SOAS Students' Union will be working to provide all SOAS students with support and information throughout the coming weeks. However, inevitably things will look very different around here for a while.
We will continue to send all student emails to provide you with up-to-date information about SOAS and SOAS Students' Union, and will keep updating our social media.
We know this is a distressing and anxious time. We're doing what we can to act in the best interest of our members. We will be frequently reviewing our decisions and activities, and will be following the advice and directions of SOAS and the Government.
Students' Union Events & Activities
All Students' Union events, including all student society events and room bookings have been cancelled between now and the end of the Easter vacation (April 20th).
This will be under weekly review (or daily if the situation continues to change) and we'll be in touch with our societies, presidents, events organisers and club captains to support you in cancelling and re-arranging when we're ready to get back to running events. We're so disappointed about having to do this, with so many incredible events planned and all the hardwork you've been putting into arranging them.
We understand that cancelling events may affect your relationship with any external organisations or individuals you have been working with. If you require assistance explaining the situation to them, please get in touch with the Co-President Activities and Events, Peadar, at pc61@soas.ac.uk.
For Sports, Jesse will be in contact with all our team captains to discuss outstanding matches. The advice from BUCS is for them to still go on despite Covid-19. If you or your team doesn’t want to continue with your matches, please contact Jesse at jd124@soas.ac.uk to discuss the possibilities.
We are closing our Bar and Shop for the time being. The health and wellbeing of our staff and our students who use these spaces is the most important thing.
At the moment we're continuing with our Elections, and will be hosting them predominantly online, providing support and additional opportunities for online campaigning and voting.
The SU offices will return to normal opening hours from Monday for as long as we can. This means that permanent staff and Sabbatical Officers will be available on campus where possible. We will be focusing our energy on responding to your queries, providing support and advice, and representing your views in SOAS' decision making. This is going to be a uniquely busy time, and we appreciate your patience in waiting for a response, or for times when people may not be available. Our staff and officers may be required to self-isolate, work from home or get ill, however we are making plans to help us be available as much as we can.
Further Advice
If you would like further advice on your particular case, we encourage you to get in touch with Student Advice and Wellbeing at SOAS, who are currently up to date with government instructions and best placed to offer advice and support on travel and immigration, as well as other queries you may have. Additionally, here is a list of resources that you may also find relevant:
Again we understand that this is a uniquely distressing time and are doing everything in our power to support you as much as we can. Please keep using the Google Form we circulated to share your own experiences of this particular situation - we have had around 200 responses so far and they are extremely useful both for our internal conversations and those we are having with SOAS management.
Stay safe, take care and please be in touch.