Welcome to the August 2021 Newsletter

By Michael Sinnott, Director, UCD Agile

There is a fog out my window this morning and the church I can usually see in sharp profile is just a grey shape looming in the grey.  The start of the new academic year feels a bit like that – a term is emerging out of the mists but bits of it are still indistinct, nothing quite feels like normal, but more normal than this time last year, and the unknowns may yet again take a control that we would not like. 

This is a realtime Newsletter welcome – the mists have lifted further (I kid you not) and I can see the green on the tower of the church with the grey behind it is a shade you might kindly call pale turquoise. 

As always, lots of planning and lots of energy launch the new academic year and I was at a Registry information session yesterday with over 170 other participants, showing both the need for clarity and something of the scale of what goes into making UCD work.  There was a session at the WST summer school in July on orientation for our returning second years – they will be a special part of the start of this year.

In this newsletter, we have a message from the Orientation team and an update from the Student Desk team, who tell us about how they’ve been preparing for the return to campus.  We hear how Alumni Relations engaged with their community during lockdown and we have an update from URMAN on their exciting collaboration: All Ireland Research Excellence Network (AIREN)  Last but not least, we have advance notice of our next Work Smarter Together event on 20th October  – more news on this to follow.  

Last weather update – the sky behind the church is that shade of old butter you might optimistically call pale gold, with the rest of the sky a stripy bright grey.  The rain has stopped.  It is going to be a wonderful day.  The best of luck for the new year and see you in the November newsletter.

Michael