Ireland’s
STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
Of
The
Year
Trinity News
2005
Ireland’s Oldest Student Newspaper
Est. 1947
Tuesday, February 14th, 2006
trinity.news@tcd.ie
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MUSIC
page 13
Vol.58 No.6
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Abusive email allegations against presidential candidate John Lavelle John McGuirk, a candidate in the election for Students’ Union president, has twice been accused of abusing colleagues in anonymous emails, Trinity News has learned. The final year political science student resigned from his position as Fianna Fáil youth policy co-ordinator two years ago after
allegations that he circulated libellous emails about fellow party members. Twelve messages were sent to Fianna Fáil members and the media from an anonymous Hotmail account called ‘FFinsider’ between July and September 2003. One email accused a local election candidate of racial abuse. Other emails criticised senior figures in Fianna Fáil.
After an internal investigation McGuirk, 19 at the time, was accused of being the source of the defamatory messages. Although he vigorously denies involvement, McGuirk resigned from his post in Fianna Fáil. Several months later, McGuirk was caught up in similar scandal. A series of anonymous attacks on students were sent to members of the Historical Society.
The messages were traced to McGuirk, at the time a first year student who was active in the Hist. One of the students that had been attacked by McGuirk is understood to have lodged a complaint with the Junior Dean but no disciplinary action was taken. Mr McGuirk’s political views have also proved controversial. When George W Bush visited Ireland in 2004, McGuirk received
press attention for his active role in a ‘demonstration of support’ for the President. Speaking to Trinity News, Mr McGuirk said, “These allegations are misleading and petty. I confirm that I did out a Fianna Fáil candidate who made openly racist and bigoted comments about his constituents. I did so openly and told so first, and would do so again.”
“As for criticising senior party members, I do not see how doing so is a bad quality in an SU president.” McGuirk continued, “As regards the Hist, bullying and abuse of the College network is a very serious allegation warranting severe disciplinary measures. It was investigated fully. No disciplinary action was taken and the complaint was not upheld.”
He added, “Such stories coming out of the Hist after four years, in the middle of an election, is typical.” The elections for the five Students’ Union sabbatical positions will take place next week.
Students’ Union Election Special: Pages 2 and 3
Holidays set to be slashed in term shake up
SICKENING
College plans to abolish Easter holidays, Ex-Junior Dean criticises semesterisation plans John Lavelle
John Lyons pollutes Front Square with a delicious blend of ox tongue, cat food, tequila and vegetable oil during the Sci-Fi Society’s Iron Stomach competition in RAG week Photo: Diyu Daniel Wu
Inside Meet the Candidates Who are you voting for? Use our guide to help you choose See pages 2-3
Trinity Ball News More acts and additional venue announced See page 4
Cartoon Controversy Doaa Baker on the limits of free speech in the media
See page 7
All That Jazz Johnny Taylor gives a run down on the Trinity Jazz Festival
See page 13
Trinity Hockey Triumph Trinity clinched the hockey Colours by defeating UCD at the weekend
See page 28
Index College News p1-3 News Feature p4 National p6 International p7 Features p8-10 Film p11 Music p12-13 Food & Drink p14-15 Travel p16 Careers p17
SU & Societies p18 Comment & Opinion p19-20 Letters p21 Gaeilge p22 Inter’l Students p23 Science p24 Sports Features p25-26 Sport p27-28
Look out for Issue 7 in Week 9!
