As you will all be aware organisations are having to take steps to minimise infection risk and maximise public safety. The Students’ Union holds the safety of students and the local community as a high priority and as such we have deemed it necessary to review our activity and take a number of precautions in light of Government and University guidance. We are devastated to have to rearrange or pause activity and we are deeply sorry for any inconvenience or frustration that may be caused. We will continue to liaise and meet with the University around Covid-19 over the next few weeks and will be working closely with them to minimise disruption and impact for students.
The latest Government guidance is:
- Anyone with either a high temperature or a new and continuous cough, or living with someone with either of those 2 symptoms should stay at home for fourteen days.
- Stop non-essential contact with others
- Stop all unnecessary travel.
- Work from home where possible
- Avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other such social venues.
Currently the University has made advisory statements as follows:
- All face to face delivery of learning and teaching is suspended from the end of today. Staff and students should therefore not attend any classes (lectures, tutorials, laboratory classes, seminars, etc.) for the remainder of this academic year.
- All relevant undergraduate and postgraduate taught teaching will be delivered via online platforms as announced from Monday 23 March.
- Our academic departments will be in touch with students later this week with subject-specific information about the new teaching arrangements being put in place.
- All current assessments should be submitted online with all deadlines extended by 1 week for this term. All deadlines for term 3 remain the same.
- Personal tutors will continue to be available in their advertised hours through electronic channels.
- We have advised research students to contact their supervisors on how to continue their studies through this period. We will give you further guidance on this within the next 24 hours.
UNION ACTIVITY, GUIDANCE AND CONTINGENCY
Students’ Union activity
As a Students’ Union we have explored the full range of activity that we have planned to deliver up until the end of April against the guidance above with a view to what can be provided and what impact any change of activity might have for the organisation and for the students involved. We feel that it would be irresponsible of us to continue to facilitate activity that goes against the guidance above where there is no critical need to do so. Additionally, as we are in a position to enable staff to work from home, especially in light of events that we have been required to cancel, that we should do so with immediate effect from today until Monday 6th of April in the first instance.
Contingencies have been considered for all major events and planned activity. The outcomes are as follows:
Aber 7s: At this stage it is likely that it will be inadvisable for large gatherings to take place that involve a range of travelling participants by the start of May. To avoid later cancellation Aber 7s 2020 will be postponed with a view to finding an alternative date later in the year. All participating teams will have the option of a full refund if they do not wish to wait for a new date or take part on the date that is decided.
Students’ Union Advice Service: Students can continue to access the service remotely by calling 01970 621712 or emailing union.advice@aber.ac.uk. The service will operate video calling/skype consultations as required during the usual drop-in times of 10am-12pm and 1pm-3pm, Monday to Thursday.
Academic Representaton: Staff will continue to administrate the Rep system and can be contacted by Reps remotely. Anyone with queries can contact Amy on alg51@aber.ac.uk
Student Voice and Democracy: All Democratic meetings will be cancelled until the end of April but students can continue to submit student ideas for SU policy online at any time via our website.
Volunteering and the Aber Award: All volunteer projects will be cancelled with immediate effect but students can still log their volunteering hours online as usual. Students that have logged hours will still be eligible for the Aber Award and we will be looking at options to give out certificates at a later date.
SU training: The Students’ Union will be exploring possible ways to deliver some Club and Society Committee training online but face to face training will be cancelled until an appropriate date.
CLUBS AND SOCIETIES INFORMATION
All opportunities staff will be working from home and will be available via email in the first instance,
Lucie: leg13@aber.ac.uk
Emily: ems47@aber.ac.uk
Tom: thm35@aber.ac.uk
Club/Society/UMCA training, meetings, socials and events: As the guidance prohibits groups of people meeting together, all Clubs and Societies and UMCA must cancel training, meetings, socials and events until further notice. Minibuses are also grounded - all groups with a booking will be receiving an email as soon as possible.
Club/Society/UMCA Elections: As the guidance prohibits groups of people meeting together, Clubs, Societies and UMCA elections can’t be coordinated in a group meeting. Instead, the SU will be coordinating a way to support student groups to enable members to stand for election and to run their elections online over the next week.
Sports Awards, Societies Awards and Staff and Student Awards: As the guidance prohibits groups of people meeting together, it will not be possible for the Awards evenings to go ahead as planned. We will still be taking nominations and will shortlist and decide winners remotely. We aim to announce the winners on similar dates to the awards and will look to reschedule events if and when possible.
SU reception services:
Paying money in: Please pay any money in directly to our Bank. The details are:
BANK: HSBC ACCOUNT NAME: Aberystwyth University Students’ Union
SORT CODE: 40-08-09 ACCOUNT NUMBER: 11210262
PAID IN BY: Use your name and your Club/Soc name
Please photograph your paying in slip and email to sufstaff@aber.ac.uk
Payment requests: Payment requests can be sent via your Treasurer or President emailed electronically with photographs of receipts to sufstaff@aber.ac.uk
Varsity/Socs Fest Stash: Once the SU staff return to work in the building we will have packs available for pick up.
All SU staff will be working but continuing their activities from home and working remotely Monday to Friday until at least Monday 6th April. Please don’t hesitate to contact any of us about any SU matter as we’re keen to keep going and to be as supportive and helpful as we possibly can. All staff contacts can be found here: https://www.abersu.co.uk/aboutaber/abersustaff/
If you have any questions please email union@aber.ac.uk