UCDSU to Run Referendum on Rejoining USI

who are struggling financially, and that Trinity College Dublin is not a college that supports students,” he said. “And certainly the cost of living crisis doesn’t help, it actually makes this worse. Students are becoming separated from their friends and then they are being left to eat their own food on the ground, or on the floor of different teaching spaces. This is totally unacceptable.”

When asked about the aim of the boycott and what he hoped it would achieve, Molnárfi stated that the intention was to “reverse [the] policy through pressuring college and through highlighting how damaging it is to us as a college

University College Dublin Students’ Union (UCDSU)

Council has voted to run a referendum on rejoining the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) following almost a decade of disaffiliation after voting to leave in 2013 and voting to stay disaffiliated in 2016.

If passed, the referendum would see UCDSU petition to rejoin the USI at an extra cost of €5 per student per year. With 32,000 students, the USI would see a major financial boost through additional member fees if UCDSU voted to rejoin. USI currently represents over 374,000 students across the island of Ireland. Last February, UCDSU

Council opened the door to rejoining the USI via referendum. Then-president Ruairí Power spoke to this newspaper in favour of returning to the USI, saying that “the one thing that we’re really missing out on is the lobbying capacity of USI. They have the regular interactions with relevant ministers. We really struggle to get in the room a lot of the time”.

“We don’t have the frequent meetings with Minister Harris”, he continued. “We don’t have the connections to other ministers in government to the same extent. So our lobbying capacity is quite diminished. We’re not contributing to the national voice on a lot of issues.” community”

“This is a new policy, one that hasn’t been in place for long and that actually goes against an earlier policy, which was to allow students to eat their own food in the Buttery.”

“College’s profit maximizing on the commercial revenue unit imposed this directive on Trinity catering and multimedia catering powers, and just to use us even more as cash cows and extract even more money from us”, he stated.

“The fact that this policy wasn’t in place until now, indeed an opposing policy was in place, shows that it is possible to be financially viable, and actually allow students to bring in their own foods.”

At the time there was a spectrum of opinions among UCDSU sabbatical officers, he added.

“We’ve got very differing views on whether or not we should rejoin … students want time to sort of get the knowledge or get the facts of the situation – why we left, why we should or shouldn’t rejoin. So we essentially decided we’d take it to a discussion item first [and] see where people are at.”

USI membership has been a thorny issue for UCDSU for a long time – in 2013, two thirds of students voted to disaffiliate with the national union, with three quarters of students voting to remain disaffiliated in 2016.

“And furthermore, there are empty seats available. Yes, even during lunchtime, so there’s absolutely no reason to keep students out.”

He finished: “The Buttery should be an inclusive place for students and staff. That is what we want to achieve”.

When asked whether he had plans to address the issue during his term as President of TCDSU, Molnárfi stated his intent to “highlight how damaging this is to our community within different committees” and to “work with the director of student services and other key stakeholders to push the issue”.