By Anna Boyne (Impact Magazine)
“The university students this year must be the worst for dropping litter,” reads one message on the Lenton Community Facebook group.
“It’s going to cause rodent problems,” says another.
“So selfish and dangerous.”
“It stinks!”
“Struggling to sleep due to how loud students are being. It’s antisocial and we’re so tired at work the following day.”
“Atrocious!”
But are students really to blame for all the community’s problems? Is it just a handful of troublemakers giving everyone a bad reputation? What about those giving back to their neighborhoods and shaping a better space for all?
The University of Nottingham (UoN) Community Engagement team is a good place to start.
Community Engagement
The Community Engagement team is a university department whose mission is to create “a community where students are empowered as responsible citizens, actively engage with residents, and contribute to a vibrant and thriving environment for all”.
They hold community events, offer advice, patrol the local areas, and help resolve home security issues.
Georgia Varunakulasingham joined the scheme as a fresher two years ago. Now in her fifth and final year, she is a Senior Community Engagement Ambassador.
She says: “A lot of negative stereotypes get attached to us, whether they’re true or not. But things are definitely improving.”
Returning to Nottingham after a placement year, Georgia adds: “I could really tell how things have changed within the community and that students have been more receptive to us [Community Engagement].”
Good Neighbour Award
The Good Neighbour Award, run by Community Engagement, seeks to celebrate students who’ve made an especially positive impact in their local areas.
One student award winner, Sophie, found her elderly neighbour, Christine, unconscious on Harrington Drive.
She had tripped on a tree stump, fractured her wrist and blacked out. Sophie called an ambulance, and Christine was taken to QMC where she was kept for several days due to her injuries.
The local resident who submitted an award recommendation for Sophie, on behalf of her neighbour Christine, said: “Because of the concussion, Christine wasn’t aware who had helped her but was visited by Sophie to check how she was, so now knows who she had to thank.”
“This student has been great for her neighbour and was wonderful in this situation.”
ConSoc
Another way students give back to their local areas is through society involvement.
UoN Conservation Society works in partnership with Earthwatch, an environmental nonprofit, to run their Tiny Forest scheme. Student volunteers collect data on the tennis pitch sized area of land in Bulwell where Earthwatch have planted 600 trees.
Alistair Tiplady, ConSoc Garden Coordinator, originally from Huddersfield, says they’ve noticed a big difference in soil quality. “Looser soil means that the water can drain better and there’s not as much water logging so small insects can use the ground.”
The Architectural Environment Engineering student tells Impact: “Not only is it good for the animals, but it’s also good for flood mitigation.”
ConSoc have also dedicated much of their time to clearing invasive plants in Beeston Sidings which had previously hindered newt reproduction.
The society works a lot with the University Landscape and Grounds team to plant trees around campus and conduct wildlife surveys. In their quest to reduce waste pollution, ConSoc has been granted access to Nottinghamshire Council litter picking tools.
Every Saturday morning, Alistair, 21, runs sessions at their community garden opposite Ancaster Hall. Students and locals alike get stuck in, growing plants and vegetables. This year ConSoc are planning to donate their produce to Soup Runners- another volunteering student group who carry out food distributions for homeless people in Nottingham City Centre.
Sustainability in the streets
Working towards Nottingham’s aim to be carbon neutral by 2028, the Community Engagement team have focused many of their initiatives on sustainability.
“It’s the ambassador’s job to make sure that the students in the area are recycling correctly,” says Georgia.
Speaking on her personal experiences moving to Nottingham from London, Georgia says: “I think the main issue is people have come up from all different places around the country where there’s different regulations and different things are allowed in bins. So that’s where a lot of the confusion comes from.”
But the fifth year Chemical and Environmental Engineering student can see the impact they’ve had over the past few years. “There’s a very visible difference just by looking at the streets in the community.”
In February, the team conducted a survey of Lower Harrington Drive after several complaints about bins being permanently left out on the street. The street is predominantly home to UoN students, with some Nottingham Trent students and long-term residents.
Over 50% of Lower Harrington residents did not know they had to return their bin to the property once it had been emptied. All but one said they’d now aim to pull bins back in.
Head of Community Engagement, Brydie Adams, oversees the work of student ambassadors and initiatives.
Brydie found that a key factor in street untidiness was miscommunication from local authorities about their expectations of residents.
“It’s not within our control as a university. That’s why that partner relationship with the council is so important.”
Since the survey, the team have had no more complaints about street cleanliness.
New intervention approach
But of course, it’s not all plain sailing.
Despite many positive resident testimonies, Brydie says: “we do sometimes get students that are disruptive in the community. It’s a bit of a mixed bag.”
We really try to work with students on developing that level of empathy, understanding if they are disruptive in the community and what impact that is having on their neighbours. Residents might have work, shift patterns, and children.”
This year the team has implemented a new intervention strategy for dealing with resident complaints. They ask residents to provide as much evidence as possible to assess the incident severity. The Community Engagement Social Responsibility Manager then visits the student property with a Nottinghamshire Council Neighbourhood Safety Officer.
“We’ve actually seen a reduction in noise complaints post intervention which is really positive.”
Charity initiatives
Last year, the team ran their first community swap shop. Students and long-term residents were invited to bring unwanted household items to Thomas Helwyns Baptist Church in Lenton.
“We thought we would run it for just one day, but it was so popular that we ended up running it for three days,” says Brydie.
“It was a great success and we’ll definitely be running it again this year. Everything that wasn’t collected at the end of the three day swap shop we donated to Trent Compassion Trust, who support individuals fleeing domestic violence and asylum seekers starting from scratch.”
Community Engagement also works closely with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to encourage students to donate unwanted clothes and household items, especially at the end of term. BHF bins can be found around the local areas and on campus near halls.
Rowdy student neighbours
It’s easy to dismiss students as messy, noisy and disrespectful.
Rarely living in one house for more than a year means there’s less incentive to look after their local areas. More flexible schedules and fewer real world responsibilities mean house parties and weekday nights out are more feasible for them than other residents.
But it’s clear that many students do want to be good neighbours.
They consistently respond well to the Community Engagement team who in turn regularly receive positive testimonies from longer term residents.
Whether that’s through running charitable events, conservation efforts, street cleanliness initiatives, or looking out for more vulnerable neighbours, life in Lenton helps shape good citizens who give back to their local communities and beyond.
Or maybe in a few years time, we’ll be the ones taking to TikTok to vent about our rowdy student neighbours…