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changing way of life for Galway college students

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Has anyone noticed that the students in UCG now drive cars? Am I way late on this or what is the story? I recently went back to UCG (NUIG now, sorry) to find that the car park had expanded for students. Has the ability for students to get pissed up on a fiver and cycle to and from college been lost forever?

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JIZZLORD

i was chatting about this with a lad i know a while back, he finished college about 12 years ago and only 1 of his friends had a car as the guy was loaded, where as his family didnt even have one. while i know lads who've worked really hard to be able to afford a car, and work weekends etc. there are those who get cars from mammy and daddy from money that would usually have gone on fees back in the day. the abolition of fees is a great thing. but there are a load of people who live out of their parents pockets.
i work part time to pay my way, i cycle or use the bus and i dont spend 80 quid on a night out on double vodka red bulls. but there are plenty of people who are in a completely different position.

the_syco

Down in Carlow, comparing the "old" students carpark to the new (well, newer) one... holy f**k batman is all I can say.

One of the reasons is that some travel from afar to get to Carlow, neighbouring towns, etc. Mammy and daddy may see it cheaper to give young johnny a car that gets him to college, and let him work the weekend to pay for the petrol.

dumbyearbook

Ya its hilarious, apparently there is a rush back to Corrib village on a Sunday to get a spot outside your apartment - to save the poor dears dragging their bags too far.

there not all travelling up and down each day.

I was in 1st year nuig in 2001, of my 11 good male friends there as no laptop one did nt even have a mobile starting college and we knew one person with a car really is one indicator of just how rapid things have moved in Ireland 2001 was well into 'economy boom time' afterall. None of the girls had cars either bar one.

there is a real 'G4' effort down there now too, kids covered in abercrombie etc. talking like the're from So Co D what a shame how the mighty have fallen!

Bass Cadet

Went to NUIG from 98 to 2002. It was a bitch to get parking back then. Drove the mammy's car whenever I could. I was lucky at the time as I played in a gigging band which usually meant I had pocket money for messing

Seems to be an element in this thread of the old 'we walked to school in our bare feet when I was a young-un!' story
- Funny

leninbenjamin

feckin' motorists.

git on yer bikes!

ZorbaTehZ

Bass Cadet wrote: »

Seems to be an element in this thread of the old 'we walked to school in our bare feet when I was a young-un!' story
- Funny

qft.

TristanPeter

According to last week's Galway Independent, there's going to be a new park-and-ride facility put in place for NUIG. Starts from Upper Newcastle Road where there will be a new 500 space carpark made available. Shuttle service then throughout the day to and from col.

My girlfriend is working in NUIG and if she doesn't get in before 8:45am she has to find parking off campus usually. This is due mainly to the amount of spaces for student parking. I think students should be made pay a daily fee to park on campus or perhaps NUIG could look at building a multi-storey carpark underground beneath the park in front of the Quad?? They should have done that when they were renovating Eyre Square. That would probably cost way too much to make it worthwhile in NUIG though.

Das Kitty

Not only do they have cars but they have nicer cars than I do.

There were two people in my class with cars. One had her mother's car and had to commute from Ennis. The other's parents were loaded and bought him (I think) an Impreza. Both cars were scary to get lifts in for different reasons.

kevmy

The lack of parking in NUIG is not due solely to students who have now got cars where before they didn't.

Recently two carparks have been closed (one big one where the new Sports centre is being built). And another one is going to closed soon enough to build the new engineering building. So the number of spaces has not grown overall in the last 3 years at least. Add to this the increase in the number of staff, poastgrads and undergrads in the last 5 years of course there is going to be pressures.

As for the number of students driving cars to college. I would say it is still very low for 1st and 2nd years. It increases a bit in 3rd and 4th year but I would say it still considerable less than 25% of 4th students driving in on a regular basis. It's probably something on the order of 5% of undergrads overall. But 5% of 12,000 is a lot. The percentage is greater for postgrads. Of course nearly all the staff have a car and all the best spaces but noone tells them to get on their bike.

Krieg

I think GMIT is just as bad, If not worse

The car park is bad enough and is completely full for most of the day. But there are many students who live 5-10 mins away and still friggin drive in

Tar.Aldarion

I'd take one of my helicopters if there was a pad.

japanesebanana

Loads of my friends have cars. Not one of them paid for it themselves. Kinda sickening, since they don't pay any of their own rent or bills, barely wash their own clothes, spend a ridiculous amount of money on drink, and there I am, slaving away...
But i'd rather it that way!

ethernet

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

I'd take one of my helicopters if there was a pad.

