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.

Been very busy the last few days.  Helped Charlie move out of her house on Sunday.  Took a while to clean, but I think we left it in a pretty good condition.

Had a meeting on Monday at Hereford Sixth Form with a company who wanted to set up an alumni website for the college.  Unfortunately the meeting didn’t go very well, and the costs were much more than the college can afford.  The final decision is yet to be made (and I won’t be involved in making it), but it was good to be able to get my views across to the marketing team.

Anyway, lots to do and many things to pack.  I’m starting work on Monday morning - working at the web development company again.  Will be interesting to see which projects I will be assigned to this time.

Damn, wanted to get it over and done with, now have to wait for another 3 weeks.

The last one went really well I think. Despite there being a fantastic mistake in the paper.

Got a very busy week ahead.  work leaving party for Mark Overy on Wednesday, trip to Oakwood on Thursday, Sarah’s “last supper” party on Friday and SUCS beach party on Saturday.  Then the week after that we’ve got the Summer Ball again.  Should be a fun end of term.

Charlie’s headed to Plymouth for a few days to take the first batch of her stuff home.  I think I need to spend a bit of time having a clear out and sort out the mountains of unopened post thats sitting in my draws.  Oh well, I will get round to that soon.

Back to revision I think.

Dai

The first attempt at raising the motion was cancelled due to some last minute problems, but this evening it was heard at the SGM. After a bit of debate about a badly worded point (despite numerous people proof reading it, I’d made a mistake, doh!), the motion was passed.

This isn’t the end of my aim of making the sites more accessible, this motion will be followed up by an article in Monday’s Waterfront newspaper – written by Charlie Duff and supported by Discovery – the disability support charity operating in the university. I’ll post more about that as soon as it is released.

I’ve copied in the motion text below for anyone who is interested.

The Union Notes that:

1. There are 2 million people with sight problems in the UK (Source: RNIB 2007)
2. Sight problems and motor problems can both cause difficulties in using websites
3. The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 makes it a legal requirement for all websites to be accessible by October 1999
4. The Internet standards body - W3C - runs a website accessibility initiative that provides 3 levels of accessibility - A, AA and AAA.
5. The RNIB recommends that websites should aim for the ‘AA’ standard
6. Many university departments make use of websites such as Blackboard for providing course documents and submitting assignments

The Union Believes that:

1. The Students’ Union website at www.swansea-union.co.uk does not comply with any of the three levels of accessibility
2. Other SU websites such as the Summer Ball 2007 website also do not comply with these standards
3. Swansea University websites such as Blackboard and Voyager do not comply with these standards
4. Failing to comply with these standards makes university life difficult for disabled students
5. Owners of websites that do not comply are open to legal action under the DDA

The Union Resolves to:

1. Ensure its website(s) comply with all UK laws regarding Website Accessibility to at least ‘AA’ standard
2. Lobby the University to maintain and improve the accessibility of its website
3. Lobby the University to ensure services such as Voyager, Blackboard and the Intranet comply with a minimum of ‘AA’ standard

These next few weeks are going to be mad.

On another note, the end of term is finally here. I am at home in Abergavenny for a week or so before heading back to the fun that is Swansea and a 100 page dissertation. 6 weeks before it is due in – oops. I really need to crack on with it.

For a bit of light entertainment, check out NewsBiscuit.com – it filled a few hours of procrastination earlier.

That’s all for now!