Irish Student Newspaper of the Year 2009
ECO-FRIENDLY TRAVEL, P21
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AER LINGUS ON THE RISE
ELECTION SPECIAL
BUSINESS, P18
EVERY CANDIDATE PROFILED P11 Tuesday February 9 2010
www.trinitynews.ie
Mr Hudson and Jape announced for Trinity Ball
Sabbatical campaigns kick off
Dave Molloy Editor
» 12 candidates contest five positions » Main college polling begins next Tuesday Dave Molloy Editor THIS YEAR’S Students’ Union elections kicked off on Sunday night with the traditonal “poster run” which signifies the start of campaigning. Candidates for the sabbatical positions, which were announced on Monday February 25, broke out campaign t-shirts and posters and competed for display space across campus. Many candidates opted for puns and humour in their campaigns. Jennifer Fox grabbed attanetion with a seven-foot tall fox mascot, while Entertainments candidate Conor O’Toole has built his entire campaign using as a template the graphic design of last year’s successful candidate Mick Birmingham. Others, notably the majority of the presidential candidates, have centred their campaigns around more serious issues related to their role.
Polling begins on the main Trinity grounds on Tuesday February 16. College areas such as Tallaght, St James’s hospital and associate colleges have limited polling times and dates– see page 11. The campaigning period will last until the close of polls at 4pm on Thursday February 18. The count night will be the following evening in the Mount Clare Hotel, where canidates will be eliminated until a winner is deemed elected. Of the thirteen canidates originally announced, twelve have continued to the campaigning phase, as one candidate dropped out shortly after the announcements. There are four candidates for President, three for Entertainments Office, two each for Welfare Officer and Education Officer, and one in an uncontested election for Communications. Election special: P11
€480,000 spent on staff-related legal fees in 2008 » Subscription fees to IBEC total €34,000 David Molloy Editor COLLEGE HAS spent over €480,000 in legal fees in dealing with college staff and industrial relations issues and a further €34,000 in fees to the Irish Business and Employers Confederation in a single year. The Irish Times obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act which showed that the seven Irish universities had spent a combined total of €872,770 between 2005 and 2008. In 2008, college paid IBEC a fee of €34,161. Of this, €32,184 was in membership fees; the remaining €1977 was in exchange for publications, seminars, training and other services. The same report also contains details of the universities’ expenses on legal issues in dealing with staff, revealing that in 2008, Trinity paid €480,000 in legal fees. College officials claim that these expenses represent an accumulation of costs over more than half a decade. “Over a period of 5 to 6 years a very small number of College staff took legal action against the College which, having exhausted all internal mechanisms, involved High Court and, in one case, Supreme Court actions,” said the college
Communications Office. “The legal fees for these cases fell due for payment in 2008 and accounted for 95% of the total employee-related legal costs in that year.” Legal costs in other universities in relation to staff are also high– in the same year, UCC paid €900,000 on such costs, while DCU paid €476,000 in 2007. The Irish Federation of University Teachers has criticsed the expenditure, claiming that the high payments provide little value to the universities, which are, in general, suffering problems with debt. Trinity has recently improved its balance sheets, in part by releasing the fund put in place in previous years which was designed to protect the college from financial liabilities in relation to the Fixed Term Workers Act. The Irish Universities Association has defended the expense on IBEC fees, claiming that its advisory and legal services justified the cost of membership. According to their own description, IBEC “provides its membership base of over 7500 organisations with knowledge, influence and connections. IBEC staff offer practical employer services as well as the opportunity to network and lobby at an industry level.”