As would I but maintenance on them costs a fortune.

civis_liberalis

TristanPeter wrote: »

My girlfriend is working in NUIG and if she doesn't get in before 8:45am she has to find parking off campus usually. This is due mainly to the amount of spaces for student parking. I think students should be made pay a daily fee to park on campus or perhaps NUIG could look at building a multi-storey carpark underground beneath the park in front of the Quad??

Giving staff preference for parking over students is called discrimination.

I am not a student and don't believe myself to be biased and think that anyone with a car should be afforded the same opportunity to park on or near the grounds of the college.

civis_liberalis

japanesebanana wrote: »

Kinda sickening, since they don't pay any of their own rent or bills, barely wash their own clothes,

I lived in a house with some lads, back in 2002 i think.

The landlord had just installed a brand new washing machine and dryer the week before we arrived, as well as a lot of other improvements (not that the house was in need of it really).

Well anyways one of the lads, had his rent paid by his mammy and daddy, and without fail would bring home his washing every weekend. And if he didnt go home he would get someone of his family to pick it up.

I think it was coz he didnt want to pay for washing powder if you ask me.

The same lad never went near the kitchen sink only to deposit something in to it, in contrast to his bank account, which i'm sure he never made anything but withdrawals from...

Also we only had RTE1 and RTE2 and TG4 sometimes if we were lucky. We decided we would get NTL between us. Basic NTL between 4 people was nothin even for students. This guy said he didn't watch TV and wouldn't pay for it because of that. Yet he managed to sit right in front of the TV most nights, and always seemed to have invited someone over, 5 nights a week(was too lazy to visit other people so always made them come to him).

Eventually he left thank god.

leninbenjamin

civis_liberalis wrote: »

Giving staff preference for parking over students is called discrimination.

that's daft tbh. the staff on the whole are always going to have a much greater need for parking than students, and not just in terms of the numbers. Student's aren't even employees, they just attend it. More importantly; no single students perform any kind of critical role in the place. if they can't get parking and are late, tough ****, they lose out. If the staff lose out though typically you're going too see a lot more disaffected than just themselves.

Redhairedguy

civis_liberalis wrote: »

I lived in a house with some lads, back in 2002 i think.

The landlord had just installed a brand new washing machine and dryer the week before we arrived, as well as a lot of other improvements (not that the house was in need of it really).

Well anyways one of the lads, had his rent paid by his mammy and daddy, and without fail would bring home his washing every weekend. And if he didnt go home he would get someone of his family to pick it up.

I think it was coz he didnt want to pay for washing powder if you ask me.

The same lad never went near the kitchen sink only to deposit something in to it, in contrast to his bank account, which i'm sure he never made anything but withdrawals from...

Also we only had RTE1 and RTE2 and TG4 sometimes if we were lucky. We decided we would get NTL between us. Basic NTL between 4 people was nothin even for students. This guy said he didn't watch TV and wouldn't pay for it because of that. Yet he managed to sit right in front of the TV most nights, and always seemed to have invited someone over, 5 nights a week(was too lazy to visit other people so always made them come to him).

Eventually he left thank god.

Sounds like the housemate from limbo.

Mrs OBumble

civis_liberalis wrote: »

Giving staff preference for parking over students is called discrimination.

I am not a student and don't believe myself to be biased and think that anyone with a car should be afforded the same opportunity to park on or near the grounds of the college.

I think that anyone who drives a car anywhere, except to the supermarket once a fortnight or to the nearest bus/train station if they live more than three miles from it, should be forced to park three miles away and walk for the last part of the journey. 'Twould be the best way to stop people from getting fat.

:rolleyes:

(Can you tell I don't own a car?)

Mrs OBumble

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Student's aren't even employees, they just attend it.

Students are customers.
Staff are ... staff!

Have you ever been to a supermarket where the staff can park at the front door, but the customers have to park miles away?

(Ohhh ... I'm in a mood to stir tonight!)

Redhairedguy

JustMary wrote: »

(Ohhh ... I'm in a mood to stir tonight!)

Chicken Tonight?

kevmy

In a way I can understand why they have staff car parks. You do need a certain amount to keep things ticking over.

