By Ashmita Senthilatiban, with assistance from Josephine Hoe
Moving to a new state alone to start the JD this year came with fears and many expectations. I had a mental checklist of things I strived to do, including trying to get out of my comfort zone and get involved at USYD. I figured this would allow me to meet new people and start fresh. However, life is unpredictable and before I knew it I was on a flight back home merely 2 months later. Reflecting back, I have now come to accept the situation but at the time, I was distraught, my mind was constantly racing and I couldn’t sleep for months. Despite being grateful to be back with my family and friends, I had lost any motivation to finish the semester. I was disappointed that I wouldn’t have the experience that I envisioned this year, and so any effort to reach that goal now seemed pointless. Upon interviewing other first years in the student body, I realised that this disappointment was also reflected in their experiences. Nevertheless, we tried to make the best of our circumstances, enthusiastically joining online sessions and making an extra effort to stay connected with the faculty.
The use of zoom to deliver tutorials took some getting used to and presented many obstacles. Besides connectivity issues caused by oversaturation of users on zoom, I personally found online tutorials intimidating. Being a rather timid person myself, I struggled with participating in class. Based on the declining participation levels through the semester it was evident that I wasn’t alone in how I felt. However, my experience greatly improved in semester 2. Since there were no disruptions through this semester and both students and lecturers had grown accustomed to online learning, it was as close to a normal semester as possible. Students interviewed had also reflected that they were more confident with class-participation when many of their classmates had been reduced to tiny boxes in the Zoom gallery. I’m grateful to have had lecturers and tutors that were understanding and accommodating to the effects that this global pandemic and the transition to a fully online system of learning has had on us students. However, the response from the student body has acknowledged a preference for brick-and-mortar classes, as the online format had created a less professional environment, with many students confessing that they were watching lectures while lying in bed.
Being back home in Perth, I now run 3 hours behind Sydney. Initially, this was a challenge as I had scheduled most of my classes at 9am, meaning my days now started at 6am. Not being a morning person myself, I found it difficult to stay awake during my morning classes. However, there was a silver lining to this in that finishing my classes earlier in the day left me more time to spend on revision or preparation for my tutorials. By reorganizing my daily routine, I was able to make this lifestyle work for me.
I couldn’t help but initially feel disconnected from my cohort and the law school community in general. Unlike face to face tutorials, online tutorials didn’t provide an avenue to get to know your peers since tutors barely had enough time to deliver the weekly content. While sceptical of online events myself, SULS events surprised me just by how interactive they were. I was glad to have the opportunity to hear from often esteemed and diverse panels from all around Australia, especially after appreciating how complicated these events often are to plan from experience. Attending these events allowed me to still experience being part of the law school and SULS even though I wasn’t physically on campus. Upon speaking to several students on their personal connections to the Sydney Law community, many of them have acknowledged that they have felt significantly less connected. While some highlighted that the online social events were wonderful alternatives for networking and corresponding with school authorities, others indicated that they miss engaging with other students in tutorials to check in on their own learnings. Connection with the community is easily taken for granted, especially if it comes naturally. With the pandemic, it took additional effort to reach out to schoolmates, and to attend online socialising sessions despite the unfamiliarity.
The biggest concern that was raised by the student community was the online examination format. A plethora of online horror stories were recalled by students struggling with the shift from a physical to online examination format. One student recalled handing in an examination paper for the wrong subject, and another lamented the inability to takedown physical notes in the margins of a hardcopy, and had once accidentally deleted her paper halfway through a 24-hour paper. The increased academic demands of a take-home or open-book exam, a word count limit, and experiences with technological errors and glitches have left many students frustrated. On the other end of the spectrum, there were students that enjoyed the online examination format. They cited reasons such as greater accessibility to notes, avoidance of that all too familiar hand cramp, and less memorisation that helped reserve energy for more in-depth research.
The SULS Women’s committee has had its own share of technological inconveniences regarding the recent Women’s Mentoring Program (WMP) Launch. The WMP Launches in the past few years made use of the physical campus where mingling and networking would have naturally occurred. As a result of moving the entire program online this year, our unfamiliarity with Zoom led us to create over 50 zoom links that were later deemed unnecessary due to the break-out room feature. One of us quipped that under ordinary circumstances, we would not have to go through such administrative hassle, as a single email on the location of the launch would have sufficed. While the work-from-home culture has been generally praised for its flexibility in working schedules and accessibility to almost all, we should be careful to rush into this new world of online work and learning, lest we forget the joys that came from physical community and brick-and-mortar learning.
This article was co-written through the perspective of Ashmita Senthilatiban, with Josephine Hoe reviewing the feedback from the student body. Our saving grace this year was the opportunity to serve the student body through the SULS Women’s Committee. Despite not being able to meet any of these amazing ladies so far, being a part of the committee helped us feel connected with SULS and our peers. From having to transition our biggest events online, figuring out the intricacies of Zoom, the never-ending Google documents, excel spreadsheets and brainstorming of future events, distance was never a barrier. Our weekly meetings provided a sense of normalcy this year and reduced the overwhelming sense of isolation we both felt by being geographically distant. We will always be thankful to our incredible committee; Sinem, Michelle, Madi, Melina and Amber for their constant support and making 2020 so memorable.