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Original poster

Why are we okay with students being locked up in their dorms?

651 replies

JKRowlingIsMyQueen · 28/09/2020 19:05

I just heard about the students in Manchester who are not allowed to leave their dorms.

Why on earth is this allowed to happen? So the rest of us who are not students are allowed to get pissed in a pub, get on a plane and travel abroad and back etc., but if you are a student you are not allowed to LEAVE your dorms?

What science are these kind of rules following? The science of Boris needing more ammo to blame young people for spreading the virus?

I'm losing hope.

OP posts:
PicsInRed · 28/09/2020 22:22

Wow, that reminds me of some of the stories coming out of China in the early days of the pandemic. Utterly shocking!

Yep, and now it's here.
Are we going to out up with authoritarianism? Is this the future we want for our kids?
We all need to put our feet down. It's gone too far now.

Fluffalo · 28/09/2020 22:23

I don't get the comparisons with people isolating at home with their families, it's not the same. Moving away to uni is a huge deal, for many the first time away from home in a strange place and living with people they dont know in a small room without proper access to groceries etc. Best case scenario is that you get on okay with your flatmates or are at least civil, and together you all make the most of it and try and salvage some of Freshers by having a few drinks in the kitchen and listening to some music or whatever. For some though they won't get on with their flatmates for whatever reason, especially those who perhaps don't find it easy meeting new people and building a rapport, yet you're trapped in a smallish space with them on top of everything else.

I honestly loved university, I got on well with all of my flatmates, but I found halls claustrophobic and didn't spend even a day just sat inside in my room or whatever; sounds like hell.

TableFlowerss · 28/09/2020 22:24

@Dashie

I just heard this today! A friend’s niece has had her key card wiped so it can not unlock the front door of her hall of residence. The whole hall of students are literally locked in. Covid-19 is devastating but how can this be right?
I sincerely hope that story has got misconstrued and that this isn’t actually true?!?!?!
DonnaDonna01 · 28/09/2020 22:25

@zurich09 my son’s degree is not lab based and I can assure you he wasn’t offered to study online this year at all.
It’s not the students fault you have been preparing online learning all summer and now students are back at uni, it’s your employees uni’s who have encouraged this and the government.

OpenlyGayExOlympicFencer · 28/09/2020 22:25

I'm very much not ok with it because it doesn't appear to be lawful.

DonnaDonna01 · 28/09/2020 22:27

Employers not employees

unfortunateevents · 28/09/2020 22:27

Why were parents happy to send/support their adult child to go to uni and stay in a hall and And I am an academic and i have no idea why our students have come on campus, why they or their parents thought it was a good idea. - Zurich09 maybe because the unis sent out emails telling the students that they were looking forward to welcoming them, that there was going to be a mix of face to face and online learning, maybe because courses like dentistry, nursing, etc can't be done online (although that seems to be exactly what unis are doing now) so students thought they needed to be on campus, maybe because they had signed expensive accommodation contracts and are now on the hook for thousands of pounds?? Any of those reasons good enough to explain why students are back?

BatShite · 28/09/2020 22:29

No, because it is bullshit and universities essentially waggling their dicks around to show how powerful they are.

I’m a flat dweller, because I’m not a student when a neighbour gets covid (has happened a few times), we don’t get locked in or have fire exits blocked. We all just carry on as normal.

As I thought, the way it was put across as 'disease control' made me wonder if this was a universal thing, as surely if it really was a 'disease control' 'rule' it wouldn't just go for uni students, it would be normal housing also. Glad its bollocks though, quite draconian.

AnyFucker · 28/09/2020 22:29

I expect many of us have seen and/or remember the glorified broom cupboards that are student rooms

Some less than 6ft wide. Imagine being confined to one of those. Pure torture and a fire risk if even one exit is no longer accessible.

It beggars belief. This is not ok

Not in my name.

zurich09 · 28/09/2020 22:30

@DonnaDonna01 - I always expected that we'll be back to online by reading week....so only about five weeks to go.

