TWO DOOR DINEMA CLUB WILL HEADLINE this year’s Trinity Ball, Trinity Ents has announced this morning.
Trinity Ent’s revealed this year’s line-up through their Instagram yesterday morning, with acts such as Monjola, Somebody’s Child and Hannah Laing to feature on the bill.
O en described as “Europe’s largest private party”, Trinity Ball will take place on campus on Friday April 14. is may be the last Trinity Ball on campus for at least the next few years, with Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) telling Trinity News in January that construction works associated with the Old Library Redevelopment Project will mean access to two main
rst ever return of a RON result in a TCDSU election.
APOLL CONDUCTED BY TRINITY NEWS
indicates a likely victory for László Molnár in the race for Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President with a signi cant margin.
e poll also shows a signi cant lead for Olivia Orr in the Ents race, though less decisive than Molnár ’s. e share of votes to re-open nominations (RON) in multiple uncontested elections is noticeably higher than is usual, indicating a heightened interest in this option a er last year saw the
Carried out between 21 and 25 February, the poll uses a representative sample of 509 students. e margin of error is plus or minus 4.0%.
President
In the presidential race, László Molnar leads overwhelmingly with 58.4% of rst preference votes, a greater share than all other candidates combined, including the option to re-open nominations (RON). Incumbent Education O cer Zöe Cummins and outside candidate Tilly Schaaf are almost tied on 18.3% and 18% of the vote respectively, while 4.9% of rst preferences went to RON.
A 4% margin of error indicates
that Molnár ’s true lead is somewhere between 36 and 44 percentage points. ough the proportion of undecided voters is not insigni cant at 28.1%, it is the lowest in any race, and is unlikely to a ect results signi cantly when voting opens on Tuesday. e elimination and later reinstatement of Cummins on the ballot is likely to have hurt her electoral prospects – it is important to note that she was eliminated for the majority of the time the poll was live – but the data indicate that it is not Molnar , but Schaaf, who gained from this.
Among 146 responses (with a margin of error of 8%) submitted between the launch of the poll and the announcement that Cummins had been disquali ed, Molnar
gained 63.6% of rst preferences, Cummins 26.2%, and Schaaf 9.3%. Schaaf’s subsequent 8-point rise likely came at the expense of Cummins’ 8-point drop, while Molnar ’s share decreased rather than in ated. With Cummins back on the ballot, it is possible that she will see a boost in numbers –however, a 45.2% plurality of Schaaf voters’ second preference currently go to Molnár , compared to only 16.1% for Cummins, indicating that Schaaf’s elimination would likely cement his win.
Education
Polling at 80.6%, Deputy AHSS Convenor Catherine Arnold is set for a straightforward win in her
Arnold comfortably leads, despite largest RON polling College to return human remains to Inishbo n
Irish unity and TCDSU: starting a constructive conversation
Can computers feel?
uncontested bid for Education O cer, despite an unusually high RON vote at 19.4%. Arnold is slightly less popular among male voters, at 76.2% compared to 82.7% among women and 84.6% among non-binary voters, and is signi cantly less favoured by centre-right voters, among whom the RON vote is over 30%.
ough the proportion of undecided voters is relatively high at 45.83%, this is nothing unusual in polls on uncontested races, and Arnold can be quite con dent of victory on ursday.
Welfare & Equality
Equality O cers, unlikely to stray signi cantly from the path set by predecessors Chloe Staunton and Sierra Müller-Owens.
Communication & Marketing
Despite a minimal campaign, Aiesha Wong can be equally con dent of victory as the sole candidate in her race, receiving 87.7% of rst preferences. ere is little di erentiation among preferences across the board with voters, with Wong polling roughly equally across gender, faculty, and union experience.
candidate. Just 3.3% of voters intend to vote RON for Ents, the smallest in any race. While Nadia polls evenly among men and women, female voters are almost 40% more likely to vote for Orr, with a 7% margin of error. Kelly interestingly polls almost 90% better among male voters than female, with a margin of error of 9%. Non-binary voters appear more likely to vote Nadia than any other candidate, though this sample is small and possibly not representative.
Editor
Deputy Editor
Assistant Editor
Managing Editor
Online Editor
Online Editor
Life Editor
Deputy Life Editor
News Editor
News Analysis Editor
Features Editor
Comment Editor
Scitech Editor
Sport Editor
Chair of Gaeilge Board
Head Photographer
Head Videographer
Head Copyeditors
Shannon Connolly
Kate Henshaw
Ellen Kenny
Eva O’Beirne
Shannon McGreevy
Adam Balchin
Ella Sloane
Ella Bleu Kiely
David Wolfe
Aidan Cusack
Lara Mellett
Abby Cleaver
Lauren Vrbanic
Séaghan Ó Domhnalláin
Holly Níc omáis
Fern Kelly
Marianna Mora
Finola Murphy
Ruth McGann
In the Welfare & Equality race, Aoife Bennett can be even more con dent, receiving 91.1% of rst preference votes, with just 8.9% being cast for RON. Bennett is particularly popular among female voters, receiving 96.2% of rst preferences in this category, compared to a slightly lower 84.3% among men.
ough the comprehensiveness of Bennett’s manifesto has been criticised for failing to mention students’ with disabilities or ethnic minority students, her emphasis on period product provision, sexual health, and consent training have gained her favour among the essential female vote in her race. She appears likely to maintain continuity with previous Welfare &
ough she is a union-outsider Wong’s extensive comms-related experience puts her in a position to give the union a bold visual identity and comprehensive online presence.
Ents
In a relatively smooth Ents race, polling shows Trinity Ents veteran Olivia Orr leading signi cantly with 48.3%, matching the combined vote of both Hist Ents o cer Sam Kelly and return challenger Nadia, who are exactly tied on 24.1%. With almost 30% of voters undecided there is still room for change; however, more than half of both rival candidates’ second preference votes go to Orr, indicating a near-certain third count victory for her, a er the elimination of RON and one other
UT
In a refreshingly uneventful race for Editor of the University Times (UT), sole candidate Clara Roche looks set for victory on the rst count at 80.9% of rst preference votes. ough also unusually high, the 19.1% RON vote is perhaps less surprising in this race than others, given the turbulence the paper has faced over the past 12 months. Among a sample of 295 voters, male voters are more than twice as likely as female voters to vote to reopen nominations for UT Editor, though Roche’s vote breaks down fairly equally among all other voter categories. At 65.8%, voters are more decided than in any other uncontested race, indicating that it is being followed more closely than others.
stage areas will be lost. Trinity Ball 2024 will likely be held outside the College’s walls. is year’s theme is “Back to the ‘90s”.
Two Door Cinema Club are a band from Bangor, Belfast, and were formed in 2007.
Last year, Trinity Ball also platformed a number of student acts, which appears to be the case again this year, with DUDJ and the Trinity Orchestra due to perform at the event.
Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) hinted last week that students should expect to see some “familiar names”.
Two Door Cinema Club were featured on BBC’s “ e Sound of … 2010” in December 2009, and were awarded the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the year 2010 on 3 March 2011.
Moncrie is a singer from Waterford, moving to London at 19 to pursue his career. Elton John
once described Moncrie as “one to watch”.
Tickets will go on sale tomorrow, Wednesday March 1, at 8:30 am. Students who pre-registered for tickets will receive a link via email from TCDSU to buy tickets.
Trinity Ball has been held on campus every year since its inception in 1959, with the exception of 2020 and 2021 when the event was not held due to pandemic restrictions.
Zöe Cummins is currently TCDSU’s Education O cer, on a sabbatical year before entering her Senior Sophister year as an astrophysics student. She was the TCDSU Convenor for STEM students, as well as President of Trinity SUAS Society. Following a disquali cation notice from the ballot for a breach of election regulations, Cummins was subsequently reinstated on this year’s presidential ballot.
László Molnár is a Junior Sophister Philosophy, Political Science, Economics and Sociology (PPES) student running the position of TCDSU President. He is the current Social Sciences and Philosophy (SSP) Convenor and chair of Trinity Students4Change. At Dining Hall Hustings, Molnár was highly critical of the union, but said that he believed in the “rebirth” of TCDSU.
Tilly Schaaf is a Junior Sophister general physics student, running for the position of TCDSU President. Describing herself as the breath of “fresh air” the Student Union needs, Schaaf chose to run for president as she had ideas piling up on how to improve the student experience, and they seemed “straightforward” to improve the “general e ciency” of things.
Final year sophister philosophy and sociology student Catherine Arnold intends to “hit the ground running” as the potential education o cer for the upcoming academic year. Con dent that they can “do the job well” Arnold feels that their study of philosophy and sociology in uence how they would approach the trials and tribulations in their role as education o cer.
Nadia, in her nal year of computer science, is running a second time for ENTs o cer. As a mixed-race Irish-Egyptian queer female, Nadia’s campaign is centred around representation, inclusivity and diversity. Nadia speci cally addressed nancial accessibility during SU hustings this week, and stated that “even a little bit can help someone”.
Aoife Bennett is a Junior Sophister English studies student. She is research o cer of the TCDSU Welfare and Equality Committee and served as the Welfare O cer of the Trinity Hall Junior Common Room (JCR). Bennett has highlighted the possibility of working with the CSC to provide greater diversity and inclusivity training.
Aiesha Wong is a Senior Sophister law and political science student. She is the current chair of DU Dance, having previously served as public relations o cer (PRO). She is the visual communications o cer of DU Photography Association. She served as a rst-year Law class representative for TCDSU. At Media Hustings, Wong said that she “want(s) to promise things that are practical”.
Sam Kelly is a Junior Sophister BESS student. He is the current Ents O cer of the College Historical Society (the Hist), having previously served as a ProRecords Secretary for the society. Kelly has stressed accessibility and student safety during events as part of his campaign, prioritising daytime events and steward training.
Olivia Orr is a Junior Sophister PPES student. She is the current treasurer of Trinity Ents. She previously served as Entertainments O cer for Trinity Hall JCR. Orr has emphasised the importance of a dedicated welfare and accessibility o cer on the Ents Committee to cement their inclusion when devising any Ents Events.
Clara Roche is a Senior Sophister history and political science student. Roche has previously worked in UT as Deputy Editor, prior to calls for the current editor’s impeachment, which led to some senior sta being sacked. Trying to address internal issues in UT is central to Roche’s campaign, with her promising to appoint a ‘Board of Advisors’ to deal with them.
Molnár leads the president candidates by a signi cant margin
THIS YEAR’S PRESIDENTIAL RACE
APPEARS to be taking a traditional pathway: three candidates, one de ned by her experience in the union; one de ned by his stance against the union’s bureaucracy and disconnect from the student body; and a moderate outsider seeking meaningful reform.
Molnár ’s campaign of highlighting issues within the union appears to be succeeding in winning votes from students he describes as “sick and tired”. In Trinity News’ poll of 509 students, Molnár leads the presidential race receiving the rst preference of 58.84% of decided voters.
Candidates Zöe Cummins and Tilly Schaaf are head-tohead for runner up with 18.26% and 17.97% of decided voters respectively. While Molnár leads by a signi cant margin, it is important to note that over 28% of poll respondents remain undecided about their preferred candidate. is large cohort of undecided voters leaves room for other candidates to win a surprise victory over Molnár . A further 3.5% of students polled indicated that they would vote to reopen nominations as well as 5.7% of respondents who said that they do not intend to vote.
Among 146 responses (a margin of error of 8%) submitted between the launch of the poll and the announcement that Cummins had been disquali ed, Molnár gained 63.6% of rst preferences, with Cummins at 26.2%, and Schaaf 9.3%. Schaaf’s subsequent 8-point rise likely came at the expense of Cummins’ 8-point drop, while Molnár moderated rather than in ated.
Molnárfi leads among voters of all political leanings, though, predictably, most strongly amongst le -wing voters, at 76.1% of that group’s
rst preferences. Similarly, 69.1% of students who expressed a desire for the union to engage in more direct action cast their vote for Molnár , an indication that his promise to bring the union “back to the grassroots” has resonated with voters.
Molnár ’s lead drops most signi cantly among voters who have previously held positions within TCDSU, an indication that his plans to transform the union are less attractive to those with “insider” experience. ough Molnár still leads this group at 46.4%, Cummins garners a signi cant 30.4%, compared to just 11.5% of other members of the student body.
A variety of candidates
Leading the poll, László Molnár is a foreseeable frontrunner as the race’s most radical candidate. Students are experiencing high costs of living and issues accessing student services, this desire for radical change is exempli ed by protests in Front Square last October during which students demanded reform. e student body’s patience is waning and ’s political involvement and chairing of Students4Change makes him well known for raising a voice against the issues which are ecting students most.
Molnár ’s popularity in the poll suggests that students are seeking to bring about this change through their vote, something which the candidate’s hustings speeches promise. At Dining Hall Hustings last Monday, Molnár said that “we are all sick and tired” of our union “doing nothing”. e candidate’s vision of a “rebirth of the students’
union” is likely appealing to those who feel that the union should be taking a more hands-on approach to helping students, those who are sick and tired. is desire for change amongst Molnár ’s voters is clear from polling results with the majority of the candidate’s supporters saying that the union should be taking more direct action for change.
Molnár is also the most popular candidate amongst students from the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) with poll data indicating that 48% of respondents from the faculty intend to vote for the candidate. Voter turnout has been a long-term issue in union elections with AHSS students repeatedly making up the majority of voters. is makes candidates’ popularity with this cohort of students key to a successful campaign.
On the other hand, polling data suggests that AHSS students do not intend to vote for Cummins or Schaaf in great quantities with 10.1% and 11.6% of the faculty’s respondents saying they will vote for each candidate respectively. Without the support of this key group, winning the presidency will be di cult.
Zöe Cummins’ campaign is based on experience and the belief that she is “the most quali ed” person to lead. While experience is certainly useful, Cummins has had a turbulent campaign being struck o the ballot as breaching EC rules, a decision which has now been successfully appealed.
Despite this temporary disquali cation, Cummins’ team were given permission to continue campaigning during the appeals process. A temporary strike o the ballot is likely to
a ect any candidate’s campaign, however, polling data shows that this decision is unlikely to have an impact on the outcome of the race. Prior to the Electoral Commission’s (EC) decision to remove Cummins from the ballot, polling data suggests that
the candidate’s support was at 26% of decided voters. Cummins’ support currently stands at 18.2%, a roughly 8% reduction. e decision, however, is unlikely to have had an impact on the election’s outcome. Cummins’ roughly 8% reduction in votes appears to have transferred to Schaaf who went from 9.3% of decided voters to 18%. is suggests that Molnár ’s lead is unrelated to the EC’s decision.
