Following the continuous lifting of lockdown restrictions, Marjon campus has a new addition: A beach!
An instagram story teased the new arrival less than a week ago on Marjon’s official account (@marjonuni), and yesterday the page posted a series of photos to announce its opening.
This is the latest campus alteration to adapt to the COVID-19 restrictions and provide students with places to be social while still following the rules. It started before the academic year, with small shelters being put up all over campus to proceed students with outdoor spaces to socialise, even with the British rain.
Next was the arrival of the Marquees. As the freshers started to arrive on campus, the university instantly began accommodating, and placed a few large tents around campus to hold small social events for the new year group, and provide more spaces for safe socialising.
Now, with restrictions set to ease again on May 17th, it appears the university has once again prioritised its students, creating yet another inclusive outdoor space for everyone to use in the coming (hopefully warmer) months.
The Instagram post, uploaded on the 6th of May 2021 was captioned “The beach is here, ready for summer events as restrictions ease… and well done to our on-campus team for installing it in just days!”. The same message was also put on the official Marjon Facebook pages, and garnered a lot of support and praise from staff and students, past and present.
I spoke to 3rd year Journalism student and Marjon Graduate Marketing Intern Becky Toogood about her thoughts on the new beach, and she had this to say: “The beach is a really great way to bring students back together as restrictions ease. It’s an opportunity for everyone to spend more time together and make memories before the end of an academic year where there hasn’t really been the opportunity to do so.”
After the new installation of the solar panels at Marjon, some may question where the money for this beach came from, and could it have been better spent elsewhere? With the price of the attraction still to be confirmed, and many beaches within short drives of the campus, the relevance of this new addition may well be questioned. With specific events that requires a beach yet to be announced, but hinted at, the necessity of a campus beach could be disputed.
Nonetheless, we shall see what happens to the latest outdoor space at Marjon Campus.
Link to Video- https://twitter.com/jmxgxn/status/1390625105315868673?s=21