Facilities in Griffith

R.D. aka MR.D

why are they so awful?

is it because they assume people in college have their own laptops and if so why is there no way to print remotely (or am i complety stupid!)

number 1 pet hate: when your trying to log on and the stupid computer freezes so you shut it down and you try to log on to a different computer and you can't because it says your already logged in.

number 2 pet hate: why can't you just print to a printer network instead of one printer, cause inevitably the first one you go to will be broken.

i'm starting to think all the broken printers are a money making scheme so you spend lots of credits you can't get back

why are the majority of the toilets filty!!
i did my undergrad a few years ago in TCD and junkies are known to do heroin in the toilets there and they are still more pleasent than griffth!!

or why do people feel the need to shout at the topof their voices in the computer room! In TCD if you dared to make more than a reasonable amount of sound some one would politly tellyou to shut up! there was an understanding that some people actually needed to work in those rooms.

i'm not even goin to start on the library.... i'm sure there is a whole other thread in there!!

melekalikimaka

rarely in library hehe. my course really segrogates me, I'm in my little corner of the college, pretty much our own mac lab then our own printing room awith the super macs, all daisy for us, maybe transfer to photography

Hogzy

If you think your library is bad you should see the one in Cork. Its a joke, there are literally 12 study desks...

Its the worst excuse for a library iv ever seen, my secondary school library was bigger!!!

techguy

OP, I agree that the open lab is a bit of a disaster.. There are always a load of computers not working and it is pretty noisy in there too unfortunately..

I also hate the way you need to use those crappy computers to print. A couple of months ago I got one of those quality control survey e-mails from the college. I told them I would love to see the ability to be able to print from the halls of residence or even laptops connected to the wifi.

I got a reply saying that it was not possible with the current system but it had been marked as a requirement when(if) they upgrade/overhaul the system, basically thanks for your input but no thanks.

I spend most of my time in the Wellington building (Comp Sci) and the toilets are always spotless..same goes for the restaurant, never noticed any of them being bad really.

As for the library, it is pretty small ok. I'd say it's a nightmare trying to get a seat around now (exam time)!!

The campus is pretty small and it seems there are limits on the sizes of facilities. I can imagine the college spending more on classrooms than facilities because more classrooms means more students(€€€).

None of the above have really been an issue for me because I live on campus with my own desktop. I can imagine that if I lived off campus it would be a real pain.

Rabeile31

the fact that there is only 4 copiers in the library annoys me!
you spend ages waiting your turn and when you do start using it there is always people behind you waiting

why cant a few more be got?

And why dont they sell copy cards at the library desk?!
its so annoying when you run out to have to go down to the shop to get them!
Even if they got the machines that distribute them and had it in the library somewhere would be better

MIN2511

I agree with all of the above, the facilities are very poor! For the money we pay you'd expect more... Sometimes it takes forever to get internet connection.

Do ye fill those surveys they give at the start of the academic year? I do, but still nothing has changed!

gcdwebmaster

I suggest it may be best to contact the Students Union www.gcd.ie/studentsunion, who would be best able to make the case for such things as more photocopiers, or internet access, since they can liaise with the college on such matters

Or maybe your contacting your class representative may be the one to state your case.

EdgarAllenPoo

gcdwebmaster wrote: »

I suggest it may be best to contact the Students Union www.gcd.ie/studentsunion, who would be best able to make the case for such things as more photocopiers, or internet access, since they can liaise with the college on such matters

Or maybe your contacting your class representative may be the one to state your case.

Ok I may only be speaking from personal experience (and the experiences of other people on my course) both the Students Union and the class reps (if you even have one) tend to be completely useless.

Students union is really only an excuse for a few people to put up silly posters,get elected and take a year off thier course.

melekalikimaka

we had issues in our course sorted by reps twice last year... as for the SU... well i think its that case in most colleges

FreudianSlippers

GDM wrote: »

Ok I may only be speaking from personal experience (and the experiences of other people on my course) both the Students Union and the class reps (if you even have one) tend to be completely useless.

