Petition for bookable PGR desks - foster mental well-being, create community and a place to leave your mug
As PGR students of the HUM faculty at UEA our research represents the future output in terms of REF and the production of new academics and researchers into the Higher Education sector. Many of us are funded representing a significant investment from the University, others who are not funded work hard to pay their fees and juggle the twin pressures of employment and their research.
There is a large problem within HUM PGR community in particular – in that there is a lack of any discernable PGR research community that is exacerbated by the question of desk space. With space being a contested resource within the Faculty we recognise the pressures that have constricted or permanently removed school PGR offices over the last few years. However, in the bid to open up more space for seminar rooms and administration, the space within which to work with your peers has disappeared. The positive impact of connectivity – of productivity, improved mental health and the building of a thriving research community needs the space within which to form, work and grow.
The hot-desk space of 01. in Arts is greatly underused. Where students who work regularly on campus are forced to build little fiefdoms of books they are told periodically to move on, other desks remain empty. It is an uninhabited and removed space. We recognise that for PT students, those that work off campus and/or remotely there is a need for some hot-desking space on campus. However many of us PGRs that work daily on campus are not ATs and have no access to an office, or require a distinct space to work on campus that is free from the pressures of their caring responsibilities the situation is untenable. We need somewhere to work, somewhere to have our resources and somewhere to work and connect with our peers. Moreover, hot desks do not allow for the use of software which is often crucial to our research. Currently we need to re-download certain software each time we use a new computer in the hot desk area.
In order to facilitate this inclusion of PGRs onto campus working space we propose the solution of bookable space within the existing HUM PGR space and the new PGR space in 01. The separate schools could have an allocation of desks that within a designated area, students could then book on a term by term basis that reflects their research needs and would facilitate the start of a PGR research community. Those that need to use specialist software could install this onto ‘their’ term computer. Under this solution there would still be hot-desking space available for those who do not often work on campus. However, this solution would greatly diminish the isolation felt by many in our cohort and address the working space problems that face a large number of us.
Please sign this petition if you agree that it would be helpful to PGRs to try out a bookable desk space system.
(Photo: Mendel by Anonymous)
Updates
November 10, 2015
The quiet reality of working in isolation is something many of you have described to me in private messages. I am currently working on a formal proposal to address how these empty spaces can be better managed to support our collective well-being. Please keep noting your experiences because they provide the necessary evidence for our upcoming meetings with the faculty.
November 10, 2015
Seeing this conversation grow confirms how many of us feel isolated by the current lack of dedicated workspace. This momentum suggests a genuine desire to build a more connected research community rather than continuing to work in silos.
24 Comments
I tend to work at home because i dislike the hushed and crowded work space of the library and the impersonal space of the PGR Arts hot desk room. When i had to use those facilities for a couple of weeks due to my computer breaking, i found them claustrophobic and impractical (I had to install vital software each time i logged on). I think such a space outlined in this petition would create a stimulating research community and might encourage me to spend more time on campus.
As a PhD supervisor, I have repeatedly heard the complaint from supervisees that there was a lack of a sense of a learning community exacerbated by overcrowding. I give my wholehearted support to my students' concerns.
As a Phd student, I find the lack of designated space for hum pgrs a source of distress. Having a guaranteed space, in which one can leave the personal effects which make a comfortable work environment is necessary- and having a designated area for pgrs to mix is also essential for healthy and productive research. We are not computers! As it is the pgr room has disturbing levels of ambient noise and very bad lighting, on top of lack of designated space. The strange sense of isolation by the fact that philosophy doesn't even have a specific physical space. For all these reasons I work from home- despite the lonliness and isolation it inevitably entails. I simply don't have a sense of belonging on campus.
I live in that pgr room on 01. I eat there , work there, and yes have even slept there. I leave my books there bc carting them to and fro is unrealistic. Still, I come into the room everyday with the fear that all my stuff--mugs, books, notes, etc, will have been moved bc I'm not meant to leave stuff there for extended period of time. The ability to book the space might assuage these fears and make it easier for me to nest in a space that should be designed for pgr students to do just that.
I have only recently started my PhD at UEA, but the lack of space and, as a result, community, has been the single biggest problem to my integration so far. If this problem is allowed to continue, it will most certainly impede on my intellectual development and the quality of my final PhD thesis.
I find it impossible to work at home and yet I have a large stack of books and papers that I would prefer to keep at my UEA desk. It would make me feel more like I belonged at UEA.
Providing more suitable space for PGR students to work in is essential in securing thier engagement with and contribution to the academic community. I hope this issue is given the attention it deserves
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Petition for bookable PGR desks - foster mental well-being, create community and a place to leave your mug
As PGR students of the HUM faculty at UEA our research represents the future output in terms of REF and the production of new academics and researchers into the Higher Education sector. Many of us are funded representing a significant investment from the University, others who are not funded work hard to pay their fees and juggle the twin pressures of employment and their research.