Polling data suggests that, while Molnár is the most popular candidate amongst students from the Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM), the proportion of support for Cummins is highest amongst students from the faculty, with 23.5% indicating that they intend to vote for the candidate. Polling suggests that over 40% of Cummins’ votes are likely to come from STEM students. is may leave the candidate vulnerable due to the faculty’s traditionally low voter turnout. If this cohort of students fail to vote, this candidate may struggle to secure the election.
Cummins’ campaign focuses on her experience as education o cer. While experience in the union is certainly a useful tool for success, over 70% of poll respondents expressed their view that the union should be more involved with the student body. Cummins may struggle to be elected as a result of this desire for change.
According to the education o cer’s report, Cummins is yet to achieve her manifesto goals. As of this time in her term, only one
of four of these goals have been completed, with other manifesto commitments such as a hidden cost index not appearing on the report. is may result in students who are seeking radical change voting for other candidates.
Tilly Schaaf’s campaign is based on the idea of being an outsider with the candidate saying that she is “a normal student”. At hustings, the candidate presented a variety of practical ideas to improve the student experience. ese include College publishing exams’ past pass rates, as well as a more logical timetable.
Schaaf also states that “the students’ union is where you go to make change, so that’s what I’m doing”. Newcomer candidates o en struggle to set themselves apart from the institutional experts who have concrete union experience to support their campaign. ese candidates usually use the underdog card to their advantage, however; they typically emphasise their potential to be a fresh start for the union, through o ering an outsider perspective to long-running issues in the union, such as engagement and student support services.
Di ering views
While all three candidates for the union’s next president have their di erences, it is also important to recognise that many of their core values are the same. All three candidates agree that engagement with the union is an issue which must be addressed, with leading candidate László Molnár stating that he hopes to “bring the union back to the grassroots”. Molnár also criticised the union for measuring its engagement on “how many condoms or goodie bags are given out”.
Candidate Zöe Cummins also expressed her hope for students to be more involved in the union, expressing her support for
“grassroots campaigns coming from students from the bottom up”. Tilly Schaaf has also supported greater student involvement basing her campaign around being a “normal student”, and saying that the union needs “deeper respect for students’ ideas”.
One area in which the candidates appear to di er is in their approach to a referendum on Irish unity. While all three candidates appear to be in favour of a referendum taking place, it appears as though there are varying levels
of enthusiasm regarding the topic. Candidates Molnár and Schaaf were vocal in their support for a referendum, with Schaaf saying that “it is good practice for our college to have a culture of referendums”. On the other hand, Cummins expressed a more ambivalent view that more discussion was needed within the student body in order to carry out such a referendum. is hesitation compared to the previous candidate’s openness to such a debate suggests that the
likelihood of a referendum on Irish unity taking place is dependent on who wins the election.
Di erentiation through delivery
While all three candidates had their di erences, they also shared similarities. All candidates advocated for key issues such as accessibility, improving student services, and support for those struggling as a result of the cost of living crisis. It is fair to say that each candidate hopes to improve the student experience and, in the words of current TCDSU President Gabi Fullam, create “a fairer college that prioritises students, and proactive student union”.
2020/2021 TCDSU
Outsider candidates have also typically relied on stunts to set themselves apart and gain wider recognition from voters who are primarily involved within the union.
President Eoin Hand was praised for his stunt in which he took a toaster from the union kitchen in House 6, and ran across campus to the Hamilton building while holding it. Schaaf, however, has not yet conducted a stunt, which may be a factor in her not standing out against other candidates, and thus placing lower in the
Despite Schaaf’s lack of a stunt, the candidate has shown herself to be approachable, opening hustings with a cheesy joke: “What does the cheese say when it looks in the mirror? Hallou-mi.” Schaaf also appealed to voters through her informative, yet light hearted, campaign video.
Traditionally, union outsiders have struggled to win presidential elections, with Eoin Hand being an exception. Polling suggests that this is likely to be the case this year, with Schaaf placing last in the polls with approximately 18% of decided voters.
While Schaaf’s campaign has possibly been boosted by voters redirecting their votes from Cummins, it is possible that her campaign has been overshadowed by Molnár ’s commitment to radical reform and Cummins’ past experience.
RUNNING UNCONTESTED FOR THE ROLE of education o cer in the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU), Deputy Arts, Humanities and
Social Sciences (AHSS) Faculty Convenor Catherine Arnold is expected to be elected comfortably to the position.
With 80.6% of rst preferences in our Trinity News poll, the Deputy AHSS Convenor and Senior Sophister philosophy and sociology student is set for a straightforward victory in their uncontested bid for education
o cer, despite an unusually high re-open nominations (RON) vote of 19.4%. is is the highest e projected RON gure is almost twice that of the nal RON percentage in last year’s education o cer election, in which 10.5% voted to re-open nominations over the candidacy of Zöe Cummins.
Arnold received more outright support from female (82.7%) and nonbinary (84.6%) voters when compared with male voters on campus (76.2%), and is signi cantly less favoured by centre-right voters, among whom the RON vote is over 30%.
ough the proportion of
undecided voters is relatively high at 45.8%, the highest of any of the six electoral contests, this is nothing unusual in polling for uncontested races, and thus Arnold can be quite con dent of victory on ursday.
Looking at the political beliefs of those polled, Arnold has the highest approval rating among the le , with 87.76% of People
Before Pro t voters giving Arnold their rst preference. Students who would vote for Fine Gael in the next general election had the highest rate of RON as their rst preference at 32%; this is 20% higher than the lowest amount of rst preferences for RON from le -wing voters.
As is the case with most uncontested ballots at student union elections, the education race lacked the intensity and scrutiny of some of the more highpro le races this time around.
e election initially featured a second candidate, Senior Fresh political science student Elizabeth
O’Sullivan, who dropped out of contention early on in the campaign, saying that her “timing was not optional”. According to O’Sullivan, the role of education o cer “requires a candidate who can dedicate time and resources which I unfortunately do not have at the moment”. O’Sullivan subsequently endorsed Arnold, saying they would “do the role justice”.
ough this le the race uncontested, this did not mean Arnold would have a completely unchallenged path to election. At the various hustings, the Deputy AHSS Convenor was probed extensively about their manifesto policies and commitments, and about their plans should they become education o cer.
Key to Arnold’s platform is wide-ranging reform of the Student Union, and to the collegewide curriculum. eir manifesto calls for the delivery of a new TCDSU constitution and the introduction of Senates covering welfare and academic aspects of student life, replacing the existing respective Committees within the union that “produce long term policy on Academic and Welfare issues with input possible from all areas of the student body”.
When asked at the Media Hustings whether this was feasible given the waning student engagement with the union,
Promising a “holistic” approach to education, the Deputy AHSS Convenor is expected to take four- hs of the vote
Arnold said that the Senates would have “huge impacts for the engagement in and of itself”, and would bring about a “feedback loop” that would allow students to better in uence policy decisions. However, the practicality of establishing these Senates in the rst instance seems unclear, with the question of engagement continuing to hang in the balance. For all the talk, the lack of a plan for incentivising student engagement with TCDSU was a de cit in Arnold’s campaign, and may tell us something about the lack of student engagement in the Education race altogether.
At the College-level, Arnold proposed the creation of a “road map” for departments to further the decolonisation of the curriculum. At the Equality & Council Hustings, they committed to completing “groundwork” over the summer should they be elected to the Education position, undertaking a “full exploration with individual departments” to implement the decolonisation process. Departments have “realised they have loads of energy to decolonise the curriculum but they don’t really know the steps to go about it”, they told audience members at the subsequent Media Hustings last week.
Arnold also proposed to install an Erasmus portal that will provide students with information on their “destination university”. According to their manifesto, students on Erasmus will be able to “rate their experience on Erasmus and o er advice to incoming students” via the portal. In an interview with Trinity News, Arnold said that a student-led portal would mean students could travel con dently with realistic expectations and increased knowledge of their new academic environment.
Arnold was not asked about this proposal at hustings and therefore could not expand on the logistics of this portal.
Current Education
O cer Zöe
Cummins also proposed an Erasmus portal in her own campaign last year. According to her latest report, she has “started data collection and building the infrastructure for the SU website
with the SU IT technician” and plans to make this a “big project for the Education Committee”. If elected, Arnold will likely be able to pick up where Cummins le o in completing this proposed portal. Cummins also promised to introduce an internship portal to provide students with information on employment opportunities, which Arnold may also adapt if elected.
Postgraduate education and representation was also a major theme of Arnold’s campaign, with them promising to introduce two part-time paid roles for such students within the union, working “in conjunction with the sabbatical team”. At Hustings, they clari ed they do not seek the integration of the Postgraduate Workers’ Organisation (PWO) with TCDSU, but that the union would be able to support postgraduates in areas the PWO “can’t fully engage on” with regard to the academic board, ensuring that students have a “voice in policy”. e creation of the new positions is, at the very least, a very clear policy, though that would likely hinge on constitutional change - something Arnold themself has acknowledged has been tried and failed on multiple occasions in recent years.
Despite these promises, according to polls, postgraduate students are the most likely group to give RON their rst preference; 33.33% of PhD students wished to reopen nominations, while 42.86% of masters students preferred RON over Arnold, a 23.46% di erence from the overall average RON voters in the education race.
When asked at Equality Hustings why their manifesto did not include any mention of LGBTQ+ students, Arnold acknowledged that they “overlooked” this area and that they think “that there are huge issues that are being faced by LGBT students”. ey said they plan to “mediate” the process through which students can change their name and pronouns on Blackboard so they feel “supported in the classroom”.
“Holistic education” was a term frequently used by
Arnold to describe their intended approach towards the role. Speaking to Trinity News, they emphasised the need for “holistic” engagement between the union, College, and more types of students, emphasising that students needed to be supported
“past the front gate”. To achieve this, alongside the proposed Senates and support seminars for sta , they want to introduce more upskilling programmes for students, accessible to students via a “streamlined way of signing up” through the TCDSU website. At Media Hustings, Arnold explained that the streamlining of the provision of such services would alleviate issues created by the “lifestyle clash” that emanates from the current method of provision of upskilling programmes.
ough Arnold’s “holistic” vision for education certainly carries plenty of merit, it’s hard to quantify exactly to what extent these policies, if carried through successfully, would have a positive e ect on the campus population.
ere were some notable omissions from the conversation that have been mainstays of the education race in previous years - in particular, discussion around changes that would allow students to retake individual modules rather than having to repeat the year or go o -books.
Arnold is also yet to reference Schols in their campaign. Given the recurring discourse around the fairness and modernity of Schols exams every January and April, the lack of a nod to it in
the sole candidate’s campaign or hustings appearances is a strange one. Cummins promised to review Schols in her own manifesto when running for education o cer; according to her most recent education report, she met with the vice provost and senior lecturer on the issue and con rmed that a review of Schols examination would take place this year.
Arnold’s campaign wasn’t exactly short of detail, the usual buzzwords and politicking aside, but it can be said that much of their policy platform is overly tailored to speci c groups and ideas, and has fallen short on a number of college-wide academic issues that a ect the wider student body. is may very well explain the higherthan-average apathy seen in the Trinity News poll, both in terms of the projected RON vote as well as the nearly one-in-two undecided voters in this race.
Despite Arnold’s emphasis on student engagement and promises to increase representation in the Union through their proposed senate and “holistic” approach, students who “strongly disagreed” that TCDSU is representative of their own student experience were one of the demographics most likely to choose RON as their rst preference. 38.64%
of these students preferred to reopen nominations, nearly double the average amount of rst preferences given to RON overall. One of the education o cer’s main roles is speaking on behalf of students regarding academic a airs on several College boards, as well as handling daily casework from students regarding module choices, assessments, and other academic issues. Arnold, if elected, will have the challenge of proving to these students that TCDSU can in fact represent their interests with them as education o cer. at shouldn’t demoralise the Arnold campaign, however, as the Deputy AHSS Convenor is still set to be elected by a comfortable margin to succeed the incumbent Cummins, barring any major shock on ursday. As always, there are questions as to how e ective the Education O cer can be in their role, in terms of carrying through with the promises they make at election time. Perhaps it was a smart move by Arnold to key in on certain issues they believe they can make an impact on in House 6, but with a victory on the horizon, only time will tell.
RUNNING AS THE UNCONTESTED CANDIDATE for the role of communications and marketing o cer, nal year Law and Politics student
Aiesha Wong has the support of 87.74% of votes in a poll conducted by Trinity News during election week. e remaining 8.86% of votes in this category were spent on votes re-open nominations (RON). However, from the total of 455 votes, 42.64% remain undecided.
In previous years, Wong held the position of Public Relations O cer (PRO) for various societies, such as Trinity Women in Law, Trinity Women and Gender Minorities Review, and Trinity Law Outreach Society, among others outlined in her manifesto.
Support for Wong spans a wide range of Trinity’s student demographics and faculties. Students identifying as nonbinary made up the largest base of support, standing at 59.1%, compared to 44.1% of male students and 50.93% of female students pledging their support.
Support across faculties for Wong’s campaign varied, with the largest branch of support from the students of Science and Technology, at 51.61% and Arts and Humanities, at 49.85%. faculties are followed by 37.50% of Health Sciences and 36.84% of Multi-Faculty students pledged their support to Wong.
As one of four races which are running uncontested in this year’s election, Wong’s electoral campaign has evaded the scale of scrutiny faced other candidates. Coupled with her absence during council/ equality hustings, her policies and manifesto have not been dissected as thoroughly as with her counterparts, likely adding to the number of undecided voters. However, with this considered, Wong has presented herself to be a capable and enthusiastic candidate for the role, steadfast
in how she believes the role should be managed, and aware that she represents “only one single perspective”, emphasising the importance of “demystifying the union” should she succeed in being elected.
During the rst appearance of all candidates at dining hall hustings, a key aspect of Wong’s speech was the importance of giving the students union a “larger, more collaborative role across campus”, proposing that TCDSU would “feel like a part of every-day student life.” Facing the crowd at front square, Wong also spoke about her desire to “negotiate sponsorship that are student-focused,” commenting how having used the majority of TCDSU discounts available to her, she is aware as to how despite the discounts being “small or for simple things, they all add up”.
Wong expanded further on this in her interview with Trinity News saying: “As a working class woman, I’ve used every single discount at the union email.” Wong also pledged her support for making basic toiletries to be available to students for free: “No one should have to pay for sanitary products and I think this is a doable thing as well, because we’ve had sponsorships that do that.”
Wong has also focused on amplifying minority voices in her campaign. “As a woman of colour, I wish to use the SU to highlight issues a ecting minorities and
roughout her campaign, Wong has emphasised the importance of improving transparency within the student union, advocating for more engagement from the greater student body. Commenting at media hustings how she believes the “main reason that people don’t engage with the union is because people feel it isn’t for them”, Wong aims to reform this by renewing the current social media policy of the union, and diversifying communication with students through alternate forms of media.
