What bugs you about UCD?

Garret

the fact that midterms clash with gigs annoys me

last sem it was economics clashing with a gig that i cant mention

a bit of beggin to be moved to an earlier sitting meant i made it just

but now accounting clashes with a gig that i also cannot mention on march 5th

if i can swap for a tuesday ticket i think ill actually have to skip the exam:mad:

pretty*monster

The fact that I know for a fact that grade inflation is happening annoys me today. Also the fact that I can't find anyone willing to go on record and admit it.

At other times I am annoyed by a massive lack of interest in learning about the place.

I am annoyed that our college president along withother college presidents cited his "street-smart problem solving skills" as a justification for a massive pay raise. I'm sorry, it I wanted street smarts I wouldn't have bothered with university.

Having English lectures in the Science block wrecks myhead. Not least because they always run over time and I have to leg it back to arts for my next class.

I am extremely annoyed that there is only one copy of several of the core English text books in the library. This is for over a hundred students.

Yeah, the underfunding of Arts is annoying.

Other stuff too, but it would take all day.

Blush_01

pretty*monster wrote:

Having English lectures in the Science block wrecks myhead. Not least because they always run over time and I have to leg it back to arts for my next class.

Well get used to it, they're turning the Arts block into offices over the next few years, Arts lectures will be ferried around the place like the inconvenience they appear to be, in the grand scheme of "underpinning" the value of knowledge. :rolleyes:

singingstranger

Kaptain Redeye wrote:

Your registraion fee will also go up thanks to the SU and the new student centre

Eh, technically the first part would be the fault of the HEA and the second part would be the fault of the IAB and/or the student body...

Jonny Arson

Garret wrote:

but now accounting clashes with a gig that i also cannot mention on march 5th

if i can swap for a tuesday ticket i think ill actually have to skip the exam:mad:

ouch that's harsh

whats comforting is you'll have no bother selling that ticket for said gig for 2, 3 or 4 times face value

but if you're looking to give it away for nothing i'll take it thanks!

Red Alert

how exactly does grade inflation occur pretty_monster, seen as we give out less firsts than other colleges (like DCU and TCD) as reported on the Sunday Times

panda100

Blush_01 wrote:

Well get used to it, they're turning the Arts block into offices over the next few years, Arts lectures will be ferried around the place like the inconvenience they appear to be, in the grand scheme of "underpinning" the value of knowledge. :rolleyes:

That would seriously annoy me too.It is really bad how the art students are being treated at the mo.you are getting less and less and we med students are getting more and more. Our new hi tech simulated ward in health sciences is great but it must be taking away a lot of budgeting in other subjects.

griffdaddy

pretty*monster wrote:

Having English lectures in the Science block wrecks myhead. Not least because they always run over time and I have to leg it back to arts for my next class.

i agree 100%, it's ridiculous that if you have a lecture before hand that runs even slightly late you have to run down to the science block and then when you get into the theatre it's nearly impossible to get a seat because people are stretched out like their genitals are swollen or something. Then they look at you like you're really inconveniencing them if you ask them to move in. This whole problem is accentuated when you do philosophy as well, as they're both subjects that lecturers like to ramble on in, although in all fairness, they dont know where we have to go afterwards.

The 17 bus just isnt quaint or funny anymore in it's irregularity either, it's just a pain in the hole. I dont go to college if it's raining anymore as a result

Stabshauptmann

thats the exact reason I moved on campus, 17 bites ass

gubbie

pretty*monster wrote:

aving English lectures in the Science block wrecks myhead. Not least because they always run over time and I have to leg it back to arts for my next class.QUOTE]
I find it the exact opposite-I have many classes in science and arts and they've always left us with plenty of time to stroll back up to the eng block where as in arts... well lets just say I was never on time for the next lecture ever

But the clocks in the Science block are slow... the college is against you people

pretty*monster

Red Alert wrote:

how exactly does grade inflation occur pretty_monster, seen as we give out less firsts than other colleges (like DCU and TCD) as reported on the Sunday Times

Yes I am aware of this. I was always a little bit proud of this as it suggested high standards and one could at least be sure that ones first was earned (it could equally have suggested poor teaching but look on the bright side, y'know) and was somewhat irritated that it bumped us down the league tables.
In my opinion grade inflation occurs when individuals marking essays are told to 'give more firsts this year'. This is happening.

Blush_01 wrote:

Well get used to it, they're turning the Arts block into offices over the next few years, Arts lectures will be ferried around the place like the inconvenience they appear to be, in the grand scheme of "underpinning" the value of knowledge. [/QOUTE]

And now I'll have to be angry about this.
As if there isn't already a critical lack of community and spirit ammoung Arts students they're going to take our building away from us. Lovely.
Can we keep our lockers? Can we keep the smoking wall?
And do you have a source for this?

