Squid Game: Decoding mollusc taxonomy
The Colonial Legacies Project
17
30
Life pullout
The haunting reality of house hunting in Dublin
TRINITY NEWS ESTABLISHED 1953
Tuesday 12 October 2021
Ireland’s Oldest Student Newspaper
Vol. 68, Issue. 3
PHOTO BY ELIZA MELLER FOR TRINITY NEWS
Over 78,000 visited Book of Kells since reopening in May Sarah Emerson Deputy News Editor
T
HE BOOK OF KELLS HAD 78,827 VISITORS between its reopening on May 10 and October 5, according to official
“Dublin is dying”
Hundreds marched across Dublin city centre on Saturday, October 9, to protest plans to build hotels at Merchant’s Arch in Temple Bar and on the site of the Cobblestone pub in Smithfield. A petition opposing the Smithfield plan has over 30,000 signatures
College working with schools to ensure move to face-to-face teaching is “as sizeable as possible” Bella Salerno Deputy News Editor
C
OLLEGE IS WORKING WITH INDIVIDUAL SCHOOLS to “make sure the step change” towards face-to-face teaching is “as sizeable as possible”. Trinity News spoke to the heads of the School of Histories and Humanities and School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies, who hinted at issues that may prevent a full return to inperson teaching after Reading Week. Speaking to Trinity News, a
spokesperson for College said that “these matters are a work in progress, and we are trying to maximise face to face teaching after reading week.” “Timetabling is a very complex, logistically challenging endeavour”: they continued. “College authorities are currently working extremely hard, in cooperation with individual Schools, to identify additional large lecture spaces, to make sure the step change across all faculties toward face-to-face teaching and learning is as sizeable as possible.” “College would like to stress there is a distinction between emergency online teaching and online learning” the statement continued.
“Before the pandemic we had been working hard to develop optimal pedagogical course design which included a blended approach where appropriate.” Speaking to Trinity News, the Head of the School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies, Prof Omar Garcia, said: “We currently have around 85% [face to face] teaching.” “If the Central Timetabling Unit (CTU) in College makes more rooms available after Reading Week, our permanent teaching staff will offer more [face to face] teaching, always observing public health guidance at the time, and in line with College policy.” Garcia continued: “Including
in terms of room ventilation and capacity, while also maintaining a duty of care concerning colleagues who have received Occupational Health exemptions from teaching [face to face] for a 3-month period in the first instance and have been granted permission to teach online in [Michaelmas term], while we are still in the middle of a global pandemic, affecting members at [Trinity].” Speaking to Trinity News, the Head of the School of Histories and Humanities, Dr Christine Morris, said: “We are fully committed, as a School, to maximise in person teaching after reading week, taking advantage of the removal of distancing requirements to make more use of the space we have Continued on page 2>>
figures. Trinity’s Old Library, which houses the Long Room and Book of Kells, closed for the third time on 23 December 2020, as Ireland entered level five restrictions during the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic Under the government’s phased plan to lift restrictions, cultural attractions were permitted to reopen from May 10 of this year. After 138 days of closure, the Book of Kells reopened to visitors, amid calls by Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) to halt the reopening until after students’ assessment period, which also commenced on May 10. At the time TCDSU stated on social media that “after the year we’ve had, it’s disappointing that Continued on page 2>>
trinitynews.ie TrinityNewsDublin Trinity_News trinitynews trinitynews