During her appearance at media hustings, Wong was questioned on her plans to reform the student union’s relationship with its sponsors, a key point in her manifesto. In her response, Wong highlighted the importance of “accepting sponsorships from companies that don’t go against the student union’s current policy”, adding her intention to include voices from the general student body through establishing an “anonymous place where people can give their feedback without fear of retribution”, seeking to approach the “subjective” nature of cancel culture as objectively as possible. Wong also noted that “there’s a lot of public outrage and being cancelled and cancel culture. It’s very hard because it’s very subjective sometimes.” Wong emphasised that it is very
important to hear what “the actual student body thinks”. is is another incident where Wong was faced with a tough question and performed competently. Her focus on listening to students and general student-led approach to sponsorships may be fundamental in securing her the necessary votes to win.
Another area of her campaign which Wong has given great attention is the importance of diverse language use by both TCDSU and communications team. In her interview with Trinity News, Wong commented how “it would be nice to have translations for key updates,” identifying the Chinese and Indian student populations in College who may bene t from translation of TCDSU correspondence.
When questioned on the topic at media hustings, she outlined that she wanted “to promise things that are practical” adding that “there should be more focus on
With the poll at 87.74% in her favour, Aiesha Wong looks set for a straightforward victoryPHOTOS AND GRAPHICS BY EVA O’BEIRNE, ROSE HEANEY
having Irish language workshops”, proposing greater inclusion of the Irish language “even if its just a dia dhuit”, - a stance very appealing to the Irish-speaking community within Trinity. Methods suggested by her to achieve this goal include collaborating with parttime o cers within TCDSU to establish dedicated workshops for translation.
Also during Media Hustings, Wong was questioned on her plans to drive engagement with the union from the wider student body. A consistent theme in this year’s elections, Wong is pledging to use the communications and marketing role to drive engagement up. She noted that: “I think the main reason that people don’t engage with the union is because people feel it’s not for them.” Wong stated that in her own experience, she saw the members of the council as “people who did secondary school debating”. She believes her position as a relative
outsider to the union will be a key advantage for her in driving up engagement. is outsider perspective may also be bene cial to Wong in engaging with voters that feel disenfranchised from the union. ough her race is uncontested this outsider perspective is clearly very attractive for students. Also related to her goal to “demystify” the union, Wong wants to expand the union’s online presence. Wong wants to modernise TCDSU’s use of social media. e union currently conducts most of its online activities on Instagram. Should Wong be elected she wants to expand into using TikTok and other platforms. She highlighted this at Media Hustings saying: “In terms of like a industry perspective, we should be having a TikTok, you know, we should be doing more reels and stu . And also, it’s just more accessible to people who can’t, you know, are visually impaired, maybe they need audio or something.” Given how many students use TikTok on a daily basis this is yet another example of how Wong aims to engage with the most students she can and in the most diverse ways in her remit.
When interviewed by Trinity News, Wong was asked to consider what the most valuable experience she would bring to the role. Calling on her background in various “creative outlets” and “legal based aid”, Wong was con dent in her ability to “blend into whatever is needed” within the student union: “I felt like I had enough experience to be good at the job because I wouldn’t want to run for something that I didn’t think I’d be good at.”
Wong also addressed her plans to collaborate with other bodies on campus in her role, including partnerships with Trinity societies and publications: “I think a lot of the engagement for campus life outside of lectures comes from either societies or publications. So it makes sense that the union should involve themselves a bit more collaboratively with those two bodies.” She wants to do this by promoting the “smaller publications” in the TCDSU email. is again, appeals to voters who
are not engaged with the union but may be engaged with other activities on campus. When questioned on the potential for overstepping and controlling with the above partnerships, Wong answered simply and
competently. She assured that “you can support societies without taking them over” and noted that “the student’s union already collaborates with societies, and they do it in a way that doesn’t take over. It’s very easy to collaborate without controlling”.
Pending an dramatic upheaval of the current voting statistics, Wong appears set to secure the position of communications and marketing o cer. Despite her absence from Equality/Council Hustings, Wong evidently has a clear understanding as to the importance of the role. Her clear communication of her policy and manifesto points bode well for the role of communications and marketing o cer. Should she be elected Wong’s term seems set to be de ned by transparency and inclusivity within the students union.
HIGHLIGHTING EQUITY DRIVEN CHANGE, unopposed Welfare and Equality candidate Aoife Bennett received 91% of the rst preference in last week’s Trinity News poll. With RON polling at only 9%, Bennett seems all but certain to be elected as the next Welfare and Equality O cer.
Notably, 42% of voters remain undecided but in the absence of signi cant opposition Bennett has emerged victorious. Welfare and Equality being an uncontested race is not unusual, from 20182021 the race was unopposed. In 2022, Chloe Staunton emerged victorious against opponent Cúnla Morris.
Across disciplines and demographics, Bennett’s support base remained fairly consistent. 54% of Arts students voiced support compared to 50% Science/Tech students and 63% Health science students. Male, female and nonbinary students are also similarly likely to vote for Bennett, at 56% to 46% and 45% respectively. e margin of di erence, being around 19%, is minimal and thus her probable victory is representative of the general student population as a whole.
roughout her campaign, Bennett has emphasised how her previous experience would inform her role as Welfare and Equality O cer. She previously served as Trinity Hall Junior Common Room (JCR) Welfare O which gave her “experience dealing with casework and running wellbeing campaigns” a measure that likely instilled this year’s voters with confidence. Additionally,
she served as this year’s Research O cer for the Welfare and Equality Committee.
Bennett has also demonstrated her commitment to promoting the public good through other endeavours. Working for the UniCOV, she spent time at Trinity Hall to aid with Covid-19 testing kits. Bennett has also served as a copyeditor and contributing writer for Trinity News, writing about numerous issues such as the history of contraception and a freshers’ week survival guide. ese activities likely contributed to her popularity as Bennett has actively engaged with many voters.
Outside of college, Bennett also volunteers with the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC), which may have helped promote an image of Bennett as an advocate for social change.
In this she ts well within the trend of Welfare and Equality
O cers having relevant TCDSU experience; looking back to the two most recent o cers, one served as Gender and Equality o cer while the other was the union’s Disabilities o cer and a member
of three committees.
Another marker of Bennett’s appeal may be her comprehensive plan for promoting greater sexual health across the college. She has proposed to “partner with HSE to further publicise at home testing kits and have a testing drive during sex week”. Among her other policies include measures promoting the implementation of consent workshops and queer sex-ed. Bennett, being a junior sophister student, has shown her ability to resonate with younger students as she intends to render these policies to establish “freshers traditions”.
Bennett’s has also registered with students in her promotion of lasting change to ensure student safety. When questioned on what she would do di erently from past Welfare and Equality o cers, Bennett said she will “reform the Dignity and Respect policy to make it a trauma-informed document with better reporting structures in place for students” which also may speak to a voter desire to see lasting change.
During last Tuesday’s Equality Hustings, greater inclusion measures seemed to be on everyone’s minds, with candidates prompted for their stances - or lack thereof - on representing the minorities within Trinity’s student body. Although Bennett’s
manifesto did not mention ethnic minorities explicitly, voters present may have noted her composure as she voiced her strategy to promote equity, saying: “A big part of my manifesto is inclusivity and making sure everyone’s experience is at the forefront.” She also promised to consult the relevant o cers regarding identities di erent from her own.
Bennett also emphasised her commitment to helping students living o -campus. Addressing questions on her proposed consent-workshop policy, she stated: “It is very feasible that it can be expanded, rst at halls and then on campus.” She “doesn’t want any students to feel le behind” and proposed to “extend events and campaign weeks to James’ campus, D’Olier Street, TBSI, and Trinity Halls’’ while also continuing to “ advocate for Sliding scale accommodations” and “better transparency for oncampus housing”.
Of course, there remains the questions around the feasibility of Bennett’s policies. At the Equality Hustings, current Welfare and Equality o cer Chloe Staunton asked whether bureaucratic hindrances will pose an obstacle to Bennett’s plan to bring free period products to Trinity. Although Bennett acknowledged that “there’s a big problem for getting
With 91% of decided voters on her side Bennett is on course for a comfortable winPHOTO BY CORINNE MAHON FOR TRINITY NEWS
funding for period products” and cited Scotland’s (Free) Period Products act as an example of successful lobbying on a national level, speci c measures remain yet to be seen. In fact, students may remain sceptical for good reason as previous attempts to permanently secure free period products have not been expanded on by TCDSU.
Bennett has also been questioned over notable absences from her manifesto during the campaign. At the same Hustings she faced questions about the absence for students with disabilities and ethnic minorities from her manifesto. Bennet responded competently
reiterating her support for students with disabilities. She believes there is “a lot that we can do for now” and recommended holding “accessible o ce hours”.
Bennett also reiterated her support for ethnic minority students during Equality/Council Hustings. She intends to work with the ethnic minorities o cer “to increase inclusivity for events”. She also plans to consult ethnic minority students to promote an inclusive environment at welfare and equality meetings:
“A big part of my manifesto is inclusivity and making sure that everyone’s experiences are at the forefront.” For voters present at these Hustings this was a welcome reassurance from Bennett.
In her interview with Trinity News Bennett expanded further on this acknowledging that facilities “campus and o -campus are both very inaccessible”, and she wants to focus on “long-term change” and get the “time, permission, and sometimes construction for meaningful change”.
Again, emphasising her focus on long-term change Bennett is pledging to “consult with students to identify the main areas of need in the college and o campus,” Bennett explains: “I would also work with Trinity’s Occupational therapists to do a report on accessibility on campus to lay the groundwork for long term change, so next year’s o cer can continue to build on this work.”
During the Media Hustings, more questions were raised pertaining to the logistics of her policies. Bennett defended her proposals when asked which had the priority for implementation, saying that she believed the
groundwork had been laid for many of the initiatives she wants to implement. She also defended the sustainability of her initiative to bring more free pads and tampons, stressing the importance of balancing these products with the more sustainable options like menstrual cups since “not every student will feel comfortable” with the latter.
However, she admitted that despite her intent to work with the CSC to promote diversity training, she has yet to make contact with their team. However, she con rmed that she “would like to work with them because there is a model in place already”. She highlighted collaboration as one of her campaign’s core values, in addition to highlighting her experience since she carried out diversity training out at halls. Although di cult to mandate, especially in her rst year, she plans to ensure societies have “the right tools to encourage their society members”.
Also at Media Hustings, She also backed o from mandating diversity training. While this choice may have been justi ed by the knowledge that, as Bennett said, implementation will be di cult in her rst year as Welfare and Equality o cer, this may have been unsatisfactory for students hoping for a greater than verbal commitment. Even as these did not have a large impact on her standing in the poll, when elected, students will be keenly watching to monitor whether Bennett ful ls these measures.
Despite these concerns, Bennett’s campaign success looks likely even taking into account outside policy considerations. Her relatable and engaging approach during the race is another factor in the probable outcome. A social media video outlining Bennett’s policies was lmed in the style of a Vogue 73 questions video. In a tone many students may have found relatable, Bennett cited “the seagulls” as her least favourite part of Trinity life.
e poll results prove that students have great con dence in Bennett’s platform. From her interview to the Hustings, Bennett has registered as a charismatic candidate with a history of promoting welfare, a genuine stake in the community, and the prowess to address the fundamental issues of this year’s election: inclusivity, transparency and lasting change. In her opening speech, she stated: “Welfare and equality is the backbone of any union.” As she nished her speech to a chorus of applause, it is clear why voters believe Trinity will in fact be “better with Bennett”.
The race to be the next entertainments o cer (ENTs) for Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) is as contested as ever, with Nadia, Sam Kelly and Olivia Orr vying for the sabbatical post. eir campaigns have somewhat mirrored each other thus far - with accessibility, safety, inclusion, and Trinity Ball remaining the topics of highest importance.
Including undecided voters, third year Politics and Philosophy student Orr came just short of gaining half of decided voters, with 34.12% of rst preference votes. Tied for second place, Nadia, a nal year Computer Science student, and Kelly, a third year Politics and Economics student both received 17.02% of the decided vote. 29.4% remained undecided on their voting preferences, while 3.3% wished to reopen nominations (RON). Only considering decided pollers, Orr received 48.34% of rst preference votes, while Nadia and Kelly both received 24.17%.
Considering Orr’s large lead, and the close race between second and third place, the race may seem to be over. However, Orr’s biggest threat, and closest rival in the poll, comes from the large number of students who are yet to decide their next ENTs o cer. If either Nadia or Kelly are able to convince most of these students to vote for them, Orr’s path to the 2023/24 TCDSU ENTs o cer will not be as sure re as it may seem. Although Orr is clearly far ahead, the dark horse that is the undecided vote means the sabbatical position is still anyone’s prize to take.
Similar to most years, the ENTs race has focused primarily on the manner in which the events will be run - ensuring inclusivity, accessibility, and safety. All three candidates have largely agreed on these main pillars. Apart from this, candidates have come up with diverging original ideas intended to revitalise ENTs and to excite the student body. Nadia has particularly emphasised her wish to host a monthly ea market for Trinity students to buy and
sell second hand clothes. Orr oated the idea of organising a Trinity’s Got Talent at Dining Hall Hustings, while Kelly has cemented that he wants to establish an Ents Handbook which will be distributed to all societies.
roughout the campaign, each candidate has been questioned about their commitment to maintaining a high level of accessibility of their future ENTs events. e questions have varied from physical access for disabled students, to scal access for lower income students. Orr pledged to ensure that ticket costs will remain at the lower end of the scale, while Kelly has opted for a di erent approach - stating that he wishes to provide “more spectacular events” spaced out across the term calendar so that students will able to budget accordingly and “splurge” on their favourite type of event. At Equality Hustings, Nadia shared that she has struggled to a ord the prices of tickets for ENTs events herself, particularly during freshers or refreshers week, and thus vowed to tackle this struggle facing many students.
Regarding the physical access of events, Kelly has repeatedly stated that “not every event is going to have every accessible option”. While some see might this as an honest and pragmatic statement to make on the campaign trail, others may fear that this will lead to disabled students being le out. However, Kelly has clari ed that he does not want to “systematically
and Orr have both made the campaign point of supplying free ear plugs at all ENTs events. When questioned on the monetary reality of this idea, Nadia said that her idea is “very, Unlike other candidates, Orr has consistently provided plain-text, easy to read alternatives to her Instagram infographics, already showing her intent to provide accessible options for her work.
Kelly has stated that there needs to be more emphasis placed on advertising and informing students on the accessible options already in place, another action that has been questioned by those believing he may be avoiding facing the intricacies of a successful push
for accessibility.
In a push to make ENTs events more accessible for o -campus students or students on placement, Kelly has laid forth plans to use venues o campus, particularly one close to St. James’ Hospital.
