Anyone’s child doing maths at Sussex?

[motherofsnortpigs]

My DD is in the 1st year of her maths degree at Sussex. If you have a DC there, would you be able to persuade them to talk to/sit with the girl in the wheelchair at lectures, please? She is limited to where she can sit (obviously) but is concerned that this makes her look standoffish, whereas actually she’s a bit lonely. Thank you for reading.

Hi, OP -

This is a rather touching post. I just wondered whether your DD might be able to mention her fear of looking stand-offish to her Personal Tutor?

With just a little bit of luck they will be sympathetic, even if they don’t show it on the spot. And they may have ideas for her, or quietly speak to someone behind the scenes.

DD could either show just show up to office hours or send an email. It would be pragmatic, for the PT’s comfort and to alleviate any concerns, to think through how to sound positive - this isn’t fair, but making it easy will help.

This is definitely an example of what we are here for! Best wishes to DD

Also Math Soc and other events should be starting up soon. Can DD find something she wants to attrnd? If she finds out who the academic advisor or student organiser is ahead of time she can send them a similar email about not wanting to be at a remove in spite of seating arrangements

Are you on Facebook? If so there's a group 'What I wish I knew about University ' that you could join and put a similar post on.

This type of shoutout is posted there regularly and there are some lovely updates of students finding friends this way.

I hope things improve for her soon. If either of my two young people were on her course they would definitely reach out to her. Xx

Actually @motherofsnortpigs if you're not in that group, let me know and I will post it on there for you.

@poetryandwine thank you. Now that she knows the layout of most of the rooms, I’ll encourage her to message tutors with her concerns about being able to participate. You would not believe that in the first week there were a couple of lectures in completely inaccessible rooms - she messaged the lecturer and get a one-to-one catch up session, so she knows that people are helpful.

@AncoraAmarena thank you, too. I’ll try and join the fb group. It sounds hopeful.

I work in Disability and Inclusion in a university, she should be getting support from a similar department if needed and certainly she should be having lectures in theatres which are accessible.

And yes, clubs and societies are starting up now, which are excellent opportunities to start meeting people with similar interests. Many students are quite nervous and don't know many people at this stage of the term.

Oh , the lectures in inaccessible rooms are horrible, OP. Has that been resolved?

I want to second @jennylamb1 ‘s suggestion that DD connect with Disabilty Support Services, whatever it may be called. (This is separate from the DSA). Sometimes students are reluctant, for a variety of reasons. However DSS staff are a wonderful team to connect with. They can help and advocate in all sorts of ways - for example, they are very well placed to help with inaccessible lecture rooms - and they are very discreet. They share their knowledge of each student strictly on a need to know basis.

Should DD ever need to submit a Mitigating Circumstances form, if her disability has been a feature at all and she has been connected to DSA, a representative may be able to advocate for her at the panel meeting. Etc

@jennylamb1 thanks, I think she has a mentor from the disability service who is currently meeting with her twice a week. I’ll tell her to mention the lecture situation.
@poetryandwine dd has got to grips with the mitigating circumstances stuff, I think. She fatigues really easily so may have to deliberately just take the second sitting of an exam in order to spread them out enough for her without getting her mark capped. The disability service suggested this!