2m social distancing is maintained between different households and that events with audiences must be engaged with in households only. For full details please see the comprehensive timeline.
• 21st June – All associated activity to be released from Covid 19 social restrictions and no Covid controls or restrictions are anticipated from this date onwards.

 

Large Scale Events and Balls

If you are planning any large-scale events, or balls, for when restrictions ease further, then you need to set up a meeting with a member of the Opportunities team as soon as possible to discuss your plans, and definitely before any payments are made, as we need to see and sign off all event contracts and review risk assessments to make sure the events are Covid-safe. You can contact the team on dsu.engagement@durham.ac.uk to arrange a meeting.

Covid Officers

All events happening in a face-to-face capacity regardless of location or venue will still require a trained Covid Officer to be in attendance. We will be offering a number of additional training sessions for those groups who require the training of additional Covid Officers or those who are undertaking face to face activity for the first time. The sessions so far are:

• Friday 23rd April - 15.00-16.00
• Monday 26th April – 14.00-15.00
• Thursday 29th April – 13.00-14.00

You can book onto a session by clicking on the above date and signing up on the website, you will be emailed a Zoom link on the day of the session. We will also be issuing guidance to Covid Officers who have already received training with any updates.

Covid Risk Assessments

For all events a risk assessment including Covid risks and control measures needs to be produced and sent to the Opportunities team for review. One-off event risk assessments should be submitted via the Trip/Event form. Regular event risk assessments can be submitted to dsu.engagement@durham.ac.uk. Guest Speaker event risk assessments should be submitted through the guest speaker request form. In Student Group Resources on the Durham SU website, we have a number of risk assessment templates for both online and in person events – please use these as a starting point for your risk assessment.

Deposits and Contracts

When organising events in external venues you need to ensure that the contract gives you the flexibility to move the event to a later date in the next academic year in case Covid restrictions mean your event has to be cancelled. Durham SU signs off all event contracts so once you have a draft contract please send to dsu.engagement@durham.ac.uk for approval. This flexibility needs to extend beyond the booking of the venue to any significant expenditure on other areas such as external catering, security, or entertainment contracts.

Your ticketing platform for the event needs to be able to offer attendees a timely and efficient refund if the event was to be cancelled or postponed. You are not able to keep ticketing costs for a future event as a number of attendees will likely be graduating and no longer able to attend.

All event deposits must be signed off by Durham SU before being paid. If your event is postponed due to Covid restrictions your deposit will be kept by the venue and therefore you must have sufficient funds in your society account to cover the cost of this deposit and any other deposits required for your event. We will assess your groups accounts when considering whether we are able to pay your deposit/s. If your student group lacks sufficient funds, we recommend teaming up with other groups to help ensure that all deposits can be covered within your accounts.

Transport

The University has released some guidance on student group travel here. For Durham SU student groups, approval to travel will only be considered if the activity / event cannot be held within the local Durham area. Again please submit a Trip & Event form to let us know what you are planning so we can review this and let you know if it is approved.

For those groups who get approval for organising trips or holding events in person please note and follow the below in regard to transport arrangements:

• No car sharing should take place between members of different households.
• When using public transport to access events please use individually or with members of your own household.
• Minibuses and coaches can be accessed by students from separate households as long as the following mitigating safety precautions are applied:
  • Passengers and drivers from separate households should be at least 1m apart (this defines the capacity of the vehicle).
  • Ventilation should be enhanced by opening windows.
  • Face coverings should be worn unless an individual participant has an exemption.

For organised transport such as coaches you will need to obtain the risk assessment which includes Covid risks from the hire company and this will need to be considered by Durham SU before confirming your travel arrangements.

Performing Arts Group Exemptions

The University has also released some guidance here on social-distancing exemptions for performing arts groups, please refer to this if your group does performing arts and cannot socially distance during these activities and apply to the University using the application form included on their guidance page.

Non-Student Engagement with WSE

Non-students can now access student group activities and events however they will need to demonstrate that they have tested in line with the same timescales and requirements as your student members upon arrival at your event. Non-student members will need to access tests privately rather than through the University provisions.

Student Group Storage

You can access your equipment from Dunelm House from Monday 26th April, however if you wish to collect or drop off equipment you will need to complete the online booking request form. We are only able to accept appointments to collect or drop off equipment between 9am-5pm Monday to Friday until further notice. Please wait for confirmation of your date and time slot before visiting.

Study Space

Dunelm House will re-open for study space from Monday 26th April from 8am-6pm Monday – Friday in Riverside, Kingsgate, and the Ballroom.

Commercial Offer

Durham SU is not currently in the position to be able to offer any commercial services. Commercial Services may return from Monday 17th May and more details regarding this will be forthcoming in advance of this date.

