Unforeseen Circumstances

Last week I received a letter from the university, explaining that due to “unforeseen circumstances” the Brangwyn Hall ‘is unavailable’ for the graduation ceremonies. After a bit of research it was discovered that it was affected by the planned national council strikes on 16th & 17th July.

We would instead be moved to a “marquee” on Fulton House Lawn on campus (360 degree panorama of the site – requires QuickTime). While I can understand the reasons for the strike taking place, and accept that the Brangwyn is unavailable – my problem is with the replacement location. There are plenty of locations in Swansea where a graduation could take place – the Liberty Stadium, the LC, or even in front of Swansea University’s Abbey. But Fulton House lawn is not a good solution – it’s the middle of a roundabout!

This place on campus is probably the ugliest part of the university. Fulton House is an eyesore and it is surrounded by building sites.

Again, Swansea University put its own profit ahead of its students – without whom, the university would not exist.

Press Release

A bit later on, I found a Facebook group with many other students feeling the same way. I decided that someone needed to make a bit of a fuss. Charlie put together a press release which was sent to a number of news agencies, including BBC Wales and The Evening Post. Both ran stories on Monday this week (here and here).

The people at the BBC did a really good job –getting in contact with Unison, Swansea Council and the University. They discovered that earlier that week, Unison had agreed to exempt the Brangwyn Hall from the strike action so that the graduations could take place. There is no-longer any reason for the graduations to take place in a tent on the lawn. However the university had decided not to move the ceremony back to its traditional home – another appalling decision.

The university has defended its action, stating that Fulton House lawn is regularly used for ‘high profile’ events. However I wouldn’t exactly call the badly organised Fresher’s Fayre or Bierkeller ‘high profile’.

With the first graduation ceremonies starting on Monday (mine is on Friday), I hope that I am pleasantly surprised. With any luck the university will quash its reputation for bad organisation and piss-poor decisions – although judging by a friend’s Facebook profile which describes Fulton House lawn as ‘waterlogged’, I don’t hold out much hope.

Either way, the university’s insistence that the event will be a ‘memorable occasion’ will be provided true – although maybe not in the way they want.

We’ll see next week.

Just over a week ago I was given the result of all this hard work – a Master of Engineering in Computing with Upper Second Class Honours (a 2:1).  I’m absolutely amazed that I manged to get a 2:1, especially when you consider all the additional extra-curricular activities I’ve undertaken during the last few years (my freelance work, the waterfront, etc.).  Its been a really difficult 4 years, and I’m glad its finally finished, but it was definitely worth it!

Of course, this doesn’t mean I’m a graduate – for that I’ll have to wait for my degree ceremony on July 18th!

Since getting my results, we’ve all packed up and moved back to our respective homes.  I’ve spent the last few days helping everyone clear up the house to make room for the huge amount of stuff I’ve accumulated while living in Swansea (its amazing really how much stuff I have).

Today was the last day of freedom – tomorrow I start my job as a full time developer at a web design company in Cardiff.

Now that my time in education is finally over (and partially because we found this while tidying up the study at home), I thought it would be nice to look back at when I started school for the first time.  Below is a scan of the front cover of my very first school report from June 1991 (when I was just 4 years old).  Even back then I obviously knew that I wanted to work in IT!

So, here is a quick – and completely uninteresting – update:

July
- Attended Charlie’s graduation and graduation ball
- Went to an extremely wet Global Gathering in Stratford-upon-Avon
- Worked full time at a web development company in Cardiff as I have for every summer since Y10

August
- More working at said web development company

September
- Charlie & I spent a few days in Paris
- I moved into my new place in Swansea
- Charlie moved into her new place in Cardiff
- Discovered that the university had pretty much forgotten about our course and we had to organise it all

October
- Finished organising the course – although many important details still haven’t been sorted out
- Lots of boring university work
- Lots of web development work

November
- Even more boring university work
- Lots more web development work

So, as you can see, it’s been a pretty boring few months with lots of work but nothing particularly interesting happening. Never the less, I am intending to get back into the habit of blogging regularly.

Hopefully my next blog entry should be a bit more interesting.