€30 each for dope smokin’ guinea pigs Lecturer defends second paymentsto-users scheme John Lavelle Trinity College offered €30 each to heavy cannabis users to entice them to participate in experiments. This new revelation comes just over a week after the college was severely criticised for paying cash sums to regular ecstasy users to take part in tests. Now, Trinity News has learned that the same team of Trinity psychologists carried out a second research project which paid money to drug using students. Staff in the Psychology Department placed posters adver-
tising cash payments around campus in a bid to recruit test subjects for their research into the effects of cannabis. Over the last six months, students took part in memory and cognitive experiments lasting two to three hours in return for money. The department now has plans to carry out brain scans on cannabis users. Anti-drugs groups and parents of drugs victims reacted furiously to news of the ecstasy experiments, saying that paying participants encouraged young
Continued: Page 4 Opinion: Page 20
Easter holidays and June exams could soon be a thing of the past. College authorities have unveiled a set of radical new proposals which would see Trinity’s term dates dramatically altered. The Senior Lecturer, Prof Colm Kearney has outlined three possible new sets of term dates, each of which would bring major changes for students if adopted. Under the plans: – Two ‘semesters’ would replace the existing three terms – Students would return to college in September instead of October. – Christmas holidays would be cut short and Easter holidays would be scrapped. – Students would then be faced with twelve weeks of classes without a break before starting their final exams in April. – Trinity week would be moved from late May back to April. – A revamped ‘Trinity Term’ would consist purely of exams, results and appeals. Prof Kearney put forward the sweeping changes at a Heads of Schools meeting a fortnight ago. The proposals are part of ongoing talks about introducing modular courses to Trinity. But the proposals have already come in for severe criticism from some academics. In a Trinity News opinion piece, the former Junior Dean, Dr Seán Barrett labels the College officers
as “completely out of touch with the College community.” The possibility of holding one half of the annual exams at Christmas will also be considered. The option would see two weeks either directly before or directly after the Christmas break being set aside for examinations. However, Prof Kearney has already come out against this idea. He told academics that he would favour the ‘Option 1’ plan – a scheme which would see all final exams take place in April and early May. It is believed that this term structure also has the backing of other senior College figures, including the Provost. Schol exams would almost certainly be abolished under the new plans. Foundation
scholarships would instead be awarded to second year students based on their end of year exam results. The Senior Lecturer cited consistency with other universities and greater scope to facilitate research as some of the advantages that the new semesterised system would offer. Prof Kearney set up a committee to consider the changes and a final decision on semesterisation will be taken by the University Council in May. It was also revealed that student representatives will be given a role in reviewing the semesterisation and modularisation proposals.
Opinion: Page 20
Current Term Proposed Dates Dates Michaelmas Term: Starts Length Christmas Break: Starts Length Hillary Term: Starts Lengths Easter Break: Starts Lengths Trinity Term: Starts Length Final Exams: Starts Length Summer Break: Starts Length
October 10th 9 weeks December 9th 4 weeks January 19th 9 weeks March 13th 3 weeks April 3rd 6 weeks May 22nd 4 weeks June 16th 16 weeks
September 26th 12 weeks December 16th 3 weeks January 9th 12 weeks
April 19th 4 weeks May 5th 20 weeks
Provost: ‘I knew nothing about Pentagon funding’ Andrew Payne Serious new questions have been raised over Trinity College's acceptance of Pentagon funding for research projects. Addressing a meeting of the Students’ Union Council, the Provost John Hegarty admitted that prior to Trinity News breaking the story last October, he had been unaware of the funding. As revealed by Trinity News, the Department of Computer Science received funding in the region 100,000 euro from the US
Air Force to develop communications technology. Describing the issue of morally questionable funding as “a minefield”, Dr Hegarty suggested that the question of
ethical funding needs to be examined and “a line drawn”. The Provost also raised questions over the source of other funding on campus, asking “are the sources of money from which we currently get money so clean, so divorced from these [moral] issues, that we have no problem w i t h
OBLIVIOUS
them?” Prof Hegarty hinted that the issue with the Computer Science department may not have been the only case of foreign military funding that Trinity has accepted in recent years. The Provost meanwhile gave conditional support to the idea of fees being imposed on students availing of the College’s student health centre. Suggesting that the current level of government funding was too low to properly support a range of college services, Prof Hegarty said he would support the introduction of fees if it could
be shown to improve the quality of the service. While stating that “the principle of paying a small amount for a greater increase in service is a good thing”, he refused to be drawn on whether students have a right to free health care. Over the course of his address and questions, the Provost touched on a number of other key issues. Placing a strong emphasis on the importance of college league tables, Dr Hegarty said
Continued: Page 4