Palace Green Marquees

There will be access to a marquee for student groups from April 26th to June 4th. As per the timeline, from April 26th, student groups of up to 30 will be permitted to meet indoors (socially distanced) – for AGMs or for society activity. Indoor space is going to be limited up to June 4th, due to the focus on study rooms. If your student groups would like to access this space, you should contact Megan Rimmer as soon as possible: experiencedurham.support@dur.ac.uk
Racecourse Marquee

There will be a second marquee to host additional SU and College club/society activity - up to 30 students, socially distanced. This will be on the Racecourse and will be available from April 26th up to June 5th. All bookings/enquiries through Megan Rimmer: experiencedurham.support@dur.ac.uk

College Bars for SG Events

From 26^th April college bars will be open for bookings outdoors but only to people living within the same household. From 17^th May they will be open for indoor activities but again only for people within the same household, or for up to 30 people for events outdoors.

University Bookable spaces

There will be no University bookable spaces, including lecture/seminar rooms, for Wider Student Experience activities until at least after the 4th June as the spaces are being used for other purposes including, study space. Arrangements for after this date will be confirmed in a few weeks' time. 

Planning student group activities for Epiphany term

With a national lockdown in place and most students not returning to University, unfortunately we need to confirm that student group activities will be online only for Epiphany term.

We know it’s a difficult time for everyone and it’s disheartening to regularly have plans altered. If any of this is affecting your mental health or wellbeing, please do check out the resources here.

We know from experience that your online activities are still an incredibly important resource for keeping students connected and entertained during this time. In fact, the Independent recently ran an article about how important student societies are for helping with isolation, so please know that your efforts are appreciated.

We’ll also still be running the online Activities Fair from 30-31 January. You should already have details on how to take part and these can be found in the student group emails and on the Exec Facebook group. At our first ever virtual fair in October, SU student groups achieved an incredible 19,673 sign-ups in total! We’re really excited to see you continue that success later this month.

As always, thank you for all your patience and perseverance during these uncertain times, and good luck for the term ahead.

Unfortunately, there will continue to be no in person extracurricular activities for the rest of this term. This is the case across the University and is in line with the move to mainly online teaching for the end of term.

We hope this will help protect students and their families who are intending to travel home for the Christmas holidays by reducing the risk of catching the virus before travelling.

We know many of you will be keen to start making plans for your groups after Christmas. As soon as we’re able to, we will provide you with further information on what we expect groups to be able to do in Epiphany Term.

What we do know, and are excited about, is that student groups will be able to take part in our next virtual fair for all students. The fair will be a similar format to the Freshers’ Fair and is another chance to make sure as many Durham students as possible know about your group! We’ll send out further details on how to get involved soon.

Finally, we want to say how grateful we are to all our student groups for how you’ve dealt with the constant changes to your circumstances this year. And we hope that you will continue your activities online in the creative ways you have already been doing.

Unfortunately, now that we have entered another lockdown, we’re sad to confirm that all student group face-to-face activity will need to stop in line with government guidance. This will last until at least 2 December. 

We know how important student groups are for bringing students together and for looking after your mental health during a difficult time, so we want to make sure we’re supporting you to continue your activities online. 

How we’re supporting you: 

Give It a Go Online – We’ll be giving groups the opportunity to run more Give It a Go events from 16 November, which provide you with extra publicity from the SU and give the wider student body the chance to try your activities for free. They are a great way to reach different students and hopefully get new members! 

Publicity support – Take advantage of some of the ways we can help publicise your groups here. The Student Group Communications Plan currently contains many of the extra options we gave you for Freshers’ 2020, but we’re happy to extend many of these now to help you get your activities seen by as many students as possible. 

Share your ideas – We’re really proud of the ways you have already adapted your events online, and we want to make sure you can learn from each other’s activities. Go over to our Freshers’ Instagram account @durhamfreshers20 to share your ideas and get some new ones! 

Planning events during lockdown – We want to keep Durham virtually buzzing during the next few weeks. This is a very different lockdown to the first one, and many students will be still living in Durham and looking for things to do – so please send some of your exec along to Anna’s Zoom discussions to chat about social media tips, share ideas, explain problems and let us know how you’re doing! Please register as soon as possible for the session which most suits your scope of activities (links below), so you can receive the details in plenty of time.  

Monday 9 November 10am Professional Development: 

https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0tdu2qrzIsHNQaw9G3TLxzYSSCozwEIvJE  

Monday 9 November 12pm Active:  

https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcrcuCtrDspG9KHbgyI0nq6AinMUGeA1PYP 

Monday 9 November 1pm Cultural and Faith: 

https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIrc-yupj4vG9HjyPxySL3xysDjMzQVOgx2 

Monday 9 November 2pm Political and Causes: 

https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIpf-CuqDkjH9Sfw4n80RMQjzVHfpKNfC3X 

Monday 9 November 4pm Interests: 

https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAofu2vqDMjHdZ2cPEsKrLlWJ5eBA0B-VLY  

Tuesday 10 November 10am Academic: 

https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEodOqvpz4iHdVr2UR2pF--ngLAj9Ofp56Q  

Tuesday 10 November 11am Associations: 

https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0vcuugpjMiH9OW1oNbE_xdDiW_X73_I9Uo  

Tuesday 10 November 12pm Media: 

https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJElceuprDkrH9B_Fqi0KJ8BPR1R1hEpgkIM 

 

Following the two-week freeze on activity across campus, we appreciate the patience and ingenuity shown by all our groups and have enjoyed working successfully with Experience Durham to deliver another brilliant Fresher’s Fair, which saw over 16,000 student group sign-ups.