This whole problem is accentuated when you do philosophy as well, as they're both subjects that lecturers like to ramble on in, although in all fairness, they dont know where we have to go afterwards.

Rambleing-on-wise I find the English department to be worse offenders in general.

dajaffa

panda100 wrote:

Our new hi tech simulated ward in health sciences is great but it must be taking away a lot of budgeting in other subjects.

True but remember the old dissection room?? Med facilities were pretty neglected, they just did a big splurge on all the new stuff (which me loves), which would've been helped by all the money they got for ET.

Oh and Blush where did u hear about Arts turning into offices? I saw the development plan + well all it mentioned was a revamp. It'd be way hard to have Arts lectures around campus cause 1 most other theatres would be too small and 2 there wouldn't be nearly enough of them.

Stepherunie

panda100 wrote:

That would seriously annoy me too.It is really bad how the art students are being treated at the mo.you are getting less and less and we med students are getting more and more. Our new hi tech simulated ward in health sciences is great but it must be taking away a lot of budgeting in other subjects.

That budget if i do believe came under capital expenditure, and the building is already too small for the needs of the student body despite it being completed. The bulk of the money for the new building would no doubt have been there for quite a while as if I remember correctly from Ryan Tubridys recent interview with Prof. Bill Powderly, the building is 20 years overdue.

In many ways this project was not funded adequately, I know for a fact that UCD and the HSE were not willing to fund Diagnostic Imaging to purchase new equipment, the school had to look for companies who were willing to come in as part of a partnership and allow the use of facilities for these companies in order to ensure that UCD had brand new facilities. Prior to this we were in a converted former Padiatric hospital not owned by UCD and with no working X ray tube and with only one class room big enough to actually accomodate two of the classes that attended the school. ET whilst atmospheric also lacked adequate facilities so I think the idea that it's taken away from the arts block is unfounded. It was a necessity, not a choice.

The building is flawed in many regards namely lack of space, lack of natural light, lack of postering space.

mloc

Stepherunie wrote:

The building is flawed in many regards namely lack of space, lack of natural light, lack of postering space.

Also a lack of lockers, especialy given the new health sciences library is there, but I understand provisions are being made to fix this situation.

Darkbloom

I must admit to being irritated with the UCD marking scheme. Take Galway. Their Commerce students can fail and repeat a subject and achieve as high a grade they want along with having their continuous assessment counted. This happened with someone I knew. I passed all my exams but one in second year, which I repeated and later passed. UCD didn't count my CA. It's absurd to think that UCD's standards are low; if anything they're high in comparison with a lot of universities. I know people who've got firsts from other colleges that wouldn't be worth a 2:2 in UCD.

Oh yeah. Society people annoy me too.

Red Alert

Steph - did ye have to have practicals in what used to be the National Children's Hospital?

(I used to visit the lovely ancient x-ray machine in the front with broken arms quite regularly! Was run by a lovely old lady too!)

Vorsprung

And what's with the library in the Health Sci building?! You'd think they'd have learnt from the mistake that was the design of the ET library, but no, as well as keeping the big gap in the middle which is only good for having a perv at people on the floor below, it's as loud and cold as the old library. And why do you have to go outside to get into it - it's freezing out there!! Back to ET, at least it was warm!!

Red Alert

the trouble with the hole in the middle of the ET library isn't so much being perved upon, more it's that the nice view beneath is just so distracting (if you're used to the eng building!).

gubbie

Red Alert wrote:

(if you're used to the eng building!).

I, personally, don't have a clue what you're complaining about

Stepherunie

Red Alert wrote:

Steph - did ye have to have practicals in what used to be the National Children's Hospital?

(I used to visit the lovely ancient x-ray machine in the front with broken arms quite regularly! Was run by a lovely old lady too!)

Could quite possibly have been - it's down near St. Vincents. Rather grey looking building - that was our school for manys a year....

Miss GAAfia

Kaptain Redeye wrote:

Your registraion fee will also go up thanks to the SU and the new student centre

So that's to say you're against the new student centre then....

McGinty

"street-smart problem solving skills" I concur whoever said that about Hugh Brady, damn I could have his job, I have plenty of street smart problem solving skills, I found that highly insulting and pretensious.