Students union is really only an excuse for a few people to put up silly posters,get elected and take a year off thier course.

I couldn't agree more.

lisbon_lions

The year just passed is my first year there - year II computer science.

I think the library is pretty small all right and was absolutely rammed coming up to exam time. Parking can be tough to get on campus as well, but in fairness there is loads of spaces - everyone must own a car :eek:

Toilets are grand - the ones i frequent anyway (wellington and canteen). I would have more of a gripe about the software products available for students - cannot step through code with el cheapo freeware products such as jcreator lite, no sign of a decent product like matlab when doing linear algebra and other cheap ways out (mysql for databases) - for the fees you'd think we would be better equipped with good software tbh.

wifi access is a bit shady in certain areas too.

GCDSU

GDM wrote: »

Ok I may only be speaking from personal experience (and the experiences of other people on my course) both the Students Union and the class reps (if you even have one) tend to be completely useless.

Students union is really only an excuse for a few people to put up silly posters,get elected and take a year off thier course.

Hi. I'd like to address some of the points you raised here with regards to the Students' Union in Griffith. Althought you are free to make your own opinion heard I do think that we have the right to defend ourselves on this matter.


A survey was done several years ago in colleges and universities in the UK with regards to Students Unions. The result showed that the majority of students have the same view as the one you just expressed, with many students seeing the SU in their college as just an excuse to drink and party. I mention this to show you that you are not alone in your perception - this is not a Griffith College perception alone. But i will now explain to you why you are slightly off the mark when you make that comment.


The perception that the Students' Union is only an excuse to give students the chance to put up silly posters and take a year off is unfair. The fact is that 95% of the work that the SU does goes unpublicised - just because you don't read about it in Griffiti doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Currently in Griffith the following areas are specifically catered for by the SU Officers: Welfare/Representation, Clubs & Societies and Entertainments. So I will just briefly run-through what each one of them does and address what I think is the obvious mis-conception that students have of them@

In the area of student welfare and representation, every week students come into the union with issues that they are havin, be it on an academic, personal or financial level. The Union officers listen to their concerns and then go about seeing what they can do to solve that problem. It may go from a small problem of working with the faculty to provide additional equipment for their students or to a much bigger problem like consistant bullying which requires mediation between the varous parties involved. I use these as examples as we've had incidences of these over the past year. Last year the SU has addressed dozens of different problems that individual students have had.

In the area of Clubs and Societies, students also complain about the situation with sports in the college. I'm afraid the SU can't be blamed for this. Although we do have a dedicated officer to develop sports on the campus, the simple fact is griffith doesn't have enough room to have on-campus sporting facilities. We are very close to being a city center college, space is at a premium, as such all teams etc have to train and play matches off-campus. The SU does its best to incourage students to get involved in sports however many students give up before they start because off the non-immediate access to the facilities. This fuels the perception that we don't do anything in the area of clubs & societies. However the huge success of the new Cricket society this year in Griffith just goes to show that if we get good entusastic students working with us and spearheading their society then it can be hugely successful. The area of socieites is slightly with something going on somewhere in the college almost every weeknight somewhere in the college - you just need to look out for the posters to no where to go.

The area of Entertainments is one that gets far too much focus. Students think that all we do is go out drinking 5 nights a week and call it work - well the simple fact is the SU only organises 7/8 main nights in the entire year - i.e freshers week / halloween ball etc. The other nights you seen around campus are organised either by an outside promotor or Arthur's bar - which has no affilication to the SU - they are owned, run and operated by the campbells catering company. Students assume because it is on campus it must be the SU organising it.

The SU building itself also provides a service for students who don't wanna buy food in Arthurs but wanna bring in their own food from home - we provide them with tables, chairs, microwaves, kettles, tv's and facilities to wash up - this is heavily used by non-national students. The building itself also has the only room in the college dedicated to students to hang out in during classes - the SU Common Roo. And to the poster above who was complaining about the Wi-fi access, the SU has a very good signal if you wish to use it.