However at the moment the have so little car park spaces that they are essentially robbing car park spaces from students. There is a large number of staff permits in student car park spaces. Nothing happens to these people but a student parking in a staff space can get into trouble.

bobcar61

When I was a student in NUIG last year(befire I dropped out),I was in first year and I drove down from Sligo every week and drove to college every morning and if I wasn't there by about 11 I would have to park somewhere else and risk getting a ticket or been clamped.

TristanPeter

leninbenjamin wrote: »

that's daft tbh. the staff on the whole are always going to have a much greater need for parking than students, and not just in terms of the numbers. Student's aren't even employees, they just attend it. More importantly; no single students perform any kind of critical role in the place. if they can't get parking and are late, tough ****, they lose out. If the staff lose out though typically you're going too see a lot more disaffected than just themselves.

Exactly! If a student is late for a lecture due to lack of parking (I was a student there too)...big deal. If staff are late...they get in trouble, just like in any other job.

"Students are customers" What?????

TristanPeter

JustMary wrote: »

Students are customers.
Staff are ... staff!

Have you ever been to a supermarket where the staff can park at the front door, but the customers have to park miles away?

(Ohhh ... I'm in a mood to stir tonight!)

That's not a good comparison I have to say

Robbo

The parking situation was bad when I started in 2000 and only got worse when they decreed that every new building must go down on the site of a former car park. Proportionally, staff have far too many parking spots compared to students but what are you going to do?

po0k

Walk, cycle, carpool, scooter, bus, aerofoil....

Robbo

po0k wrote: »

Walk, cycle, carpool, scooter, bus, aerofoil....

Monorail. And I know a man from Listowel who could get us started...

Mrs OBumble

TristanPeter wrote: »

That's not a good comparison I have to say

Why?

Students pay fees to attend. Well, some do, for others the government pays the full cost on their behalf. Either way, no students will lead to no jobs for the staff pretty quickly.

Staff are paid to show up, on time, and perform a range of duties. Sure, some are highly-paid and relatively-scarce academics, and you might convince me that they have to be looked after with perks like car-parks. (But giving 'em bus passes would be better for the planet!). But others are technicians, tutors, secretaries, security guards, cleaners, accounts-clerks, gardeners ... all valuable people who are needed to keep the place running. But I don't think they're very different to deli-assistants, checkout-operators, floor supervisors, buyers, team-leaders, shelf-fillers etc ... and I don't think that they should get better treatment than the paying customers.

leeroybrown

The main parking issue in NUIG is one of planning permission. NUIG would love to have a couple of thousand spaces but it can't. The number of spaces available is set based on a set of planning rules and the college has exactly the number of spaces that it's legally allowed to provide. Despite all the buildings that have gone on car park sites the total number of spaces in NUIG has increased slightly over time and is always maintained at the maximum permitted level.

They're split into four types: staff, student, staff+student and pay & display. The staff get by far the largest chunk for a simple reason: trade unions. Originally the unions wanted zero student spaces and it dragged on quite badly ending with a slight compromise. Eventually the Students Union negotiations and protest improved added shared spaces improving student access quite a bit.

I also thing that the supermarket analogy above is very weak. The reason that supermarkets, etc provide good parking spaces to customers is that that's how they have to bring people in. It's one of the most important requirements for people. Most people would go elsewhere if their supermarket provided poor parking. For third level courses though parking is very far down the list of requirements for the students and won't even appear on the list of what the department of education want to pay for with tuition fees. In addition, a student is a very different type of 'customer'. I don't think most students are in the position to decide not to go to third level. Then even though there are plenty of courses they generally still need to compete to get into their choice. Realistically they're signing up for a number of years with something to lose if they leave. Essentially, even with the drop in student numbers I don't think it's a completely customer driven market.

Finally, I'll add my favourite college quote: "College would be a far nicer place without the students, and a far better run one without the staff"

dafunk

These are the kids of the Celtic Tiger, Mummy and Daddy are giving hand outs left right and centre. When I was in college I worked three part time jobs to pay my rent and feed myself. I think those days are gone. I'm in GMIT and almost all the students have cars and laptops. There is also a common complaint that the students from Glasan take up parking spots. I kid you not, THEY DRIVE ACROSS THE ROAD FROM THE STUDENT VILLAGE.