Issue 8, Volume 56
Education candidate Jennifer Fox kicked off her campaign at 11pm Sunday alongside the other candidates, with some extra help from an unusual member of her campaign team. Photo: David Molloy
THE FIRST two acts for this year’s Trinity Ball have been announced– Mr Hudson and Jape. Mr Hudson, best known for his collaboration single “Supernova” with Kanye West, began his career with “A Tale of Two Cities,” which found its way into West’s hands. Following this, West offered to produce Hudson’s second work, the album “Straight No Chaser,” which was released on October 19 last. The resulting success has seen Mr Hudson collaborate with a wide selection of artists, including Dizzee Rascal, Jay-Z, Calvin Harris, Amy Winehouse, Paulo Nutini, Mika and Groove Armada. He has also been awarded Best breakthrough Act at the 2009 Q awards and Best newcomer at the 2007 UK Festival Awards. Jape have been confirmed fresh from their performance at last week’s Rag Week Ball. Perhaps most well known for the hit single “I Was a Man,” Jape performed at Oxegen, Glastonbury and Electric Picnic last year. The Irish band formed in 2003 and have three albums to date. While the most recent, “Ritual”, brought the band the most commercial success, the single from their previous album, “Floating” was used as the background music for a Bulmers Light ad, and has been frequently covered by the Raconteurs. Entertainments Officer Mick
Hudson, above, has attained international fame following his collaboration with Kanye West. Birmingham is keeping the remainder of the lineup a closely guarded secret until closer to the ticket sales date. He has, however, previously indicated that he is very pleased with the final lineup. Ball tickets go on sale Wednesday February 24 at €78. Trinity News will publish its annual Ball Guide with in-depth coverage of the full line-up and tips to make the most of the night. Pick up your copy from February 22.
‘Fees exist’: student charge spent on library and animal research David Molloy Editor THE HEADS of all seven Irish universities were called in front of the Oireachtas joint Committee on Education and Science to answer questions on how the student services charge, which is part of the annual registration fee, is being spent. Among many items discussed was Trinity’s use of the broad definition of what “student service” means to justify the use of the student services charge to fund areas which have not been historically considered part of the charge, including the library and animal testing resources. In a letter to members of the committee in advance of the meeting, the Presidents of all seven Students’ Unions expressed shock at the submissions of the university heads to the committee, specifically in relation to how the student charge was broken down. “It constitutes nothing other than a ruse designed to deflect the committee’s attention from the true nature of this charge,” they said. “The information reflected here is vastly different from
that that has been previously presented to us in our respective institution’s financial committees. We believe this amounts to subterfuge.” The university heads denied any alteration of figures outright. Dr Hegarty, Provost of Trinity, was quizzed on the imminent reclassification of library services from a core function of the university to “It depends upon what you classify as a student service ... the library is a student service.” a “student service” with effect from next year, which would allow money from the student charge to be diverted there. In addition, documents revealed that a certain portion of the charge– €898,000– was already going to the “bio resources unit.” Dr Hegarty defended this decision, saying that “it depends upon what you classify as a student service,” and that, in his opinion, the library was undoubtedly a student service. Under
questioning, the university heads eventually acknowledged that the library would have to considered a core function of a university, but argued that it could simultaneously be considered a student service, and so draw funding from the charge. UCC President Dr Michael Murphy even went so far as to suggest that filling in potholes caused by the damaging effect of freezing conditions could be considered a student service, as it might prevent students injuring themselves by tripping and falling. The Universities Act, which governs the relationship between the universities and the State, contains a provision within article 40 to allow the universities to charge any fees they wish–something which was pointed out by the university heads at the outset of the meeting. Technically, the Higher Education Authority acts only to advise the universities on what fees they should charge; the universities ordinarily accept this advice as a matter of course, but are not required to do so. The option exists for the government to alter the Universities Act to eliminate such provisions– something which
members of the committee mentioned as a possible option for future discussion. Many of the committee members argued that the diversion on funds in this manner was essentially student fees through another method. Under intensive questioning, Dr Hugh Brady, President of UCD, admitted that “at the moment, fees exist in Ireland,” something which brought hushed whispers of excitement from the representatives of the Students’ Unions and the Union of Students in Ireland present in the public area, all of whom have contested this idea for some time. During the course of the committee meeting, the Provost also claimed that students had representation on every decision-making body in college. In particular, Dr Hegarty claimed that students sat on the body responsible for the re-classification of the library as a student service. Students’ Union President Conan Ó’Broin refutes this as simply untrue. The members of the committee decided to request the Minister for Education, Batt O’Keefe TD, to attend a meeting as soon as possible so that they could express their concerns.