We, the students of Radboud University, are reaching out to the management of our university to reconsider the decision to dissolve the livestream option. Whether student or staff member at Radboud University, please read the letter below carefully and sign this petition if you are with us on this cause. If you have additional reasons which you want us to add to the list below, please reach out to charlotte.hullmann@ru.nl. Thank you for your support!

To whom it may concern,

From Monday, 27th September the COVID measure of having a maximum capacity of 75 students per lecture hall has been lifted. We have also been informed that based on the lifting of this COVID measure, the livestreams will no longer be offered, while recordings will still be uploaded to Brightspace. We would like to ask for further justification, and perhaps reconsideration of this decision.

Reasons to maintain livestreams:

Environmental

• For a number of students, coming to campus to follow all of the lectures live requires transport that results in CO2 emissions.

Health

• Another reason why live, online education is still desirable is that COVID-19 is still causing some students to quarantine.
• For other students, illness or disabilities may also require them to rather stay at home or close to home.
• Students who are living further away can benefit from following classes online, as they can reduce their commuting time. This may result in a positive effect on mental health.

Offering non-inferior online education is simply more inclusive.

Chance equality

• For some students, housing near the campus is not a feasible option (the current housing market being one of the many possible causes for this). The option to still follow live lectures can be very beneficial to this group of students. 
• Because of the above mentioned health impacts, offering livestreams can increase the performance of certain students.

Educational

• We, as students of Radboud University, are taught to be conscious about our CO2 footprint and the impact the increase of CO2 in our atmosphere has on our, and future generations livability on earth.

Infrastructure

• The infrastructure to livestream lectures is now in place, and enables many of us to cut down on commuting times and on the greenhouse gas emissions we cause. 

We definitely understand the motivation to stimulate on-site education, but being able to adhere to the course schedules in a more sustainable way is also a goal we hopefully share. We hope to not go back to the old ‘normal’ but to actually continue on with the creation of a new ‘normal’ that the pandemic has forced us to put in motion. Thus, we are in favor of offering hybrid classes whenever possible, and hope you might reconsider the decision to stop the livestreams. At any rate, we trust you will be able to provide us with further justification for the decision.
 
We look forward to hearing from you.