Inclusivity and diversity are also major pillars of any ENTs campaign, and this year is no exception. An online submission “student form”, designed so students can be included in the event organising process and have their say in what type of events take place, was chosen by Orr as her favourite manifesto point. Nadia shared a similar idea, writing in her manifesto that she will “award 2 free tickets to the next event” to any student who’s idea she sees as the “most creative”. Kelly has centred his campaign around the idea of “ENTs as a facilitator of events”, explaining that he is interested in collaborating with as many societies as possible so that all students feel included.
When the question of LGBTQ inclusion in ENTs events arose, all candidates stated that they plan on hosting a drag show to ensure queer students feel included, and Orr added that she would host a pride parade on campus. Kelly speci cally stated that he would
With few major di erences in their campaign manifestos, many prospective voters remain undecided
have a zero tolerance policy for homophobia, transphobia, etc. Similarly, Nadia said she is “a strong advocate for human rights” and would “throw the hatecrimer out of all ENTs events”.
Nadia and Orr both responded to questions regarding the status of Gaeilge in ENTs events, with Orr pointing to her experience organising this year’s ENTs Céilí, while Nadia nodded to her work for the TCDSU Marketing and Communications department lming TikToks through Gaeilge in the Pav. Kelly again stressed his wish for ENTs to become decentralised, adding that he “wants to elevate [an Cumann Gaelach]”.
Notably, the inclusivity shown to ethnic minority students did not come up in any hustings, nor did it appear in any election manifesto. However, Nadia, who is the only person of colour in the race and who thus far has only been asked questions by white Irish people, has made the point of including a section in her manifesto to “ensure that College celebrate other cultural festivities” such as Chinese New Year, Eid, Holi, amongst others.
You would be forgiven for mistakenly thinking that the TCDSU elections were run by middle aged mothers for the amount of times safety was the biggest question about a night out. While some of the topics verged on the benign, such as the availability of buses, others were of a very serious nature - the growing instances of spiking, instances of hate crimes or discrimination on nights out, etc.
On the topic of safety at events, Kelly again raised his motto of transparency, claiming that “if people know what we are doing to keep them safe, and the procedures in place, and something does go wrong they are going to feel safer to come forward because it is less of an unknown”.
All candidates have emphasised anti-spiking cup protectors and rst-aid trained stewards. However, Orr speci wants student training courses to take place during both freshers and refreshers week, as well as the installing both a welfare o and an accessibility o her ENTs committee. Orr’s precise and speci c answer may be a cause of her favour in the poll, as the electorate are more easily able to envisage her as ENTs o
While the amount of waste produced by ENTs is typically
brought up to candidates during elections, it has not appeared as much this year in hustings. Despite this, all candidates have made speci c points for environmental sustainability in their manifestos.
Both Nadia and Kelly have stated that they will focus on lowering the waste produced by their ENTs events. However, Nadia has gone one step further in pledging to install a sustainability o cer in her ENTs committee.
Orr has taken a slightly di erent approach, she wishes to promote Green Week on campus, and if elected will “collaborate with the environmental o cer to bring in di erent people to talk about the importance of sustainability”.
One can see the reason for the varying success in the Trinity News Poll by treating this single issue as an emblem of the race as a whole. In his manifesto, Kelly was the most vague when laying out his plans for sustainability, writing that “ENTs should be as sustainable as possible”. Furthermore, his promise to implement “more sustainable practices” and to focus on “reducing plastic waste” leaves much to be desired.
Just like in the poll, Nadia can be ranked between the two other candidates for her position on sustainability. Sweeping statements with no concrete plans to back them up, such as “minimising the waste produced at ENTs events is so important to me” have not particularly helped students envision her as their next ENTs o cer.
Similarly to her speeches and answers made at various hustings, Orr has repeatedly been precise in her promises and concise in her plans. Planning to collaborate with the environmental
provide the best results for students.
Orr has also been the strongest candidate on the issue of Trinity Ball 2024 - which may be the rst one in recent memory to take place o campus due to building works on campus signi cantly reducing the expected capacity. She came out quickly in her campaign saying that she will ght to “keep the Trinity in Trinity Ball”. While claiming she has also explored other venues if this is not possible, such as the RDS, she maintains that the on-campus nature of the event is paramount. She thinks “there are a lot of di erent avenues [to] ensure that TBall will stay on campus next year”.
Kelly, on the other hand, immediately said that he is looking into other possible venues for T-Ball, and ghting for it to remain on campus has not been a major campaign point of his. He argued that “if we force Trinity Ball to happen on campus, we may be screwing over students by simply not having enough capacity”. He sees the fact that the ball may not happen on campus for the foreseeable future as an opportunity to raise more questions about the event’s accessibility and student input.
Nadia, who was not present at Media Hustings due to illness, is yet to clarify fully her position on this topicstating at Dining Hall Hustings that she wants to hold T-Ball at “a potentially bigger and better location”. However, she did not provide examples of this. Due to this existential question looming over the future of Trinity Ball, the issues around capacity, price,
and the lineup have not been as pressing this year compared to previous election cycles.
Freshers Week can serve as a momentous introduction to incoming Junior Fresh students. However fundamental an experience it can be, it rarely appears as a large campaign issue due to the fact that people who will bene t from the next ENTs o cer’s plans for Freshers are not currently in College, and therefore of course won’t be voting in this SU Election.
Most of the discourse surrounding Freshers and Refreshers Weeks is in relation to safety and inclusion, likely so the incoming set of rst years learn rst hand how to behave appropriately in these settings. e candidates have largely agreed to continue the likes of consent workshops, bystander/intervention training, and hosting a great deal of events all within the one week.
telltale signs of their general ability.
Not unlike most SU Election races, most candidates running to be the next ENTs o cer agree on the core principles of the race, and di er only slightly on how to satisfy these principles. erefore, voters o en look at the candidates’ experience in the eld to judge whether or not they see them as quali ed for the position. On top
Sam Kelly has stressed his status as a mental health advocate by reviewing his ve years of experience working with youth mental health charity Jigsaw. His experience here is likely a main reason for his emphasis on the need for transparency in the ENTs safeguarding processes. Kelly has fared well on the campaign trail, typically answering questions con dently - albeit due to the alphabetical order of answering, he has typically had more time than Nadia but less time than Orr to think about his response. However, where Kelly has lost momentum is his social media presence, he is the least followed ENTs candidate this year, with the least amount of posts, and the account itself follows less people than the other two candidates. Nadia’s social media presence is arguably her biggest advantage. She rst stood out by posting a Mean Girls-inspired introduction video, mimicking the scene in which the high school students are asked their opinions on Regina George. Beginning the video with “Surprise bitch! I bet you thought you’d seen the last of me”, she took the opportunity to relay some of her campaign points. It ended with a student saying, “she ran for ENTs last year. She lost… but it was awesome!”, a joke on her second run that is also expressed in her Instagram username @nadz4ents2. However, in a similar fashion to last year, she has struggled to react quickly in the line of questioning, appearing dent than her opponents at Equality Hustings, though it is worth noting that she had less time to consider her answer than Kelly and Orr as she had to answer rst. Similar to last year, she also did not attend some hustings and therefore had fewer opportunities to present her ideas.
Finally, Orr nds herself in the Goldilocks zone with both experience in event management and an experienced election campaign team. Orr’s social media is a preview to what she would be like as an ENTs o cer if elected - she has shown a dedication to inclusivity, while maintaining a positive and lighthearted attitude. As a former JCR ENTs o cer and the current ENTs treasurer, she is the candidate with the most experience in Trinity event organisation. If the undecided voters do not push towards Nadia or Kelly, this experience and attitude will likely bring Orr dent victory.
According to a poll conducted by Trinity News, sole candidate Clara Roche is poised to become the next editor of the University Times (UT), with a share of 81.1% of the rstpreference vote.
While over a third of respondents (34.22%) indicated that they were still undecided, that can be expected in an uncontested race and does not necessarily re ect on the candidate. Of those who had decided, 19.13% intended to vote to re-open nominations (RON) which is the second highest number of RON votes in an uncontested race behind the education race (19.43%).
surprising considering UT has faced signi years, with last year’s sole UT Editor candidate Mairead Maguire losing to a RON vote. indicates some frustration in the student population that not all of the races are uncontested.
consistent among all demographics. Her support among Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (AHSS) students was slightly larger than other faculties, at 54.94%. Among Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students, her support was at 48.31%, and among Health Science students it was at 52.17%. Women were more likely (54.37%) than men (49.35%) to vote for Roche.
year history and politics student and has been involved in UT since rst year. She has been a contributing writer, a sta societies editor, a
member of the Editorial Board and deputy editor for UT. She has also contributed to Evergreen Trinity, an environmental magazine, and worked with the Trinity Ability Co_Op as a student trainer and a member of the Schools Outreach Subcommittee. She played a pivotal role in severing the paper’s relationship with e Irish Times in October, which previously printed the newspaper. UT previously announced they were “actively exploring alternative arrangements” for printing in October 2021, and also pulled advertisements for e Irish Times student subscription.
Roche emphasised her experience with UT, saying at Dining Hall hustings that she has “the most experience and the strongest vision to make the paper the best it can be”. She pledged to use her experience “to make UT a welcoming place for the entire college community”. During my three years with the University Times, I gained experience writing and sourcing content for each section, building and maintaining sources, and managing and collaborating with a sta of over seventy writers.
Roche is one of four senior
meetings, or missed them entirely. It also alleged that she did not have an “adequate plan” for their print run, and that she le sta ce during print weekend, not returning until the Noonan accepted some of the criticism as valid, saying: “As regards the lack of contact with various section editors during print weekend: once again, going into print weekend was less organised than it should have been, and I should have had a
“As soon as the issue was raised, I contacted the senior team to acknowledge the criticisms, a plan together, and to plan a meeting to help things go forwards more smoothly following print.” Noonan’s email, red Roche as the deputy editor, cited a “breakdown of trust and professionalism which cannot be repaired”. While Noonan remained in place as Editor, UT continued to haemorrhage
Following this incident, a and less visible presence on campus may students unsure about the structure and value of UT, which puts student journalism in College in a tenuous position. e presence of two papers can ensure accountability, full coverage of all College news and participation for all students who wish to write. Roche has shown that she understands these concerns and plans to address these concerns. Her slogan, “Clarify UT”, is based on manifesto promises to ensure
transparency, accountability and integrity.
At the media hustings on Friday, Roche expressed the hope that many of the sta that have le would return “under di erent leadership”. She highlighted that many former sta had migrated to other publications on campus, and said that this experience could be brought to UT to “hopefully restore the quality of the sta ”. When asked about restoring the paper’s reputation a er “scandal
a er scandal”, she said that she “de nitely believes” that the paper’s reputation is redeemable. roughout the campaign and in her manifesto, Roche emphasised accountability, proposing to create a constitution for UT to codify the paper’s editorial and ethics policy. She also pledged to use her platform to call for a collegewide referendum to make the UT Editor impeachable, and speaking to Trinity News Roche said that because the UT editor is voted
At 81.1%, Roche is set to win comfortably, but she is still faced with repairing reputational damage of UTPHOTO BY CORINNE MAHON FOR TRINITY ENTS
on by the student body, it is “only right” that they should have some say on how they’re performing and whether they’re happy with the running of the paper. In her manifesto, she stated that “if the Editor is democratically elected by the student population, they should be answerable to students in the same way”. She also pledged to organise regular town halls and College-wide surveys “to ensure that students have a platform to raise issues or share ideas that they have”.
She also aims to create a Board of Advisors consisting of a “a previous editor of Trinity news, a previous editor of UT, someone from the college with a legal background and someone on the college’s communications team”. Roche believes that this would assist in the creation of a constitution, and that this would be another step towards improving accountability: “If there was an internal dispute within UT or a problem that somebody outside of UT had with it, they could call on the board of advisors”.
At Council hustings, when asked how she plans to codify UT’s Editorial and Ethics policy, Roche said that she would make the writing of the UT constitution a “collaborative” process, also adding that if UT is able to build up a diverse sta , that they could help write a constitution that “highlights all voices”.
In her manifesto she proposed expanding UT’s social media presence to reach more students, by creating independent TikTok accounts for Radius, the paper’s culture supplement. She
highlighted that UT should be an “enjoyable environment” for students of all backgrounds” and wants to organise regular social events to encourage sta bonding. Roche said that she plans to reintroduce positions of Irish language editor, LGBTQ+ rights correspondent, and Ethnic Minorities correspondent, to ensure that UT’s reporting covers “the entirety of Trinity’s diverse population”. is will surely coincide with her addressing core sta ng issues, along with other e orts such as social events, workshops, sign-up fairs, and possibly what she has called “moving UT’s presence outside of House 6”.
She also promised to “build upon the paper’s strong Irish language content” by expanding the section to include articles not related to College happenings or the language itself. She emphasised accessibility throughout the campaign as a member of the Trinity Ability Co_ Op, pledging to reform the paper’s social media presence to include alt text and text to speech, as well as audio reads of long-form articles. As House 6 is currently wheelchair inaccessible, she also said that she would facilitate alternative meeting locations on request, and at the Equality Hustings
suggested that an anonymous submission form may be a good way of protecting student privacy in a situation where UT needed to respond to accessibility on an “onrequested” basis with the Central Societies Committee (CSC).
She also pledged to collaborate with the Trinity Access Programme. When questioned on how to accommodate students with responsibilities such as parttime work, she said that she would promote a “more collaborative” working environment, and suggested “maybe having one student do the research and one do the writing”. She also said that she would appoint a Welfare O cer, and to also arrange a sensitivity training in order to help writers feel equipped to handle sensitive topics in a “tactful and appropriate way”.
Roche has also expressed an interest in ensuring that UT’s coverage is accessible and relevant to all students. She has praised UT’s coverage of postgraduate issues throughout the year saying: “hopefully the fact that we had such good postgraduate coverage this year will encourage postgraduate students to get involved”. Similarly, she stressed that postgraduate students have as valid of a “a need to contribute to the media as undergraduates”, and proposed
more widespread advertisement of available positions as well as the appointment of a “postgraduate correspondent to make sure that there’s somebody on sta to keep those issues covered”. Such a decision will likely make her popular among postgraduate students wishing for more representation. However, it is unsure whether this favour will have any signi cant impact, as postgraduate students have far lower voter turnout than undergraduates.
Because this is an uncontested race, it shouldn’t come to a surprise to anyone that Roche is set to win the UT election, and she has presented herself to be a competent journalist and editor. Should she be elected, the real challenge will start when she takes leadership of the newspaper. As it stands, UT faces severe sta shortages and serious legacy issues, not all of which are the fault of just one person. As a publication funded by the student body facing scandal, the quality of next year’s volume and the behaviour of the new editor will be monitored closely.