But on to my moan and groan, but I will say that I like the subjects, lecturers and the people I know but..
I hate the farcial admin system
The severly overpriced coffee shops and restaurants (except student bar, but I don't go there I'd be tempted to drink),
The overuse of throwable cutlery (polystyrene cups, spoons, bowls, etc), the amount of rubbish produced must be collasal.
The website, it is like a maze
The sis system and library website, again mazelike
I don't bother trying to get books from the library, I do english so I just buy them, which results in spending roughly 500 euros a year on books
Exam timetables, it is barbaric to have more than one exam a day, and espically barbaric to have exams after 6pm, espcicially on Saturdays, not everyone lives in Dublin. I had to pay to stay in a hotel because I had two exams in one day the last one ended at 8pm, I had no way of getting home, and had to go to another exam the following morning. I commute every day as I am a single parent. Plus the poor brain is too tired by that time.
I think that is it for now

Blush_01

You know what really bugs me about UCD at the moment? The footpaths in Glenomena, especially in front of house 6 and houses 9 and 10. I've almost tripped before plenty of times, but today I actually went flying. Ok, so apart from the embarrassment the injuries were on the minor side of minor (although I have a substantial enough graze on my elbow and a nasty cut on my right shin) but I'm not paying for accommodation so I can fall flat on my face when I walk through the housing complex. If the paths were in the ridiculously poor state they are here anywhere else, it'd be fixed in a matter of hours. This has been a problem since late October, and some day someone's going to get seriously hurt. I've made formal complaints about it before. Plus, it's bloody irritating when under the tiles fills up with water which splashes up and soaks you when it rains. I've had a lovely pair of shoes destroyed because of that.

If anyone lives in Glen, can they please go to the office and make a complaint? It'll take two seconds and they might actually be able to do something if everyone gets together and bugs them enough for whoever is in charge of the maintenance of the footpaths to take notice. I know it probably won't be nice for them to have to put up with the moaning of students, but if it's for a greater good (of sorts) it may be worth the effort.

pretty*monster

I hate the student bar.

Stabshauptmann

Blush_01 wrote:

You know what really bugs me about UCD at the moment? The footpaths in Glenomena, especially in front of house 6 and houses 9 and 10. I've almost tripped before plenty of times, but today I actually went flying. Ok, so apart from the embarrassment the injuries were on the minor side of minor (although I have a substantial enough graze on my elbow and a nasty cut on my right shin) but I'm not paying for accommodation so I can fall flat on my face when I walk through the housing complex. If the paths were in the ridiculously poor state they are here anywhere else, it'd be fixed in a matter of hours. This has been a problem since late October, and some day someone's going to get seriously hurt. I've made formal complaints about it before. Plus, it's bloody irritating when under the tiles fills up with water which splashes up and soaks you when it rains. I've had a lovely pair of shoes destroyed because of that.

If anyone lives in Glen, can they please go to the office and make a complaint? It'll take two seconds and they might actually be able to do something if everyone gets together and bugs them enough for whoever is in charge of the maintenance of the footpaths to take notice. I know it probably won't be nice for them to have to put up with the moaning of students, but if it's for a greater good (of sorts) it may be worth the effort.

the paths were destroyed by cars, to solve the problem permanet barriers have been installed to stop ppl driving on the pedestrian paths.

Blush_01

You'd swear I hadn't figured that bit out. Thanks for that Kap. Frankly, I don't accept that as a response though. Walk past houses 9 and 10 and the tiles are all over the place - the damage done elsewhere on the paths is nothing like as bad. Outside houses 1-5 for example, is there a problem with loose tiles at all? In fact the only older house I've noticed a problem outside is house 6. Cars drove on those tiles last year too (with the exception of outside the new houses, obviously) and if a problem existed then it has since been fixed. So fix the problem outside the new houses - simple as. I doubt I'm the only one to have been hurt, and even if I am, one person injured is one too many, don't you think?

The barriers they put up aren't going to solve the problem that exists with the state of the footpaths as they are now, are they?

cast_iron

I wouldn't be so sure ye are right blaming the cars for the problem. Cars could drive on them all last year, yet seemingly there is only a problem outside house 6 of the original houses.

As for 9 and 10, I'd guess the slabs weren't laid properly, and this is the underlying problem. This would have to be fixed by the contractor (John Paul Construction), and getting them back now isn't going to be done overnight.

Vorsprung

Don't know Glenomena, but I heard about a recent case where somebody is suing UCD because they tripped on a slab on that path going past O'Reilly Hall towards the 46 A bus stop. And the slab is only about 1 cm higher than the next one!

I'd say send the Buildings and Services Dept a quick mail, if they'd any sense they're sort it out asap

Blush_01

Thanks Jim. Glad to see someone actually understands what people are getting at rather than spouting useless nonsense. Will do.

cast_iron

I'm not sure you understand how contracts work. The building contractor will be responsible for all the new construction for the guarantee period. Forgive me for trying to explain (not excuse) why there may be a delay in the process.
I would imagine UCD Buildings/Services should take care of the problem outside house 6.

I don't remember there being any big problem with the slabs last year that warranted repair.

Seeing you were smart enough to grasp the fact that cars actually caused the damage, I would have thought you could figure out that Buildings/Services would be the ones to fix it.