There is a large problem within HUM PGR community in particular – in that there is a lack of any discernable PGR research community that is exacerbated by the question of desk space. With space being a contested resource within the Faculty we recognise the pressures that have constricted or permanently removed school PGR offices over the last few years. However, in the bid to open up more space for seminar rooms and administration, the space within which to work with your peers has disappeared. The positive impact of connectivity – of productivity, improved mental health and the building of a thriving research community needs the space within which to form, work and grow.
The hot-desk space of 01. in Arts is greatly underused. Where students who work regularly on campus are forced to build little fiefdoms of books they are told periodically to move on, other desks remain empty. It is an uninhabited and removed space. We recognise that for PT students, those that work off campus and/or remotely there is a need for some hot-desking space on campus. However many of us PGRs that work daily on campus are not ATs and have no access to an office, or require a distinct space to work on campus that is free from the pressures of their caring responsibilities the situation is untenable. We need somewhere to work, somewhere to have our resources and somewhere to work and connect with our peers. Moreover, hot desks do not allow for the use of software which is often crucial to our research. Currently we need to re-download certain software each time we use a new computer in the hot desk area.
In order to facilitate this inclusion of PGRs onto campus working space we propose the solution of bookable space within the existing HUM PGR space and the new PGR space in 01. The separate schools could have an allocation of desks that within a designated area, students could then book on a term by term basis that reflects their research needs and would facilitate the start of a PGR research community. Those that need to use specialist software could install this onto ‘their’ term computer. Under this solution there would still be hot-desking space available for those who do not often work on campus. However, this solution would greatly diminish the isolation felt by many in our cohort and address the working space problems that face a large number of us.
Please sign this petition if you agree that it would be helpful to PGRs to try out a bookable desk space system.
(Photo: Mendel by Anonymous)
Updates
November 10, 2015
The quiet reality of working in isolation is something many of you have described to me in private messages. I am currently working on a formal proposal to address how these empty spaces can be better managed to support our collective well-being. Please keep noting your experiences because they provide the necessary evidence for our upcoming meetings with the faculty.
November 10, 2015
Seeing this conversation grow confirms how many of us feel isolated by the current lack of dedicated workspace. This momentum suggests a genuine desire to build a more connected research community rather than continuing to work in silos.
24 Comments
I am doing a PhD. I need a lot of books. I need somewhere reliable to work. I need a PC profile that meets my needs - I work in the Arabic script and transliteration system and I have to set things up on different computers depending on where I am working. I need to see other people who are also writing their PhD. When we have had opportunities to work and study together as PGRs and ATs I have felt great benefits - ad hoc ideas, advice, discussion, and so on. The normal stuff that research students on other campuses do. Please can we try to really listen and act on what PhD students at UEA are saying.
I tend to work at home because i dislike the hushed and crowded work space of the library and the impersonal space of the PGR Arts hot desk room. When i had to use those facilities for a couple of weeks due to my computer breaking, i found them claustrophobic and impractical (I had to install vital software each time i logged on). I think such a space outlined in this petition would create a stimulating research community and might encourage me to spend more time on campus.
As a PhD supervisor, I have repeatedly heard the complaint from supervisees that there was a lack of a sense of a learning community exacerbated by overcrowding. I give my wholehearted support to my students' concerns.
As a Phd student, I find the lack of designated space for hum pgrs a source of distress. Having a guaranteed space, in which one can leave the personal effects which make a comfortable work environment is necessary- and having a designated area for pgrs to mix is also essential for healthy and productive research. We are not computers! As it is the pgr room has disturbing levels of ambient noise and very bad lighting, on top of lack of designated space. The strange sense of isolation by the fact that philosophy doesn't even have a specific physical space. For all these reasons I work from home- despite the lonliness and isolation it inevitably entails. I simply don't have a sense of belonging on campus.
I live in that pgr room on 01. I eat there , work there, and yes have even slept there. I leave my books there bc carting them to and fro is unrealistic. Still, I come into the room everyday with the fear that all my stuff--mugs, books, notes, etc, will have been moved bc I'm not meant to leave stuff there for extended period of time. The ability to book the space might assuage these fears and make it easier for me to nest in a space that should be designed for pgr students to do just that.
I have only recently started my PhD at UEA, but the lack of space and, as a result, community, has been the single biggest problem to my integration so far. If this problem is allowed to continue, it will most certainly impede on my intellectual development and the quality of my final PhD thesis.
I find it impossible to work at home and yet I have a large stack of books and papers that I would prefer to keep at my UEA desk. It would make me feel more like I belonged at UEA.
Providing more suitable space for PGR students to work in is essential in securing thier engagement with and contribution to the academic community. I hope this issue is given the attention it deserves
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I am doing a PhD. I need a lot of books. I need somewhere reliable to work. I need a PC profile that meets my needs - I work in the Arabic script and transliteration system and I have to set things up on different computers depending on where I am working. I need to see other people who are also writing their PhD. When we have had opportunities to work and study together as PGRs and ATs I have felt great benefits - ad hoc ideas, advice, discussion, and so on. The normal stuff that research students on other campuses do. Please can we try to really listen and act on what PhD students at UEA are saying.