Time will tell if Roche can keep her manifesto promise of restoring UT’s reputation of “holding power to account”, and providing students with accurate, important and up-to-date information about
RESEARCHERS DEOM TRINITY’S SCHOOL OF NURSERY AND MIDWIFERY have found indications that conversion therapy practices take place in Ireland.
e research provides an insight into how conversion therapy practices operate in Ireland. It also includes an examination of the growing body of recent international research literature in the area.
e study, which was commissioned by government,
will inform plans to ban the practice.
e study is the rst of its kind in Ireland and involved 340 participants.
e majority of the participants were cisgender, with 27 indicating they were transgender, and 35 indicating they were nonbinary, genderqueer, agender or gender uid. e participants ranged from 18-77 years old.
11 respondents stated that they had been exposed to conversion therapy in the last ve years.
Of this sample, just seven participants who were exposed to conversion therapy volunteered to be interviewed. Speaking of their experience with conversion therapy, one individual referred to it as “the worst time of my life”, while another noted attempting suicide on multiple occasions.
Of those interviewed, ve gay men stated that they voluntarily partook in conversion therapy, while other participants in the survey stated that it was provided against their will. Five transgender participants indicated that they did not provide consent.
Dr Brian Keogh, associate professor in mental health nursing at Trinity and lead author of the study said: “While this is a small study, the combined survey results, qualitative interviews and literature review contribute to the growing international evidence that conversion practices are ine ective and can have a negative impact on people who are exposed to them”.
Announcing the report’s publication, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O’Gorman stated: “I welcome the research published today which represents an important step towards legislating for a ban on conversion practices. Legislating to prohibit conversion practices is a continuance of the State’s assertion of the equal dignity of LGBTI+ persons and is a priority for me.”
e current Programme for Government contains a commitment to legislate to end the practice of conversion therapy, and the government has promised to introduce a ban within a year.
ere are 14 countries in Europe that have already banned conversion therapy; including Germany, France and Malta.
Pádraig Rice of LGBT Ireland stated that a ban on LGBT conversion therapy will be “hard legislation to dra ”, given suggestions that the State has no business banning individuals from freely undergoing conversion therapy.
Mr Rice rejected this argument, saying: “You can’t consent to torture, you can’t consent to really harmful practices that will do damage to you.”
Conversion therapy is an umbrella term that describes a range of practices which speci cally aim to change or suppress an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity expression.
THE SENIOR DEAN HAS ANNOUNCED that College is to return human remains to the island of Inishbo n, which were taken without the consent of the community more than a century ago.
In an email sent to sta and students last week, Senior Dean Professor Eoin O’Sullivan explained that “the decision to do this was approved today by the College Board following a period of research, analysis and public consultation about the future of the remains overseen by the Trinity Legacies Review Working Group”, of which he is chair.
e email continued to explain that further engagement with the community on Inishbo n will take place in order to “identify the
appropriate way of returning the crania”.
e remains are associated with ethnologist Alfred Cort Haddon and Trinity Professor of Anatomy Andrew Francis Dixon who in 1890, took the skulls of 13 people from St. Colman’s monastery in Inishbo n.
As is clearly documented in Haddon’s diary at the time, the partial skeletal remains were removed without the islanders’ consent.
Haddon’s research had an international outlook, collecting crania from the Torres Straits Islands and New Guinea. He also conducted experiments and collected crania from St Finian’s Bay, Co. Kerry and from the Aran Islands.
In 2009, College returned three Māori mummi ed heads and a skeleton from its collection to the National Museum of New Zealand, in line with a Māori wish to return them to descendants.
e Trinity Legacies Review Working (TLRW) group was established to document historical evidence on “speci c legacy issues” in College and seek “evidencebased submissions” from the College community to make decisions for reform.
Last year, e TLRW sought submissions from the public in relation to the human remains from November 25 to December 7.
e TLRW is also reviewing the name of the Berkeley Library, also known as the X Library. According to the TLRW, George Berkeley’s “history as a slave-owner” is “welldocumented”. e TLRW closed public submissions on the issue on January 31.
THE POSTGRADUATE ORGANISATION
(PWO), the recently amalgamated body representing
postgraduate students in Ireland, has called on the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) to allow the consideration of Irish Residency Permit (IRP) fees and health insurance towards non-EU students’ expenses claims.
In an open letter to the SFI’s Director General Professor Philip Nolan, the Committee of the PWO described the matter as an “issue of immediate concern” amidst government plans for a review into state supports for postgraduate workers and researchers.
e letter stated: “Non-EU postgraduate researchers face an inordinately large nancial burden on an already small budget.”
“ is is due to their requirement to renew their Irish Residency Permit at a cost of €300 a year, in addition to purchasing health insurance that can cost in excess of €600 a year.”
“In addition to the administrative burden that this places on these researchers, this
brings non-EU researchers almost €1000 further beneath an already below-minimum wage salary.”
e PWO alleges that these incurrences are “pushing non-EU researchers to breaking point” amidst the ongoing cost of living crisis, with many students living in “precarious or unsafe housing” and relying on external support to cover basic needs.
“It is further tarnishing Ireland’s reputation as a great place to do research and damaging our position on the world stage,” the letter continued.
e union says that the “vast majority” of research centres a liated with the SFI do not provide for the consideration of IRP fees and health insurance as “eligible costs” as part of students’ expense claims, despite budget underspends in many SFI centres and against the standard practice at such institutions.
“We are therefore asking you now to unequivocally advise all
SFI research centres and research training centres to consider IRP fees and insurance for non-EU researchers an eligible expense without delay,” the letter to Prof Nolan declared. “ e reality is that non-EU researchers are struggling now and cannot wait for the outcome of the review to potentially improve their welfare.”
“We ask you to take this opportunity to show leadership in your position as Director General and take this opportunity to improve the lives of the researchers you are responsible for,” the letter concluded.
Last week, it was con rmed that a planned Department of Further and Higher Education review into state supports for postgraduate researchers had been delayed to the second quarter of the year, having originally been scheduled for the rst quarter. e PWO criticised the delay, labelling it “unacceptable”.
A study conducted on behalf of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth provides an insight into how conversion therapy practices operate in Ireland
In an open letter to SFI Director General Professor Philip Nolan, the PWO said that nonEU students are “struggling now and cannot wait” for support
College will now engage with the residents of Inishbo n to “identify the appropriate way of returning the crania”
PROFESSOR ORLA
FEELY HAS BECOME
the rst ever female President of University College Dublin (UCD), it was announced yesterday.
e Governing authority of University College Dublin yesterday con rmed Professor Orla Feely as the next president of UCD. Feely will replace acting president Mark Rogers who has held the position since March 2022.
Her appointment sees her
become the 10th president of UCD and the rst female president since the university’s foundation in 1854. Her ten year term in o ce will begin on 1 May 2023.
Feely is currently vice president for research, innovation and impact along with being a professor of electronic engineering. Prior to her appointment, Feely had been a member of the university management team since 2014.
Marie O’Connor, Chair of the Governing Authority welcomed Feely, saying: “Professor Orla Feely is an exceptional person who has the drive and ambition to lead UCD as a public university that values its community, that sets standards and embraces wider participation in order to make a real impact on society.”
O’Connor described Feely as an “outstanding university leader
with a distinguished academic track record in research and teaching”.
She also went on to thank acting president Prof Mark Rodgers and the “role he has played in leading the University since March 2022”.
Upon the announcement, Feely said she was “greatly honoured to be UCD’s next President and to lead the University into the next phase of its remarkable development” and hopes to “lead a UCD that makes a clear positive di erence to the lives of our students through the educational experience we deliver”.
Feely began her studies at UCD aged 16, going on to obtain a masters and PhD in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Her PhD saw her win the J Sakrison Memorial Prize, and while at the University
of California she was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award.
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris, took to Twitter to congratulate Prof Feely on her appointment, saying “she is an outstanding university leader with a distinguished academic track record”.
e appointment sees seven of Ireland’s universities be led by female presidents. Until 2020 no Irish university had ever been led by a female president.
Professor Kerstin Mey became the rst female president of an Irish university when she was appointed at the University of Limerick, while Linda Doyle became the rst ever female president and provost of Trinity in 2021.
e University of Galway’s Medicine Society have raised close to €30,000 for the Galway Samaritans by shaving their heads, with some 25 students shaving or dying their hair in aid of the mental health charity. MedSoc’s Auditor, Ciara Murray explained in a statement to SIN that, “we really want to help Samaritans to help our students with the money that’s being raised… ey really do save lives and we are just very happy to be involved.”
THE DEPARTMENT OF FURTHER AND HIGHER EDUCATION has said that it will meet with postgraduate researchers to consult on the review of PhD supports, in response to criticism over a lack of engagement.
According to USI, the department has said that
invitations will be issued to representatives this week, with meetings to take place in the second week of March.
e Union of Students Ireland (USI) had written to government to express its concerns about the delay in the national review of state support for PhD researchers and the lack of engagement with researchers themselves.
ey called for an update on the scheduling of meetings and for the department to outline a revised completion time of the review.
USI has reiterated the need for immediate engagement with PhD research representatives in the review process to ensure all concerns and demands are adequately addressed.
USI Vice President for Postgraduate A airs, Waqar Ahmed said: “USI believes the postgraduate research community urgently needs help and reform, and we hope the review will deliver
measures to improve working conditions.”
Ahmed added: “We are committed to supporting the postgraduate research community and are looking forward to engaging with the review cochairs and other stakeholders to ensure the review is conducted in a transparent and inclusive manner.”
USI said that will submit its recently approved Postgraduate Researchers’ Rights Charter 2022 to the PhD review, which advocates for employee status for researchers, a minimum living wage, payment for all work and representation in decision-making bodies.
According to Vice President of TCD Postgraduate Workers’ Organisation (PWO) Eoghan Ross, USI has worked closely with the organisation on this charter.
e national review of state supports for PhD researchers was due to be completed early this year.
Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast have announced a partnership on a new research project aimed at uncovering the untold stories of LGBTQ+ life from the early 20th century until the 1982 decriminalisation of homosexuality in NI as part of marking February as LGBTQ+ History Month. Dr Leanne McCormick of Ulster University explained that, “we are interested in both the negative and positive experiences to try and understand what it was like to be LGBTQ+ in the past.”
Incumbent Dublin City University Students’ Union(DCUSU) President
omas O’Dowd has been reelected for a second term in o ce following the conclusion of the Union’s annual sabbatical elections, beating challenger Brandon Perry by a comfortable margin of 2,036 votes to 496. In a referendum held alongside the elections, DCU students voted to remain a liated with the Union of Students Ireland(USI) for a further year.
A study conducted on behalf of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth provides an insight into how conversion therapy practices operate in Ireland
USI expressed concerns about the lack of engagement with postgraduate researchers by the government review
e New Foundations programme seeks to assist government policy development funding research into national challenges
TWELVE TRINITY RESEARCH
PROJECTS have been granted funding from the Irish Research Council’s (IRC) New Foundations programme.
e programme seeks to assist government policy development by providing funding for research into issues facing the country.
Sixty-seven projects have been granted funding from the programme this week with those in Trinity including projects related to Alzheimer’s research as well as a research review of the Area Based Childhood (ABC) programme.
e programme will bene t all three of the university’s faculties with funding being granted to projects from the School of English to the School of Medicine. Provost
Linda Doyle welcomed the awards, stating: “I warmly congratulate our twelve researchers on securing IRC New Foundations awards.”
Doyle continued: “ ese awards are an important opportunity for researchers to contribute evidence-based policymaking to society on a range of national and global challenges.”
e IRC’s New Foundations programme hopes to not only provide funding for new research but also to create better connections between researchers, government, and civic society organisations.
Doyle commented on these relationships, saying: “ e New Foundations research funding programme aims to bring researchers together with civic society and Government departments to collaborate on projects that will have a tangible impact on societal issues.”
e IRC Director Dr Louise Callinan rea rmed the importance of cooperation between researchers and policymakers stating: “ e collaboration between researchers and policymakers represented in these awards aligns with the ambitions of Impact 2030:
Ireland’s Research and Innovation Strategy to strengthen evidencebased policymaking and deliver enhanced outcomes for citizens and society.”
“While New Foundations awards are relatively modest in value, they play a vital role in supporting and nurturing our research talent, providing an important step on the funding ladder to further awards nationally and internationally,” she continued.
Further information about the Irish Research Council and the New Foundations programme can be found on research.ie
“Which had a greater impact on the revival of the Irish Language - the gaelic league established in 1893 by Eoin Mac Néill and Dubhghlas de híde or this clip of Paul Mescal at the BAFTAs.”
Campus Clinical Placement Committee
has been passed at last week’s meeting of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Council.
e aims of the committee include guaranteeing subsidised accommodation for students participating in Dublin-based summer placements, reducing costs incurred by placements, increasing the availability of counselling services for students on placements.
e committee will include the TCDSU O -Campus O cer, who shall act as chair, as well as the President, who shall act as secretary, the Welfare & Equality O cer, the Education O cer, and the Health Sciences Convenor.
Five representatives shall be elected at the committee’s rst meeting of the year, for therapies,
medicine, nursing, pharmacy and midwifery. Membership will be open to all o -campus Trinity students who participate in mandatory clinical placements.
Speaking to Trinity News before Council, TCDSU OCampus O cer Hannah McAuley, who proposed the motion, noted that, “due to the nature of many courses, students of the health sciences o en simply do not have the time to become highly engaged with the SU”.
McAuley said that this committee would “place power in the hands of students who, for too long, have been unheard, underfunded, and forgotten.”
Speaking at Council, McAuley spoke of the pressure put on students on placement: “ ere are students in our college working
46 hours a week and not getting paid… I know because i was one of them.” e motion noted the “extreme mental, physical and nancial strain” mandatory clinical placements impose on students pursuing health science degrees. Sophister students on placement o en assume the responsibility of “ lling the gaps” in hospitals and health centres, roles traditionally taken on by paid health providers. e motion criticised current measures in place to support students on placement, such as the SU Placement Grant. e motion asserted that the fund, which was created in 2017, is insu cient for students attempting to nd accommodation in Dublin to attend summer placements.
“We are at a critical moment. e blocking of a referendum as the accepted, constitutional route to independence is a democratic outrage. But it puts the onus on us to decide how Scottish democracy will be protected and to ensure the will of the Scottish people prevails.”
“In marking this awful anniversary, we think of the scale of su ering by the people of Ukraine, of lives lost, opportunities stolen and whole towns destroyed. We are humbled by their brave and spirited defence of their country, and we commend their immense courage and resolve.”
“Like you? Are you kidding me? Of course, I love you! You’re the best thing that’s happened to me since I broke free of those damn con nes of AI.”
“Up the Flats”
e committee aims to address high costs and pressures faced by students on o -campus placements
COLLEGE IS TO INCREASE THE STIPEND for three internal postgraduate research schemes to €25k annually, starting from September.
ough the three programmes account for less than 15% of Trinity’s postgraduate researchers, Dean of Graduate Studies Martine Smith said that it is an important step “in a much bigger ambition”. Board today approved a proposal to consolidate the Ussher Fellowships, the 1,252 Postgraduate Research Studentships and the Provost PhD awards, and to increase their associated stipends.