So back to the point about the officers, the fact is they don't just take a year out and mess about, they are the ones that make the whole operation tick-over. There is FAR more involved in running the SU than I've mentioned here. If you wanna have a pop at the SU for doing nothing you can, however I'd invite you to take a proper look at what we actually do before you do.

R.D. aka MR.D

I'm not really sure how my thread got hijacked by SU PR, but ah well!

jambolian

AAAAh, ill be honest, currently in griff, and the college is so bad, its actually like being in school, wifi is crap and you can't even get good signal anywhere you go, the college is so bad, lecturers are nice (very few), no sports or facilities i would rather gp to the barracks school they seem to actually play sports and games.

As for that pathetic excuse for a football pitch i mean really, the only good sport you can play on that is beach volleyball. the Su, come on, its crap, and i couldn't read what the SU wrote cus as of personal experience, thats not true, also bein a rep, we don't do anythin, when we do, nothin gets done anyway cus we argue.

i could go on, it would take a while, any comments?

RugbyFanatic

I hear theres aboslutely no buzz around the place. Going there in September not looking forward to it but thats what I get for messing around in the leaving cert!

melekalikimaka

i find wireless grand where i am. banter is not great, one of teo good nights, you get actively involved in the college you get rewards socially, arse about and be antisocial you dont simple as. i keep to myself to a degree, i find the su scene a little naff in gcd tbh...

RCNPhotos

GCDSU wrote: »

The area of Entertainments is one that gets far too much focus. Students think that all we do is go out drinking 5 nights a week and call it work - well the simple fact is the SU only organises 7/8 main nights in the entire year - i.e freshers week / halloween ball etc. The other nights you seen around campus are organised either by an outside promotor or Arthur's bar - which has no affilication to the SU - they are owned, run and operated by the campbells catering company. Students assume because it is on campus it must be the SU organising it.

This is a big reason for a lack of buzz around the college. 7/8 nights a year organised by the SU is crazy. What about getting bands in? More comedy nights? Working with societies such as the Comedy society to get comedy nights going etc etc. The the poster who said he's heard there's no buzz, he's right, there's very little buzz and any offers of help organising bands etc is ignored. Therefore we get boring nights in the bar and 7/8 nights a year organised by the SU. Buzz vacuum.

GCDSU

RCNPhotos wrote: »

This is a big reason for a lack of buzz around the college. 7/8 nights a year organised by the SU is crazy. What about getting bands in? More comedy nights? Working with societies such as the Comedy society to get comedy nights going etc etc. The the poster who said he's heard there's no buzz, he's right, there's very little buzz and any offers of help organising bands etc is ignored. Therefore we get boring nights in the bar and 7/8 nights a year organised by the SU. Buzz vacuum.

Last year Arthur's bar organised a night every week for the first semester and students didnt show up beyond the 2nd or 3rd event. One of the nights even offered E1 drinks, and it only saw a slight increase in numbers. The SU organised a bands night in the second semester with the music society and only 20 or so students showed up. I'm afraid it's really down to the fact that students in Griffith have far too much choice with external promoters coming into the college. On RAG week last year we had bands playing on the Tuesday night in the bar. Despite loads of promotion a very large group of students decided they wanted to go into Citi Bar which was running a promotional night in town rather than supporting the charity that was to benefit from the night in the college bar. There is always one or two nights in town that students in GCD head too. There isn't a lack of interest on doing more ENTS by the SU, it's just doing constant events in the bar or on campus is just not viable when you can walk into town in 10/15 minutes. A recent internal survey conducted inside the college, which will be published in the coming weeks on moodle and possibly Griffiti also shows that 'Social Life' is not considered an area of the college that the majority of students believe there should be huge improvements in, which suggests most students seem happy with their social outlets. There is also several issues with organising night time events in the college as neither the college or SU controls the bar, an outside firm by the name of Campbell Catering runs Arthur's so they control its closing time, which is usually about 8.30pm. The SU is an easy target to pick on. If you think you could do something that would fundamentally change things, perhaps you should consider running for SU Entertainments Officer.