Campus development continues: Gender-neutral restrooms to Töölö and more comfortable furnishing to student facilities
This news article summarises the changes and improvements that will be made on the basis of the student survey concerning facilities. You can also read a longer summary of the survey as well as its conclusions and the actions to be taken in the staff’s intranet Artsi (in English)
A brief summary of the changes
- Student facilities in Sörnäinen and Töölö will be refurnished
- The Student Union room in Mylly will be refurnished
- The Student Union will get a new smaller space in the Kookos basement
- The N Building will get a Quiet Room that can be used for resting and having quiet breaks
- Restrooms on the Töölö campus will become gender-neutral
- The survey highlighted room for improvement in student facilities
The facilities survey, aimed at Uniarts Helsinki’s degree students, was conducted in May. During the last months, the results of the survey have been discussed by the facilities team, student wellbeing group and campus development teams.
Particular development targets that emerged from the responses were the lack of facilities that are suitable for rest and relaxation, furniture needs in student facilities and the number of facilities suited for individual work and teamwork. Respondents also gave various development suggestions concerning the accessibility of facilities. The feedback concerned Uniarts Helsinki’s campuses in Helsinki as well as the facilities in Seinäjoki and Kuopio.
Facilities designated for in-person teaching were mostly given good reviews. That said, students felt that more facilities are needed for confidential supervision situations, especially in the Mylly building. The facilities for playing music in Töölö and the facilities for physical movement in Sörnäinen received positive reviews. In Seinäjoki and Kuopio, users generally wished for more alternatives when choosing which facilities to use.
Campus development teams support students’ wellbeing with new furniture and facility arrangements
The campus development teams in both Töölö and Sörnäinen decided to allocate the whole sum reserved for development, 40,000 euros in total, for improving student facilities.
The Student Union facilities in Mylly will be refurnished, and soon a new smaller Student Union room will be ready for use in the Kookos basement. The lobbies when entering different floors in Mylly and on the Töölö campus will be refurnished so that they are more comfortable and functional for students. Users of the facilities will get to share their opinions about new furniture in the collaborative planning process.
The campus building on Nervanderinkatu in Töölö will get a new Quiet Room where students can rest and have quiet breaks. The room will be ready for use by the end of the year, and more details about its opening will be available soon. The Quiet Room on the Sörnäinen campus is located on the 5th floor of Kookos.
Better availability of facilities for individual work and teamwork
The lack of facilities for quiet work and teamwork was brought up by several respondents. Students were satisfied with the current office pods, but at the same time, more diverse facility options need to be introduced to support independent studies.
Problems concerning the availability of facilities will hopefully improve after exploring how the facilities could be used in new ways and by making students more aware of what options they already have for using facilities for various purposes on campus. Campus development teams are actively involved in coming up with solutions to the situation.
Students will get a chance to participate in the development work in various ways, including through campus coffee breaks that will be organised later this autumn. More detailed information on these events will be available later.
Uniarts Helsinki will also discuss the development of its facilities in Seinäjoki during this autumn term.
Accessibility of our facilities
Students find that the accessibility of our facilities is an important matter in order to ensure equality and safe spaces on campus.
The survey brought up the wish to make the restrooms on the Töölö campus gender-neutral. The Töölö campus development team decided that the restrooms for students and staff on campus will be gender-neutral in the future. Dressing room signs will also take all genders into consideration in the future. The needed changes will be made this autumn term. However, there are still gender-binary restrooms at the Helsinki Music Centre in the M Building, for example.
Based on responses to the survey, it was noted that the university should keep developing its processes to ensure accessible entry to its facilities. The facilities team is currently looking for ways to improve accessible passages and to better share information on the topic with the users of the facilities. Guidance for people with vision impairments at the Helsinki Music Centre will also be improved based on the feedback received.
Further development of the facilities will continue based on the feedback
The facilities team is taking measures to improve various technical aspects of facilities based on the feedback. Some of the challenges faced in the Mylly building will be fixed in connection with the warranty repairs of the building.
Students are reminded that they can report their observations about indoor air quality to the occupational safety representative. The university’s working group for indoor air quality will go through all reports.
Once again, a big thank you to all survey respondents! If you have any questions about the survey, you can contact Jessica Aaltonen (jessica.aaltonen@uniarts.fi) directly. A separate survey will be conducted in November among those who are not degree students.