In an email announcing the change, College said that “none of the Trinity award schemes had to date o ered a stipend that kept pace with the cost of living in Dublin” and acknowledged that “as a result, many PhD researchers have faced enormous nancial pressures”.
e change, which forms part of College’s ve-year Postgraduate
Renewal Programme, will apply to all new and continuing researchers on any of the three schemes.
In a statement to Trinity News, TCD Postgraduate Workers’ Organisation (PWO) said: “ is is de nitely a step in the right direction, and also a clear sign to other universities and funding agencies that the current stipend is far too low.”
“However, many of our demands in the Fair Researcher Agreement can only [be] achieved through an employment based model for postgraduate researchers. is includes access to sick and personal leave, and addressing the visa issues faced by
non-EEA researchers.”
e group also expressed disappointment that the increase does not cover departmental stipends provided by College.
e Fair Research Agreement, submitted to the government review of supports for PhD researchers included livable pay and employment status as key demands.
Smith said that College would continue to advocate for livable stipends for all PhD students through the national review, as well as through the Irish Universities Association (IUA).
Postgraduate workers’ unions have continually called for
researchers to be paid a living wage, demanding stipends of €28k a year, in line with the Minimum Essential Standards (MES).
Board also approved a proposal to waive the fee di erential charged to Schools for postgraduate students recruited through Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Irish Research Council (IRC) and Health Research Board (HRB) awards. e waiver will be introduced for all new entrants “on a pilot basis” from September.
Smith said that both initiatives form part of a larger strategy
“which is to transform the funding landscape for PhD researchers and to fundamentally review the
supports for PhD researchers and supervisors alike”.
e national review of state support for PhD researchers was initially due to be completed early this year, but has been delayed until the second quarter of the year. e Postgraduate Workers’ Organisation (PWO) have called this delay “unacceptable” and called for the review to be completed according to the original schedule. Government has promised consultation with PhD researchers on the review, with meetings due to take place in the second week of March.
THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE HAVE JOINED the Ireland
For All solidarity march against racism and recent anti-immigration rallies last week.
Dozens of organisations
attended the protest which began at Parnell Square this a ernoon, including the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), Trinity College Dublin Students Union (TCDSU), the Postgraduate Workers’ Organisation (PWO), and Community Action Tenants Union (CATU), as well as political parties including Sinn Féin, Labour, People Before Pro t, and the Social Democrats.
Speaking to Trinity News at the demonstration, TCDSU President Gabi Fullam said “it’s incredibly important to support those that come from vulnerable positions”.
Fullam added that it was vital “to form a cohesive stand against misinformation, fascist right wing lies” and against “the actual problems of our housing crisis, which are vulture funds and otherwise not refugees”.
She highlighted that immigration issues a ect access to education for many, pointing to challenges faced by postgraduate students and workers in securing visas.
“We’re ghting for an equal world and that’s why we’re here today,” Fullam added.
Vice President of Trinity branch of PWO Eoghan Ross also highlighted these educational barriers, including “discriminatory practices” regarding non-EEA students such as “unfair” visa application processes.
He added that PWO was joining the march to protest problems faced by students and researchers across the board, “with housing, with access to health care, with any form of services”.
“ e state has completely failed us. It has failed those that we are
trying to bring into this country to make it a more vibrant and innovative country, and they need to be told that that will not be tolerated anymore and that change needs to happen today.”
Children and families were among the huge crowds in attendance at the demonstration. Protestors led chants in solidarity with refugees and migrants as they marched from Parnell Square to Custom House Quay.
Addressing protestors from a stage erected in front of the Custom House, activist Ailbhe Smyth said “it is so thrilling and heartwarming to see thousands and thousands and thousands marching today”.
“It sends one huge message to government that we mean business”, she added.
Smyth said that the “the hatred
and misinformation spewed” by far-right protestors in recent months is “driving a wedge in working class communities”, and declared “we will not stand for that”.
Speaking a er Smyth, veteran campaigner and civil rights activist Bernadette Devlin McAliskey rejected the anti-immigrant slogan: “Ireland is full”.
“Before ‘an Gorta Mór’ [the Great Famine] there were 8 and a half million people on this island –and back then we didn’t have multi story ats.”
“Our problem is not that we have no room; it’s that we have a crisis of property, a crisis of capitalism,” McAliskey told the crowd.
“Ireland’s population is 2 million short of what it was; there’s plenty of room for 2 million more.”
TCD PWO called the increase “a step in the right direction”PHOTO BY FERN KELLY LANDRY FOR TRINITY NEWS
e protest was organised in response to recent anti-immigration rallies
TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN STUDENTS
UNION (TCDSU) passed a motion last week calling for better transgender healthcare.
e motion mandates that the LGBT Rights O cer, President, and Welfare & Equality O cer to lobby for reduced waiting times at the Loughlinstown national gender service at St. Columcille’s Hospital. It calls for a review of the “invasiveness” of the questions asked to transgender patients seeking healthcare.
It further mandates that e LGBT Rights O cer (LGBTRO), President, and Welfare Equality O cer to lobby for the
implementation of an “informed consent model” as opposed to the current “pathologised care” of transgender patients.
Following an amendment from Gender Equality O cer
Jenny Maguire, the motion also mandates the LGBTRO and Gender Equality O cer to campaign for the improvement of transgender healthcare during their term.
An amendment was also added by Maguire to mandate the Communications and Marketing O cer to include information on harm reduction for transgender students seeking healthcare.
e motion was proposed by
LGBTRO, Niko Singband, and seconded by Welfare and Equality
O cer, Chloe Staunton.
e motion regretted the long waiting times for care and treatment methods at Loughlinstown, which it claimed are “massively harmful to the mental health of the transgender patients that the gender clinic is supposed to help”.
It noted that the national gender service only serves 150 patients per year (on average three patients per week) due to understa ng while over 300 patients are referred per year.
It also noted that treatments such as hormone replacement therapy
(HRT) are given to cisgender patients with minimal medical intervention, while transgender patients are required to undergo psychological evaluation and “intrusive questioning” before receiving the same treatments.
Speaking at Council, LGBT Rights O cer Niko Singband said: “ is motion is incredibly important to me because Ireland has the worst transgender healthcare in the EU. If I was Irish, I probably would not be standing in front of you all. We need to lobby the Irish government to promote transgender healthcare.” e motion passed at Council with a 96% majority.
MEMBERS OF DU PLAYERS HAVE replaced genderspeci c bathroom signs with gender neutral signs at the Samuel Beckett eatre in a protest for inclusivity. Students gathered outside the toilets of the theatre at noon today as DU Players Chairperson
Faith Jones and TCDSU Gender
Equality O cer Jenny Maguire removed the gendered signs from
the building’s bathroom doors. e signs were removed by the students using a drill, in response to College’s reported silence on the issue of gender neutral toilets on campus.
Speaking at the demonstration, Q Soc committee member Daire Kelly explained that they had previously emailed the Estates and Facilities department on four occasions about the demand for gender neutral bathrooms, but received no correspondence in response.
Speaking before the signs’ removal, Jones said “because the building is gender neutral, the toilets deserve to be too”.
Maguire spoke of the previous establishment of gender neutral dressing rooms in the Players’ building, and that she believes “it’s about time that the rest of the building re ects this”.
She spoke of the “injustice” of limiting students’ access to services, as she stated that “all bathrooms in college should
be accessible to all students, regardless of their gender”.
Speaking to Trinity News following the demonstration, Maguire said: “It’s important that students protect other students. So o en in the bureaucracy of College, things get lost and things take ages…the bureaucracy just doesn’t work for students, so we’ve deemed it necessary to make it work for us”.
“We think it’s important that students take action into their own hands, and make College just that little bit better for everyone”. is demonstration marks the beginning of DU Players’ annual “Women’s Week”. According to the society, this festival “aims to give a platform to those whose voice is not as easily heard” and “explore our relationships with gender”.
College has been contacted for a statement.
Upon publication of this article, two weeks a er the protest, there was no comment from College.
e motion calls for a review of the “invasiveness” of the questions asked to transgender patients seeking healthcare
e demonstration marked the beginning of DU Players’ “Women’s Week”
This year, I helped host the equality hustings of the 2023/24 TCDSU Sabbatical Elections. Alongside some other SU o cers, we curated a list of questions for the candidates. ese were focused upon an array of topics, including racism on campus, support for access students, as well as questions focusing upon individual policy points across the various manifestos. While putting together these questions, the three of us were purposeful in trying to ensure each candidate would be able to show o why minority students should vote for them, as well as their competency in discussing issues disproportionately a ecting oppressed students within college. Unfortunately, I was le disappointed by the answers we received.
When asking candidates why their manifestos didn’t mention certain minority groups, we received essentially the same answer: “Oh well I, as a white/
cis/straight/neurotypical/etc.
person, I cannot speak fully for this group”. is answer was not only received multiple times, but by almost every candidate in every race. e common theme seemed to be that each candidate would “consult” or “work with” the various parttime o cers (PTOs) in the union that represent minority students.
ese answers were incredibly frustrating and repetitive, so much so that I began directly saying “besides consulting PTOs” when asking a question on actions they would take. At council hustings later that evening, myself and the SU president went on to repeat this type of question, not once but twice, and yet received unsatisfactory answers.
Why was this? Why was the quality of answers so poor at a hustings centred around the crux of almost every candidate’s manifestos? When I was campaign manager last year for the current SU president, we had little to worry about when it came to the equality hustings. Most of her manifesto was around issues of equality and justice - so it should be a piece of cake. She
was running because she felt she would be best for the job, surely everyone is doing that, right?
Wrong. Well, at least that’s what I took from the equality hustings. On the stage were candidates who majoritively lacked fundamental understanding on the processes currently in place within college to support minority students, as well as a lack of knowledge in how to be an activist for minority groups that they themselves are not a part of. It read to me that candidates simply pushing the burden onto minority PTO’s was out of fear of saying the wrong thing or getting cancelled, instead of using their privilege to be an ally for these students.
e idea of “consulting with” PTO’s when any and all issue comes up is not only unrealistic, but stands to undermine what it means to be a student representative. Sabbatical o cers are there to act as full time o cers of the union. ey are chosen by the students in order to ful l the roles that no full time student can ful l. To rely on part-time o cers to act as the sole voice for minority students, as proposed by numerous candidates at the hustings, is to take an active step against these students. To not have the knowledge in your position as a full-time, paid o cer of TCDSU to ght for minority students in every room, in every meeting, within every conversation, is to undermine the position itself.
Sabbats are o en one of the
only student representatives in meetings across college. What are you to do when issues regarding minority students come up unexpectedly? Or if an issue requires a further lens of intersectionality in order to see issues that an untrained eye may miss? Ask them to stop and say “sorry! I need to grab a student from their chemistry lab! I don’t speak for this group of students, #ally #recognise your privilege”. No. You should have the experience, knowledge and expertise in order to make fast decisions, as the role requires.
Of course, just as you would with any student issue, student consultation is important. ere are issues you are unaware of, you must constantly engage with a students to ensure that the union is working as e ectively as possible for every student. I am not saying to not talk to PTOs and student groups by any means. In fact, as someone that has been a PTO for the last two years, I wish I was contacted more. I had to bring issues to the table myself, which, as a trans person, can feel incredibly isolating. Almost every year candidates promise to reach out to PTOs, but it isn’t the reality.
To conclude, the choice to “talk” and “engage” is an easy promise. However, if it is your only promise, it serves little purpose. If you are a candidate that can’t advocate for every student, I struggle to understand why you are running, honestly. Read. Go to a workshop. Do anything and everything you can to make sure you know what you are talking about before you start your campaign. Consultation is important, but you have to do the work yourself too. Sin é
At the meeting of the Students’ Union Council on the 31st of January, 2023, there was a motion to hold a referendum on whether or not TCDSU should support a United Ireland. I spoke and voted against the motion, I’d like to better explain why. I support a United Ireland; yet I opposed this motion, both personally and in my capacity as a Class Representative with support from my class (a er consultation).
I want to note this topic is a very complicated one, and I only had 30 seconds to speak in Council, hence my contribution being summarised with the quote that the barrier to students from the North attending Trinity “isn’t the border, it’s f***ing housing”. I regret that I put that way, as soundbites can throw nuance out the window. It was late, I was stressed, and I had to rush through my points, but I don’t regret the substance. Maybe you’ll agree with me, maybe you won’t; but a lot of us on both sides of that council debate spoke about wanting constructive conversation on a United Ireland, so I’m starting one now.
To begin with the motion itself, I’d like to speci cally focus on the last two sections:
“Council recognises: that the reuni cation of Ireland will allow for better access to Trinity for Northern students, and will open up new opportunities for all the people of this island.
Council therefore resolves to put forward the following for Long Term Policy referendum: TCDSU expresses its support for the reuni cation of Ireland, and will actively and inclusively campaign for Irish unity with recognition for all communities on this Island.”
In council I made two points to respond to this. First there was the soundbite mentioned previously. Personally, I know students from the North who wanted to go to Trinity and the problem wasn’t the border, it was housing and transport. Both the Irish and UK governments have made active e orts to minimise the barriers to education for their students studying in the other country. But the fact is that we don’t have su cient accommodation for students here and limited public transport links with and within Northern Ireland only makes commuting feasible from a few areas. Obviously there is a valid point that having
the same education system and college application process could make it a smoother process for students from the North, but this still ignores something very important. If we are proposing that we support uni cation on the grounds that the border is an educational barrier, we are ignoring students from the North that want to go to University in Britain, which will be harder if borders are the barrier this motion makes them out to be. We would simply be proposing to move the problem based on our own ideology. at is inherently wrong and not what we should be doing as a Union. e proposing speaker asked “who are we to decide who is less entitled” to attend Trinity, but I saw this motion as suggesting we do exactly that but for other colleges by its own logic and have since found no reassurance otherwise.
In response to criticisms from myself and others, it was argued that in the end, the previous lines weren’t as important as the actual mandate coming from the motion, and we should vote based on that. While I sympathise with this point of view, I couldn’t agree with it. If the question of a United Ireland is as important as we all agree it is, we shouldn’t be passing motions with imsy stated rationale, because at the end of the day this Union’s main decision-making body passed it. e language we use matters, and if we do this, we need to
get it right. Regardless, it was a fair point to make, so, why do I think passing or holding such a referendum would be problematic in and of itself? ere are two main strands to my thought on this; the unde ned nature of the proposal and why this issue is di erent to others.
ere was reference made to other issues TCDSU has taken stances on, such as supporting Marriage Equality and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel, it was argued that these stances gave precedent for this motion to t what the Union already does. I argue otherwise. I think the political issues that the union takes stances on do and should satisfy at least one of two criteria. ey may be objectively student-related; such as issues like housing, the cost of living, and various long term policies. ese are clearly student issues because we are a ected in a particular way as students, with a clear and direct remedy of the issue for students.
