Returning to Campus: All You Need to Know

By Orla Leahy, News EditorSemester two officially began yesterday, January 17th, and will run for twelve weeks until Friday, the 8th of April. President of UCC, Professor John O’Halloran, emailed all students on Wednesday, January 5th, announcing the official arrangements in place across campus for the semester. Face-to-face teaching continues, with cohorting again in place where class numbers exceed 80% of the room capacity, or 200 persons in the large lecture theatres. For postgraduate students, onsite research remains in operation. Face masks and sanitizer are available across campus, as in semester one, and the UniCoV study also continues, which offers its participants free antigen testing kits. Students are encouraged to remain vigilant and to download one of the UCC COVID apps, as well as the HSE COVID Tracker app. With regards to student life, there is no impact on the activities of clubs and societies, provided that they meet current Government guidelines. Upcoming events may be found on social media, on the individual society and club socials, or else the UCC Societies and UCC Sport official accounts. Other noteworthy information includes the deadline for Quercus Scholarship applications. Current and prospective students may apply for an Acive Citizenship, Creative and Performing Arts, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, or Sports’ Quercus Scholarship by 16:30 on February 3rd. Further information may be found on the website of the Quercus Talented Students’ Programme. Significant events to consider attending in the first few weeks of the semester are those of the UCC Law Society during Law Week 2022. The events are aimed at students from all disciplines. The 21st Annual UCC Law Society Conference is set to take place on Tuesday, January 25th. Registration is free, and available via the Law Society’s Linktree on their social media accounts. Attendees will receive a Certificate of Attendance. The conference is entitled, ‘The Infodemic: Misinformation, Disinformation, Media and the Law.’ Guest speakers from Twitter, Facebook, Article 19, and University College London are amongst the promising line-up. On January 26th, former President of Ireland, Adjunct Professor for Climate Justice in Trinity College Dublin, and Chair of The Elders, Mary Robinson, will address the Law Society via Zoom Webinar, at 18:30. Interested students may attend via the link which will be in the Law Society’s Linktree, and may register questions for Mrs. Robinson in advance of the webinar, but not during. Mrs. Robinson will primarily discuss climate justice, but will also address a variety of legal-based questions. Other events will be advertised on social media in the build-up to Law Week. The Cork University Business School (CUBS) Week is set to take place during week 7, from the 28th of February to the 4th of March. Meadhbh Kehoe, the College of Business and Law Representative on the Students’ Union, would like to thank all of the societies within CUBS involved, and Sinead Hackett and Mary McCarthy from CUBS Student Engagement. Meadhbh claims that the week, “will be a blend of events ranging from talks from various people in industry, workshops, quizzes and fun society-ran events! I can’t give everything away yet but watch this space!”Finally, the UCC Students’ Union have announced that Raise and Give Week will take place between March 28th and April 1st. Following much deliberation, Sexual Violence Centre Cork, Age Action South, and Cork Missing Persons Search and Recovery have been selected as this year’s Raise and Give Charities. The Students’ Union would like to thank, “all the amazing charities who put themselves forward for Raise and Give.”Further student life updates will be published across the various UCC social media channels over the course of the semester.