With over 230 student groups currently operating within our umbrella, Durham SU exists to champion diversity and we embrace the full spectrum of activity within our organisation, from hummus appreciation to career development. Above all else, I do not want to underestimate the detrimental impact which loneliness and isolation during the darkest months of the year will have upon our students. It is with this in mind that I am supporting a return of face-to-face activity, where it can be done safely and where it is worth the effort, so that we can have maximum quality interactions and new friendships between students with minimum harm caused. We must do this in line with the government guidelines and we must be proactive in minimising risk – student safety is paramount.

We all exist within the same community and we must all work together to keep that community safe. Much of this plan relies heavily upon the conduct of our entire community. We cannot treat our various organisations of colleges, Experience Durham, Durham SU associations and societies, or the wider residency of Durham as wholly separate when they are made up of an intersecting pool of students. If any one of these organisations creates unsafe environments which causes a further spread of disease, all our activities will be jeopardised – and that’s not to dismiss the random nature of transmission which we essentially cannot predict. We are therefore working closely with Experience Durham, the University and the colleges to ensure there is consistency across the board.

PHASE ONE - a return of our organised active fitness groups

From 12 October, Durham SU has worked with Experience Durham to devise a list of legal and safe activities which can viably begin operating. These groups will be invited to nominate a Covid Safety Officer (to receive online training) and submit a risk assessment which will include details of how they are ensuring their group operates mindfully of Covid. Where we are confident they have correctly addressed the risks, we will begin a trial period in which each approved active group will be given one hour room-booking slot from the week commencing 12 October. We would treat this as a trial period, where groups would be encouraged to identify risks and make changes to ensure they operate as safely as possible, before being allowed to increase the frequency of their activities. All non-active groups would be asked to remain operating online, although some may be granted permission to meet under close management if it is essential for their group’s objectives.

PHASE TWO – a return of some activities which are not active but rely on face to face

Art workshops and media groups will be supported to begin operating from 26 October where possible, with the same risk assessment, Covid Safety Officer and trial period as in Phase One. We will then be looking to increase the scope of groups which can operate from 2 November. At this stage, we will be asking all our groups whose regular core activities rely exclusively upon face-to-face interaction to submit their risk assessments for any activities they would wish to run and believe to be safe. Many of these will still be impossible at this stage, but we will have a clearer picture at this point and will be able to review our student group activity.

PHASE THREE – considering whether any specific events can be allowed

If transmission rates and infection rates are low enough and we have not had to reverse either of the previous stages, the final proposed phase will commence from the 23 November. In this phase, student groups which are willing to plan one-off in-person events or trips could potentially operate. At this point, we would work with DUCK and other groups that function primarily for one-off events. We would also ask groups to understand that any event might have to be cancelled, but with significant planning and a reactive approach, and dependent upon the success of our previous stages, student groups could have one event, in line with the government regulations, this term.

If you have any questions about your groups, our Opportunities Team are available to help at dsu.engagament@durham.ac.uk. With the team being affected by furlough arrangements, it may take longer than usual for you to receive a response, but please be assured we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Student groups are one of the best things about Durham. You bring students together around shared interests, creating opportunities to learn and develop. We understand your communities are more important than ever, and we’re so proud of the ways you have already adapted your groups to a challenging situation.

We want to help you do as much as possible with your groups this year. We want you to continue to grow your membership, and hold activities that you’re proud of. But we need to do so in a way that takes into account the impact Covid-19 is continuing to have on our lives.

As many of you will have read, from 18 September Durham has entered local lockdown restrictions. Everyone has a responsibility to look after each other and to follow these regulations. And unfortunately, that means these regulations will also affect your student groups.

Your groups are affected as follows:

1. You must follow government guidance – you cannot mix with anyone other than your household, including in pubs and cafés or in each other’s houses.
2. This means that until Monday 12 October, student groups (in line with Durham University’s approach) must not hold face-to-face activity across households – this includes exercise classes, training sessions, events, trips, rehearsals, auditions, performances, workshops etc. You can continue to meet online and plan for activity that way. Please note there are no exceptions to this, so unfortunately no face-to-face activities can take place in person before this point.
3. Durham SU will provide further guidance for activities that take place after 12 October, in line with the latest government updates. We’ll provide this information as soon as we can.

Following these rules is the best thing we can all do to help keep your groups, your members, and our community safe.

We appreciate it’s frustrating not to be able to do exactly what you planned when you volunteered to lead your group – it’s frustrating for us too. But we’re also confident that you can rise to the challenge, and continue to create activities online that bring students together around your interests, building lasting friendships and connections.

Thank you for continuing to bring your creativity and your communities to Durham students.