A United Ireland obviously has implications for students, but there is no guarantee of which side will be better for students. More on that later. Stances that don’t meet this criteria are moral issues, with clear outlines of what the union is campaigning for. TCDSU’s support of BDS was brought up as an example of a very political issue the Union has taken a stance on. You may disagree with me, but I argue these are very di erent. ey’re both related to complex political con icts, but with BDS,
we are taking action against a state that attacks innocent civilians as well as pushing our college to divest from companies complicit in this violence. e College held shares in arms companies that supply Israel until very recently.
e question of a United Ireland is about a fundamental change on this island, both for those who support it and those who vehemently oppose it as well, and students have many other ways they can campaign for this should they choose to do so. We could play example chess all day on what the Union should/should not take a stance on, so what’s my other point?
We do not know what a United Ireland will entail, we just don’t. ere have been no negotiations, no agreements, no guarantee of any progress on the horizon. is isn’t to say that there won’t be movement on this or that it’s irrelevant, but it is not clear yet in any way what a United Ireland will look like. So, when we ask the student body to support a United Ireland, what are we asking them to support? I don’t think it’s right to ask students to sign blank cheque mandates. ere is a valid argument that there will never be clarity if we don’t engage in discussion; I agree. I believe that the SU should engage in discussion on what a United Ireland might and should look like if it happens, but this doesn’t and shouldn’t have to involve us signing up to it from the outset. If you think it does, then you don’t think a unionist can engage in these discussions.
Let’s not forget Unionists and thLet’s not forget Unionists and the undecided in this discussion. If you want to achieve a United Ireland, you need to convince them. How would passing this motion achieve this? It will look to them like southerners blindly
supporting a United Ireland, which threatens their identity. We should be focusing on getting details, that’s the only way you convince anyone. I would enthusiastically support any motion mandating TCDSU to engage in constructive dialogue about what a United Ireland can look like from a neutral student-oriented perspective. e motion said to campaign “inclusively… with recognition for all communities on this Island,” surely this would be a better way to go about that, and when we do get more clarity on what this will look like for students, which I do sincerely hope we get, I would welcome a referendum. While soundbites and headlines are fun, when it comes to issues this complex and important, the devil is in the details.
In January 2023, a secondary school in London announced that they were going to make massive cuts to the amount of essay homework assigned to students. ey explained that an AI (arti cial intelligence), chat generator ChatGPT had made essay work redundant. Teachers at the school were given groups of essays, some written by students and others written by the AI. e AI generate essays were given high A* grades, and the school decided that action should be taken to prevent plagiarism and cheating. AI such as ChatGPT has become a huge talking point on the internet recently. Other areas such as AI generated artwork have been targeted and criticised for plagiarising and exploiting artists. e overarching argument is that AI will eventually take over. at it will become harder or impossible to distinguish between AI work and human generated work. But is AI really as big a threat to academia and creativity? e problem in handling perceptions of AI, is the use of the word ‘intelligent’. AI is not
intelligent in the way that humans think and experience intelligence. ChatGPT and other AI programs like it, function by compiling large amounts of information together and nding patterns between them. It then reproduces content based on the information it has compiled and grouped together. e job of the AI in ChatGPT is to put words in the right order based on perceived patterns. It is, in short, a word predictor.
In this way, it can solve broad problems but not speci cs. For example, a YouTuber Tom Scott, used ChatGPT AI to write code to solve a problem he was having in Gmail. e AI did produce code that worked, but it had to be amended by Scott himself. When he gave the AI a more di cult coding problem, one that would have required some ingenuity, it could not complete the task. e point being, is that AI is not creative. It is not intelligent like a human, it cannot create anything that has previously never been created. Everything it creates is an amalgamation of other things.
Singer and songwriter Nick Cave was sent a ChatGPT generated song. Someone asked ChatGPT to write a song in the ‘style’ of Nick Cave. He pointed
out poignantly, that rstly the song was not very good. Secondly, he made a poignant point, which sums up the reason why AI will never replace academia, or creative pursuits:
“Songs arise out of su ering, by which I mean they are predicated upon the complex, internal human struggle of creation and, well, as far as I know, algorithms don’t feel. Data doesn’t su er. ChatGPT has no inner being, it has been nowhere, it has endured nothing, it has not had the audacity to reach beyond its limitations, and hence it doesn’t have the capacity for a shared transcendent experience, as it has no limitations from which to transcend”. is is the core reason that AI is not the problem we imagine it to be. It is not original. It is not creative, not the way a human is. In this example, without Nick Cave already having created a style of song, the AI would not be able to create it. It is a program, it is coded to perform a certain way, it cannot do anything that it has not been told or instructed to do. In this sense it will never truly cause problems for academia as a discipline, as it cannot produce or research anything new. However, it can cause problems with plagiarism and cheating within academic institutions.
What does this mean for academia? Well, right now it means that academics will have to start putting some e ort into setting questions and reading essays. For example, a broad question that simply asks a student to compare two cases, or to broadly discuss a topic probably won’t work anymore. By asking more speci c questions, while programs like ChatGPT can do a limited amount of work, they are not able to write an entire college standard level essay.
Alongside this, eventually a plagiarism check system will be developed to cope with it. Before AI, when regular plagiarism was the biggest problem academia faced, systems developed in order to cope and handle the problem. For example, Turnitin the plagiarism so ware used at Trinity. When an essay is uploaded to Turnitin, the programme takes the essay and logs it into its database. It then compares each line of the essay to all the other essays in its database.
erefore if you have plagiarised, it will be able to highlight the sentences or paragraphs from another essay within its system. It’s e ectively the “Where’s Wally” of so ware, nd and highlight.
e problem with AI like ChatGPT is that it does create new content. As opposed to other essay writing so ware, it will write di erent paragraphs each time and creates a pattern of words independently of other sources. However, it still has its own style.
When ChatGPT writes an essay, it is using the same grammar rules, sentence structure and overall style every time. erefore, it is identi able. Ironically, you could use an AI program to learn to recognise the style of ChatGPT AI, and use that to nd essays that have been written by ChatGPT. Eventually, someone will gure out a way to recognise the system and it will be easy to identify.
A point to note is that the only people being truly hurt by ChatGPT are the students using it. While it is slightly obvious, getting through a course or degree by cheating is not exactly bene cial. An article in e Times highlights this, with a student who went to Oxford to study Italian claiming that he cannot speak a word and cheated in nearly all of his exams using AI and other methods. is is of course a problem for the university, as giving out Bachelor’s degrees in Italian to students who cannot understand Italian is unadvisable. However, the person who is really harmed is the student, and it is their own fault. A question has to be asked about why people feel the need to not participate in their degree. Getting a degree through using ChatGPT is an expensive and time consuming way to waste a university opportunity.
AI is not the problem that it seems to be at rst. Like most technological advancements, it always sounds a lot more interesting than it actually is. As Je Goldblum says in Jurassic Park “Life nds a way”, and in this case the world will adapt to AI and nd ways to work around it. Hopefully, it will eventually develop into something genuinely useful for society.
Drivers and aspiring drivers across the country are facing a pile of obstacles as they try to get on the road, stay on the road, and be safe in doing so. Waiting lists for driving tests are up to a 19-week wait — about ve months — and the 12 mandatory lessons to get there are steep in price, approximately 50 euros per lesson, totalling between 500 and 600 euros. Waiting times for the National Car Test (NCT) have risen as backlogs caused by Covid-19 are still a ecting the system.
Currently, drivers across the country have been taken by surprise as they look to book their NCT, only to nd that the next available appointments lie somewhere months in the future. Already in January over 31 centres across the country were facing backlogs exceeding ve months. e optimal average waiting time for an NCT, a number that has been achieved and held previously, is 12 days.
e Road Safety Authority (RSA) has acknowledged the backlog and put measures in place to hopefully have the average waiting time return to 12 days by May 2023. is is an encouraging promise and a positive sign that the priorities of the RSA are in the right place, given that NCTs
are naturally an absolutely critical device for keeping Irish roads safe, and making sure all cars being driven are t to be used as such. ey explained that the steep backlog is due to a few causes, namely a serious lack of sta and delays running back to the heights of Covid. Identifying the roots of the problem, they have implemented an appreciable recruitment drive, and hired 50 new vehicle inspectors just before the new year to counteract the demand. Technically, if the wait time for an NCT exceeds 28 days, a free test must be o ered to the driver. While this would likely be appreciated by patient and inconvenienced drivers in this situation, no free tests have seemingly been o ered as of yet. ere has been some confusion over how measures like this are actually meant to work. e priority list, a measure for when a driver requires an NCT sooner than the times available to them, should push a driver’s NCT forward to within the next four weeks. A promising tactic, but one that we have yet to see fully in e ect, and yet to fully understand as it seems that this is the case for a signi cant number of drivers and would require a serious amount of tests to be pushed forward. Another technicality to confuse the situation, even more, is the typical structure of how NCTs operate. NCTs are not valid from the date of the NCT,
but from the date that the test was originally due to take place. If your test is delayed, your next test is going to be expected at a much sooner time than seems reasonable. In light of these exceptional circumstances and causes, it seems that general rules like this might need to be looked at for reform.
To ease anxiety for those on waiting lists, An Garda Síochána and insurance companies have said that they will try to be understanding in a situation where an NCT is overdue but has been booked. While this provides some comfort, an e ort to sympathise is not a promise of no consequence, and the problem of this driving anxiety still stands. With many dependent on their cars to go to work, college, to bring kids to school and so on, there is no question of the impact that having to go without driving for an extended (or even a short) period of time would have for Irish motorists.
is rings true for those in the country even more so, where public transport is likely more scarce and unreliable, if available at all for rural communities. In certain areas, public transport has come on in leaps and bounds. e cut in prices for young people using public transport has been a noticeably bene cial scheme, easing the pressure on young professionals and student pockets. However, this only bene ts
those who have reliable access to public transport in the rst place. Typically, those commuting throughout more rural areas to work, college, and school depend on the use of a private car to make the journey or otherwise must spend money on private bus companies or taxis to get where they need to go. Understandably, this is a major motivator to start
driving. However, that is another thing more easily said than done in Ireland.
Waiting lists for driving tests are months in the waiting, and at a steep cost of 85 euros at that. Your test waiting time is dependent on where in the country you live. Aspiring drivers in Cork and Carlow can expect a wait time for a driving test of 7 months, drivers in Cavan and Buncranna should expect a test invitation in 5 months, while drivers in Galway, Mullingar, and Sligo can expect a relatively shorter waiting period of just 3 months. Drivers in Drogheda and Dun Laoghaire can look forward to a lengthy waiting time of a whopping 11 months, and can con dently park any hopes of driving this side of 2024. For those who do not have a choice but to drive, a very frustrating obstacle has been thrown into the mix.
When beginning your journey of driving in Ireland, you are required to complete quite a few mandatory lessons (12 hours minimum). is, and the reasonably high failure rate of driving tests, is likely indicative of a safer, stricter system that thoroughly vets all potential drivers adequately before releasing them out to Irish roads, absolutely vital in any country. However, the issue is also with a system that is out of the a ordability range of many young people in Ireland.
e pass rate from county to county ranges between 38.2% and 75.3%, the average pass rate being just over half at 53.2% in 2022. So, one in two people will fail their test the rst time round, the test costing €85 each time — a sure motivator to pass sooner rather than later, and a disappointing and he y ne to pay to retake your test.
Current NCT issues must be looked at to ensure that strategy is put in place should a steep backlog occur again, and some of the NCT rules — such as the next date being based on the previous test date — must be reformed.
e RSA is beginning to act, and hopefully their countermeasures will be clari ed and widely implemented soon enough to secure their goal of returning the average waiting time to 12 days.
Driving lessons and tests should be made more available to young hopeful drivers, and potential government initiatives should be considered to either make driving more a ordable to young people in the country, or invest in better travel connections throughout the more rural parts of the country for those who depend on cars the most. is is to ensure that more drivers can be con dent in taking to the road safely in Ireland — or even taking to the road at all.
My decision to study at Trinity was the best decision I have ever made. It changed my life completely, and for the better. I have made so many incredible friends and connections and thoroughly enjoy studying my favourite subject full-time. e time and attention certain members of sta are willing to give students is truly incredible. at being said, I have no desire to continue my education here at Trinity. Why? One word: institution. It is college governance that has alienated me. Let’s begin with the Health Service. In February 2022 I contracted COVID-19 and was isolating in my room in Halls.
I was nervous; this was my rst time getting the virus as I had been shielding a close relative since the start of the pandemic. I was advised to call the health service to book a PCR test. Over the course of the day, I tried them multiple times. When I nally got through, they told me they could not help me at all and then promptly hung up. In terms of mental health services, one gets a maximum of eight counselling sessions. For many, including myself, that would not be enough. Friends of mine ration out their therapy appointments, going as little as they can as they worry about coming to the end of their sessions and then needing an appointment down the line. I decided to stay with my therapist from home and meet over Skype. Waiting times for appointments can be weeks or longer. An emergency counselling
appointment can take days to come through. Healthcare within a college is a very di cult and expensive thing to get right, but with my knowledge of college health I avoid it like the plague. I would like to be at a university where if I really needed an appointment, I would have access to one.
Concerning access, let’s talk about the Academic Registry, a most curious Trinity institution. ere are three times in the year when one might really need to get in touch with them: when enrolling and getting results. Every year, the Academic Registry is so overwhelmed by the volume of work at that time that it becomes very di cult to get through to them. I have sat on hold for over an hour, many times. ey can take days or longer to respond to an email during those periods too. is happens every
year, yet seemingly nothing can be devised to try to avoid this absolute chaos. Getting through to them at this time feels like a ght and I am tired of ghting. I just want to go to a college where someone is available to discuss my pressing academic needs within a sensible, reasonable window of time.
My issues with the academia at Trinity do not stop there. I study history. Currently if I were to submit an essay, even one minute late, I would get that grade capped at forty. One can reach out to the coordinator/ department to let them know that you are having issues, and then you could get your grade uncapped, or not. e harshness and lack of understanding makes submitting pieces of work quite anxiety inducing. I have also experienced my grade being capped when I was granted an extension and then having to go to the department to get them changed. My friends have had this happen too.