This is very similar to how the teachers felt a few weeks ago - we all knew this was coming, no one cared and now the outrage....well yeah how else was it ever going to be

Tickledtrout · 28/09/2020 22:31

@zurich09 if online was offered it was offered very quietly. Those hall fees are big revenue streams for universities.
I agree that the confinement of the non vulnerable to protect vulnerable, whilst the pubs remain open and city venues pour out onto the streets to party some more, is quite incredible to me.

Mintlegs · 28/09/2020 22:32

What an absolute shambolic mess. Those poor kids. There may well be a suicide from this. This is not the answer.

PatriciaPerch · 28/09/2020 22:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CousinKrispy · 28/09/2020 22:33

Zurich I'm surprised to hear what you say about online teaching. I think it would have been far saner to plan for it and I know academics have been working hard to prepare online teaching. However I thought the Dept for Education was requiring unis to offer a mixture of online and in-person teaching?

TooStressyTooMessy · 28/09/2020 22:35

I’m not ok with this either. My DC are much younger. I have already had one DC out of school on a 2 week isolationehen her bubble burst. That is not the same thing AT ALL as the horrific treatment of university students. She was with her family, had food and didn’t have a guard outside her door.

I am absolutely not ok with this. Is there anything we can actually do to help? Would happily donate to a go fund me to lawyers etc.

zurich09 · 28/09/2020 22:36

@unfortunateevents - I read the emails. We get them every time they are sent out to the students. And this is not about labs/nursing etc. Its not even so much about 2nd/3rd years in some places e.g. in London they sort of blend into the general population. But why did the freshers come??? They had no expensive accommodation in January, they are young and vulnerable....a pandemic is not the time to move away form your support structures

PicsInRed · 28/09/2020 22:37

@Mintlegs

What an absolute shambolic mess. Those poor kids. There may well be a suicide from this. This is not the answer.
There will be many. This is potentially manslaughter.
DonnaDonna01 · 28/09/2020 22:37

@zurich09
There was time to sort all this by the government and uni’s but the uni’s needed the money and the government wasn’t prepared to fund them; this problem isn’t students or parents fault.
Maybe the advise should have been all students defer for the year, uni’s will close but hey ho.

zurich09 · 28/09/2020 22:37

@CousinKrispy - unis had to offer it esp. to satisfy Tier4 visa regulations. But the students themselves did not have to come.

MrsMcMuffins · 28/09/2020 22:38

I didn’t see anything about online teaching only. All we got was emails from the university how prepared they were and they were looking forward to welcome the students back💸💸💸

zurich09 · 28/09/2020 22:39

@DonnaDonna01 students should not have deferred precisely because of mental health concerns. but they could have stayed at home and done their first year remotely.

A pandemic is just not the right time to worry about having a fun student experience

ZaZathecat · 28/09/2020 22:41

I am NOT ok with this. Students are people like all of us. They are not all party animals. Obviously the ones who are not go unnoticed. No-one should be locked in their home.

RealityExistsInTheHumanMind · 28/09/2020 22:43

@AmelieTaylor

I feel for the ones who have been sensible, but many of them still organised freshers events for themselves...absolute stupidity. Hundreds have tested positive - do you really want them out there spreading it around?
Yes Yes Yes. Whilst they are at uni - building immunity and no (or very low) risk of spreading it elsewhere)
DonnaDonna01 · 28/09/2020 22:44

@zurich09 maybe your not hearing, your university may have openly offered full time online learning but most did not. This thread wasn’t started because students aren’t having fun, it’s because they are being locked down in vast numbers (even though their flat may not have a confirmed case or symptoms) and left with no food and fire escapes chained up. Students were prepared for a very different year this year but not what they’re facing now.

zurich09 · 28/09/2020 22:49

@DonnaDonna01 - I am hearing it. But essentially what is happening with unis is what happened with schools. except they dont get to go home but have to stay in closed dorms - like fruit pickers, cruise ships etc. This was known last year - and I am very sorry about it, because I will also have to deal with the fall out from this, because its not just parents who will have to mop it up but also academics. So i am well aware of it, but I do wish they hadnt come or at least understood the risk

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