For over four years, the International Student Society (ISS) at ATU Galway has brought international, European and Irish students together through regular social activities. Our community includes over 300 active members from ATU Galway on our ISS app.

For over four years, we have held our Thursday-evening activities in the same familiar spaces: Rooms 1035 and 1036. These rooms have become part of the international student community itself. They have hosted not only ISS events, but also activities organised by university offices supporting international students.

Students know that on Thursday evenings, they can always come to Room 1036 without even checking which activity is taking place. Whether they are European or non-European, feeling far from home, looking for someone to talk to, hoping to meet new people or simply wanting to relax and have fun, they know they will find a welcoming community.

That continuity matters. Being there every Thursday throughout our programme, year after year, has created a place students can rely on. Staff can direct students who are struggling to make friends or looking for support to a familiar location. For someone adjusting to life in a new country, knowing where to find that welcome can help an unfamiliar university feel like home.

Restrictions affecting our access to suitable university rooms have now disrupted these activities and led to the cancellation of all upcoming events. We are asking the President of ATU to review this decision, help restore our events and ensure that decisions affecting our community follow a fair and transparent process.

Following our karaoke event on 24 September, one staff member raised concerns about the room’s condition, a damaged table and chairs being moved. Restrictions were then imposed on our access to the three suitable flat-floor rooms in the main building without first contacting us or giving us an opportunity to respond.

We did not break the table. Its damage had already been noticed and reported weeks before the event. We did not use tables during karaoke; they were folded away and placed to the side to create an open space. The photographs of that day’s activity, available online, show the layout and that tables were not being used.

We learned about the situation on Friday through other staff members from different departments who reached out to offer support. Until then, we were unaware that concerns were being circulated to other offices or that a decision affecting our activities had been already made. As we understand it, the decision was made by the same staff member who raised the concerns, without even contacting any of our committee or members.

Committee members contacted the staff member to explain the situation and challenge the restrictions, but those attempts did not lead to a meaningful discussion. We subsequently submitted a detailed written explanation to management which has not been responded yet.

After more than four years of using these spaces without previously receiving complaints about our use of them, we expected any concerns to be raised directly with us and the evidence considered before restrictions were imposed. Our concern is both the loss of access and the lack of an opportunity to be heard before a decision affected our entire community.

The remaining room options do not adequately accommodate our programme. Each activity requires a different layout: some need tables, while others need an open space where students can move around and interact. We need rooms where tables can be used when required or folded away and placed to the side, as they were on the karaoke evening. Rooms 1035 and 1036 have consistently accommodated these different needs throughout the past four years.

Auditoriums do not offer that flexibility. Flat-floor rooms in the modular buildings remain available, but we are not permitted to take equipaments outside the main building, making those rooms unusable for some activities. Students have also reported that these spaces are often uncomfortably cold or hot, not easy to find, and do not offer the same flexibility that the foldable tables give us.

Losing access to Rooms 1035 and 1036 disrupts more than an events programme. It disrupts a community meeting place that students and staff have relied on for over four years. Moving activities away from their established location also risks making them harder for new students to discover, and for staff members who often tell students to join us to know where we would be on that day.

Our understanding is that these restrictions apply specifically to ISS. We are asking for a clear explanation of their basis and for fair opportunities to organise activities under rules applied consistently across all societies and university departments as social activities in those rooms are not only organised by us, but also by several other departments.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time our society has felt singled out by decisions affecting international students. We want this situation to lead to lasting improvements in how concerns are addressed and how students are included in decisions that affect them.

The community first built at ATU Galway over four years ago also inspired the creation of ISS Ireland, a separate national wide not-for-profit organisation whose application for charitable status is currently awaiting approval. Its mission is to represent students and ensure that international students’ voices across Ireland are heard.

After positively impacting the lives of hundreds of students, it is deeply upsetting to see the ATU Galway society where this journey began now facing restrictions that have forced it to cancel activities. We ask ATU to recognise what grew from this community and help protect the opportunities for friendship, support and belonging that made it possible.

We ask the President of ATU to:

• Review the restrictions affecting ISS, consider our explanation and the available evidence, and restore access to Rooms 1035 and 1036 so our activities can resume.
• Ensure a fair process for future decisions, including direct communication with the society, a meaningful opportunity to respond to concerns and a clear route to request a review.
• Apply clear and proportionate rules consistently, with an explanation for any different treatment.
• Recognise and protect the community built around these Thursday gatherings, working with student representatives to keep international student activities visible, welcoming and accessible.

We take responsibility for caring for the facilities we use. Our volunteers routinely clean up after activities, and we have introduced additional checks and photographs before and after events. We are ready to address concerns constructively and expect our society and the available evidence to receive fair consideration.

We are also grateful to the many ATU staff members who support our community, recognise the importance of these gatherings and have offered help and encouragement.

Since announcing the disruption, we have received many messages from students offering support. This petition is an opportunity to bring those voices together and demonstrate how much these activities mean to our community.

Please sign and share this petition. You do not need to be an ISS member or an ATU student. International, European and Irish students, friends, families and anyone who supports an inclusive university community are welcome to stand with us.

Together, we ask ATU’s leadership to restore our gatherings, ensure students are heard and protect the community we have spent over four years building.