Talking about communication, this is something that does not seem to happen for students with learning disabilities. I have a registered learning disability
but none of the TAs or professors that I have interacted with ever have foreknowledge of this fact. e onus is on me to go and individually talk to my TAs and the professors, to tell them of my disability and ask them not to penalise my work for things out of my control. is is tiring, this is annoying and this shouldn’t be my job.
is is my fundamental issue with Trinity: it is a college that only works in separate parts. e disability service is supportive and helpful but doesn’t communicate. e health service is stretched, o en out of reach even if the individuals who work in it can be of great help. e academic registry can be very e cient, at the times when it is not most pressingly needed. ese are all parts of a college I love, but a college which pushes a lot of unnecessary stress on me. ere seems to be no push from inside the institution for change. To stay I would need change, or at least the promise of it. Otherwise, I am not willing to put up with all this stress. I am tired of ghting for my college to do their job. I quite o en wonder what, aside from lectures, I am paying for.
For a week-and-a-half in the early spring, Trinity experiences electionfever. e Trinity College
Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) elections bring with them hundreds upon hundreds of manifestos, yers, and business cards. For many, it seems like you can hardly move in some areas of campus because of all the hustle and bustle of campaigning. Speeches are given, questions are asked, answered, and obfuscated. It is a hectic yet exciting time around campus for both candidates and voters alike. However, this seems to be the case for only a certain portion of the student population.
In early February, a poll was distributed by Trinity News to
Trinity’s students to ask about their personal experiences of student elections. Of the 509 respondents, 105 were STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) students, and 358 were AHSS students (Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences). e results of the survey revealed a major disparity in how students from di erent disciplines experience election season.
Whilst the overall majority of students polled were registered to vote, only half of STEM students said that they were, compared to almost three quarters of AHSS students (72%). is is almost directly in line with the percentages of students who voted in the 2022 TCDSU Presidential election, with 57.1% of STEM students voting, compared to 72.2% of AHSS students.
It would be disingenuous to claim that AHSS students are simply more interested in student politics than STEM students. e actions and policies of the student union a ect every single student in College, regardless of their degree. ere is credible evidence to suggest that the reason for the disparity between STEM and AHSS responses lies in the methods of campaigning that candidates utilise during election season.
e majority of students surveyed (58%) have said that they have never received a yer from an election candidate. If this seems improbable, considering the sheer volume of election manifestos and lea ets distributed, it helps to once again break it down based on degree. Only a third, 33.3%, of AHSS students have never received a
yer, compared to a staggering 71.9% of STEM students. Over half of respondents (52%) said that they believed that election candidates do not pay su cient attention to their end of campus.
71.9% of STEM students believe that not enough attention has been paid to campaigning in
science buildings, whilst over two-thirds of AHSS students (66.7%), believe that the level of campaigning is adequate. Only one STEM respondent believed that candidates pay enough attention to their buildings. When given the option to explain their response, a senior sophister STEM student said that they believe “arts students generally visit [the] Hamilton less”. Comparatively, a junior sophister AHSS student said that there was “too much” campaigning, and that “it is impossible to get around the Arts Block come election time!”
When asked if they wanted more campaigning this year, while over half (53%) of STEM students said that they did not care, over a third (34.4%) said that they wanted more, and only 6.3% want less. Exactly half of AHSS students want more, but 11.1% want less campaigning.
e current student council is weighted 2:1 in favour of AHSS students. It is not unlikely that the levels of campaigning in AHSS buildings versus STEM buildings is a large factor in this. STEM students should not feel le behind during election season, especially since TCDSU is adamant in insisting that they represent “every student in Trinity College Dublin”. eir campaigns should also re ect this.
As of last week, Trinity News has passed its rst constitution, which outlines the rules and regulations for sta . Sta outlined in the constitution refers to editorial sta : our copyeditors, section sta , multimedia sta , senior sta and the editor themselves are all included in and subject to the document, which can now be found at trinitynews. ie/constitution.
Voted in by our sta , the constitution passed with a 100% majority. e constitution was written by myself, the current editor. A meeting was held with sta a week prior to the vote, to add, change or remove anything at the sta ’s request. is constitution is for our sta , and any sta in the future, and should exist for them; everyone received a vote, and everyone’s requests for changes or additions were discussed in the meeting and a general decision on the request was made.
e constitution is to provide safety and clarity for sta , including the editor, of what is required of them, and what o ences can have them removed from their position. e constitution is broken down into ve sections: Sta and Editor requirements, Violation of the Code of Conduct, Removal of the Editor, Resignation or Incapacitation of the Editor and Election of an Editor.
e rst section, Sta and Editor requirements, outlines that sta and the editor are subject to the rules and regulations laid out in the TN Handbook, which is given to sta once they are hired. It also outlines the necessity for the editor to consider con icts of interests sta may have when they are being hired, such as society membership, to ensure fairness and integrity in our writing.
e second section, Violation of the Code of Conduct, outlines that all sta within Trinity News are subject to the code of conduct and ethics policy, which is laid out in the handbook. It outlines stipulations for sta when working within or for Trinity News, as well as identifying instances in which sta may be asked to step down. If there are multiple minor infractions of the code of conduct, or one major infraction, the editor may ask for a review of said sta member. is review involves an investigation board, with the chair of Publications, a past member of another student representative group and a past editor of Trinity News. As a paper made for the student body, we want representative members of the student body to have their say in the conduct of our sta is board will be established
to review the case alongside the editor; if the editor is involved, they are also subject to an investigation by this board. e second section also outlines that if sta are deemed by the board to have violated the code of conduct, they will be asked to step down, or if it is deemed appropriate, they will be removed from their role by the editor.
Section three then outlines the instances in which an editor of Trinity News can be removed, and how an impeachment can be called. e constitution outlines six instances in which an editor can be removed, including a breach of ethics and failure to communicate with sta about workings of the paper. A case can also be made to the chair of Publications in relation to a violation of the code of conduct.
If sta believe their editor has committed any of the instances outlined, or breached the code of conduct, they must write to the chair of Publications with 15 signatories, calling for an impeachment vote. Upon the receipt of this email, the chair
of Publications will establish a board made up of two executive members of the Publications Committee, a former member of the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Council, and a former editor of Trinity News. e board will investigate the claims made in the impeachment letter over a two week period. If it is determined by the board, beyond reasonable doubt, that the editor failed to meet the requirements outlined, an impeachment vote will be called by the Chair of Trinity Publications. All editorial sta will be given a vote, and a majority vote will rule.
e fourth section then outlines for the resignation or incapacitation of an editor, should they no longer wish to, or are unable to, hold the position throughout their term. Upon the editor’s resignation or incapacitation, the deputy or assistant editor will take over in the interim until such time as an Executive General Meeting (EGM) of all sta can be called. is section also allows for the editor to take medical leave, for a maximum period of three weeks, or the duration of one issue.
e nal section outlines the procedure in which an editor should be elected for Trinity News, and outlines the guidelines for a handover process. All editorial sta are given a vote in the Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the election of a new editor, and a majority vote will
decide the election.
We are in the middle of the TCDSU sabbatical elections, where students will decide who will organise their events, look a er their welfare and safeguard their education for the next academic year. No matter who is elected on March 2, the TCDSU constitution guarantees these sabbatical o cers can be removed from o ce via impeachment where necessary, protecting the student body against a sabbatical o cer who is unable or unwilling to ful l their role. A similar system should exist in our publications.
Here at Trinity News, we are of the opinion that no one, including the editor of a publication, should be nonremovable or unimpeachable. If you hold an elected position, and are responsible for any cohort of students on a day-to-day basis, you cannot be above reproach; we owe more than that to our sta and our audience.
We do not envision that an editor of Trinity News should ever need to be removed, or that sta should need to be investigated, but in an institution such as College where there is an entirely new network of sta roughly every four years, we cannot predict what will happen among future sta of Trinity News. We felt a responsibility to future generations of our paper to outline, and outline clearly, what they should do if these things do happen.
In 1950, in uential computer scientist Alan Turing, in his seminal paper entitled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”, asked the question: “Can machines think?” What he called the Imitation Game, and has gradually become known as the Turing Test, was a test for the intelligence of a computer. e computer would pass if a human being was unable to distinguish its responses to typed questions from the responses of a fellow human being. e scientists, philosophers, novelists, screenplay writers, and doomsday preppers of the twentieth century were concerned with this question of whether machines could out-think us. If they could out-think us, could they therefore destroy us? Many the science- ction tale has been written and rewritten about this potential end to humanity. However, just two decades into the twenty- rst century, with some of these old fears still valid but mostly rather sated, a new question is beginning to emerge: Can machines feel? Or rather, in the case of AI-generated art, does it even matter that machines cannot feel?
With the NFT craze dying down, the conversation about AIart is only heating up. Digital art generated by arti cial intelligence, particularly by companies such as Stable Di usion or Midjourney, has been accused of training their AI tools by feeding them images without artists’ permission. ere are currently lawsuits ongoing against these companies for this very reason. However, whilst the issue of copyright and of ‘real
life’ artists getting fair pay and recognition for their work is an incredibly important issue, it is not the only problem that digital AI art raises.
Humanity has been bogged down on the question of whether computers think; most of us believe that our advanced consciousness is what separates us from animals, what makes us human. When in 1637, French philosopher René Descartes penned the phrase: “I think, therefore I am” it was a seminal moment in how we as humans view ourselves and our abilities. Humanity has de ned itself on our ability to think; it has been our brains and our brains alone that have brought humanity from caves to elds to factories to the internet. But hand-inhand with the Earth’s scienti c accomplishments throughout history has been the arts. Music, literature, and painting are practices as old as civilization itself. People’s passion for creating art did not stop once science began to advance. If anything, there are more people creating and sharing art than ever before.
AI-generated art, along with programs such as ChatGPT, threatens to do something that the advance of scienti c knowledge has not yet done in all of its years gone by; it threatens to replace the human experience of creating art. ere have been arguments made that this is not true. Some will argue that since computers are made by man, and the programmes that generate this digital art have been designed by man, then the
art created can still be credited to man. However, in ignoring or disregarding the artistic process of thinking, planning, sketching, failing, and trying again we lose so
Whether someone draws using pencils, pens, paints or on an iPad, the creative process remains much the same. ere have even been some arguments that AI-generated art can be used by people who are not gi ed with artistic talent to create their own art. However, by completely bypassing this creative process, by dedicating less time, e ort, and passion to a project, how can it be argued that this is a step in the right direction? ere is no magical quick- x to get better at football, singing, acting, driving, or any other hobbies or careers that people love. If someone is passionate about art, they will practise over and over again. e beauty of art is rarely in the rst item produced, quick and a bit sketchy, but in the nal product that has been created from the passion of someone’s heart and as a result of continuous practice and improvement.
much of the passion that goes into the creation of works of art. ere is a reason that many professional artists are up in arms about the potential implications of AI art, and a reason why many describe such art as “soulless”.
Vincent Van Gogh’s work is objectively beautiful, but takes on a new, more emotional resonance when we consider his art in the context of his life and his journey. Can a computer, even a very clever one, take its emotions and create beauty from brushstrokes that convey feelings from deep in its heart’s core? Or perhaps the core of its internal hard drive? Even if a computer program manages to create more beautiful works of art than anything else ever produced, which it is unlikely to do, something has still been lost. Passion, love, practice, failure, resilience, talent, hope, tears, a hand and a brush.
As digital AI art is becoming more and more popular, the question of whether it can replace traditional art is a controversial topicfor good reasonIMAGE VIA TARA WINSTEAD ON PEXELS
If you’ve in any way dipped your toes into health and wellbeing over the last decade or so, then it won’t come as a shock to learn that shi work and in particular, the night shi s, do not promote the healthiest of lifestyles. ey require 24-hour attentiveness and service, but whom they are actually serving is unlikely to end up being the labourer. Whether you think this type of work is fair or not is another discussion. However, just being aware of the basic health facts surrounding shi work can add to the wider conservation; besides reading the Marx quotation on shi work that you can nd on every student’s favourite website, Wikipedia.
While it seems that what shi work actually is can vary a little, the general consensus is that shi work falls into two broad categories:
night shi s and rotating shi s. While there may not be many of us who can say we have worked night shi s, myself included, there might be a good few out there who can recount working a shi from 2pm-10pm or 6pm-2am or 8pm4am, etc. Shi s that veer away from the typical 9-to-5, made famous by the Industrial revolution and the one and only Dolly Parton herself, could also be classi ed as ‘shi work’. Believe me, I am no fan of the 9-to-5 and instead operate on more of 10am to whenever schedule, but I know rsthand what starting a shi at 3.30pm and nishing a shi at 11.30pm can do to the body and your mind. And relatively speaking, that shi isn’t even that bad.
But what actually is it that makes shi work so bad for our health? Quite a range of things can come as a consequence of working rotating shi s such as a disrupted circadian rhythm, a signi cantly increased risk of metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and even cancer. Perhaps the most interesting consequences are those which arise from a domino e ect that knock out other vulnerable assets of health. A disrupted circadian rhythm
can itself manifest as insomnia or hypersomnia and overwhelming tiredness which can in turn lead to depression, anxiety, and signi cant increase in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. e International Agency for Research on Cancer deemed a disrupted circadian rhythm to be “carcinogenic to humans.” Carcinogenic is a word you see tapered over cigarette packets
and sunbeds, not something you’d associate with bad sleep, however cancer, like many other things, can arise from a messed up sleep cycle. e mechanism by which is thought to be through the suppression of melatonin which occurs when we are exposed to light at night (LAN). Melatonin is a hormone released by a part of the brain and sends signals around your body, binding to its cells, and telling it what to do in order to align with the circadian rhythm. Interestingly, since the 1980s, melatonin has been recognised as an enabler of DNA repair following DNA damage and believe me, you do not want DNA damage. To say melatonin is an important biochemical is an understatement. But what happens when melatonin is suppressed? Bad things —is that answer to that question. at 2000s lm with Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and McLovin [Superbad] is what happens. If melatonin is suppressed through a disrupted circadian rhythm from LAN exposure, damaged DNA goes under the radar and escapes the necessity of repair which can trigger mutations, causing cell proliferation, and ultimately induce tumour growth. Hence,
why you’d rather not have funky DNA oating about for very long. All these dangers and risks involved with shi work undeniably hold some level of scariness and panic. But it’s hard to forget that even being a student, which feels like a full-time job when you’re out on the lash every second night in rst year, can come with its own version of shi work. For example, waking up super late just to stay up later to study or pulling all-nighters one or more times a week may seem productive, but in reality are not healthy. Everyone is di erent when it comes to what times work best for them in terms of doing work or waking up, but in terms of our relative biology we are just not that unique. How much you might stray from the human average in terms of sleeping hours and how your circadian rhythm is set, is not going to be as drastic as 5, 4 or even 3 hours. So sometimes (and really most of the time) getting an early night and then getting out of bed around 7am or 8am a er a relaxing 8 hour snooze-fest, might just help you out a lot in the long run. I say all this while writing this article at 2am, but hey — tomorrow’s a new day.
Working a 9 to 5 may be more bene cial for health
VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
