UCD vs Trinity Which has better students? Ents Officer Darragh Genockey goes head-tohead with his UCD counterpart on p10
“Dad, I’m hung over, stoned and in bed with a stranger”
Rory O’Donovan on those awkward parental phone calls: p5
Intervention in Libya is bad. No intervention is worse. Tommy Gavin explains on p12
The University Times Irish Student Newspaper of the Year WEDNESDAY, 23RD MARCH 2011
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Candidates clash with IUA
Anger over GSU Provost vote
Tom Lowe Editor
Ronan Costello News Editor
Former Vice Provost/ Chief Academic Officer and Provostial candidate Paddy Prendergast has sent mixed messages on whether he would advocate disaffi liating with the Irish Universities Association in light of information uncovered by The University Times which showed that Trinity contributes an annual subscription of €256,000 to the organisation. (Full report: p3) In an interview with The University Times about the IUA and its funding, Prof. Prendergast attacked the organisation, saying that it “needs to up its game” and that it “needs to take on board the importance of differentiation of mission.” He added that he would consider “advocating breaking with the IUA”, before correcting himself and adding that “advocate” was too strong a word, but that he was defi nitely “putting it out there”. Following the interview,
The University Times made contact with the Irish Universities Association to seek a comment on Prof. Prendergast’s remarks. Some 25 minutes later, IUA Chief Executive Ned Costello told the paper that he had “spoken to Paddy in relation to the matter and Paddy has said to me that what he said was that the universities collectively need to raise their game when it comes to communicating with the public” In a later interview with Prof. Prendergast, he resiled from his previous comments, saying “I don’t believe I said that” and that he hadn’t meant his comment in a negative way, claiming that the third-level sector, including the IUA needed to pull together to overcome present difficulties. He still maintained that he was not afraid to “throw down the gauntlet” with the IUA, and that he was happy that The University Times had “relayed that information” to Mr Costello. Colm Kearney, meanwhile, was also critical of the
Fencers face off during Health & Sports Week. Photo: Dargan Crowley-Long IUA in an interview with The University Times. He decried the “Stalinist idea that all universities can be treated as one sector” and added that the IUA was a “conduit through which the HEA pushes us around”, although he maintained that “there are benefits and I’m not saying we should leave it.” Prof. Kearney argued that Trinity has
“cosied up too much to the IUA and Higher Education Authority” and decried “clientelism” as “a feature of the old Ireland”, saying that relations with the IUA and HEA should “not be based on individual relationships, it’s based on professional engagement with respect” In response to these points as raised by The University Times, IUA Chief
Executive Ned Costello said that all colleges are “different colleges with different needs - it’s only when it’s something major where they all agree that collective action is better that we act sectorally” and pointed out that the IUA was itself founded by the universities “because they saw a need for a body that could represent them and it’s them representing
themselves through us.” Prof. Kearney argued that Trinity should be positioning itself on the world stage, rather than in Ireland, saying that Trinity’s “natural alliances are not in the IUA”. On this issue, IUA Communications Manager Lia O’Sullivan said that Kearney “sounds a little bit confused about what the IUA does.”
MEMBERS OF the GSU executive feel that their process for selecting a preferred Provostial candidate has been misrepresented as undemocratic by an article in the latest issue of Trinity News. Two members of the executive committee, last year’s President and VicePresident of the organisation, are openly campaigning for Patrick Prendergast. The article in Trinity News led with the sentence: “The Graduate Students’ Union is being accused by post graduate students of ignoring their preferences for the Provostial election.” GSU President Dearbhail Lawless has said that this is untrue and that she had received no complaints about the GSU’s selection policy prior to the article’s publication. However, a poster on the boards. ie TCD forum had raised the issue at length over a week beforehand. Since the article’s publication, Lawless says she has
received one e-mail of complaint. While it’s true that the GSU’s four votes are not mandated to follow the result of the SU Provostial poll, postgraduate students were entitled to vote in that poll. When speaking to The University Times, Lawless was keen to point out that the GSU is an entirely separate body to the SU and operates in a way that, she says, best gauges the interest of the postgraduate community. “There are over 5,000 postgrads in Trinity. They are very smart and if they have a problem they know they can always put it to me in an e-mail or by phone,” said Lawless. “I would question where Trinity News got their information and who went to them to complain because we certainly hadn’t had one word of complaint, and I had sent out three emails about these elections.” Instead of polling its constituents, the GSU will gather Continued on p3
Security alert as fake TA calls Irish ‘the new Jews’ Jack Leahy FOLLOWING A law lecture intrusion in December, further Arts block security issues have been raised by a bizarre tutorial intrusion by an unidentified man posing as a replacement tutorial assistant (T.A.). The man, described by a student in the Junior Freshman oral French tutorial as ‘tall, with grey hair and a beard, a long coat and a pint of water’, entered the classroom on the fourth floor of the Arts building, inquired as to the subject being taught and declared himself to have been sent by the French department to cover for absent regular T.A. Samantha Weyer-Brown, though he did not indicate any knowledge of her identity. Speaking to The University Times, a number of students in the class described how the man began to conduct the class in a mixture of broken French and German, with suspicions aroused when the man wrote a basic sentence on the board but omitted the verb. One of the students, who
does not wish to be named, told The University Times that the man excused – through his broken combination of languages - his poor standard of French by admitting to having not spoken the language ‘for a long time’. When another student inquired as to why the man insisted on teaching the class German rather than French, it was the response which confi rmed the students’ suspicions that he was not in fact sent by the department. A female student of the class described the atmosphere as ‘shocked’ and one of ‘silence and utter confusion’ when the man insisted that it would be useful to learn German in case the Germans were to invade Ireland, with the Irish destined to become ‘the new Jews’. ‘At this moment the whole group agreed, by the exchange of sideways glances of shock and disbelief, that there was something not quite right, and clearly this man was not in fact a tutor sent to help with our tutorial’ said the Junior Freshman student of TSM (Two-Subject Moderatorship) French.
At this stage, more than five minutes into the tutorial, Ms. Weyer-Brown arrived and dismissed the man, who cited a mix-up in the department as the cause of the even more confused situation brought about by her arrival. As he hurriedly left the class, the man is said to have muttered ‘I’m telling you, think about it, Irish as the new Jews, it could happen. Especially with what you do babies before they’ve even left the hospital. [You are] bleeding them dry. And I’d know, I’ve seen it all’. It is not known if this event is linked to a reported sighting of a man drinking Bulmers Cider on the same floor by the same group of students on the previous week. In a statement released exclusively to The University Times, however, College Communications Officer Caoimhe Ní Lochlainn claimed that the man in question was in fact a student who later admitted to carrying out the tutorial invasion as a joke. ‘A TCD student has admitted to perpetrating the deed and pretending to be a tutor’, said the statement received
by this paper last Monday afternoon. However, the Communications office backtracked from their claims to have discovered the identity of the perpetrator and the next day claimed that ‘the matter was investigated and a TCD student will be apologising for his involvement’. Outside the same tutorial on the following Monday, this reporter witnessed College security staff patrolling the fourth floor of the Arts block, casting doubt over the official assertion that the man in question was most likely a harmless student engaging in some sort of prank. Cal Gray, a Junior Freshman French and Italian stu-
him later and he explained he was attached to the Russian department, although that is most likely [not true]’. “It was such a surreal experience, I didn’t know whether to burst out laughing or crying!” added Kayla Walsh, a French & English Literature TSM student who was also in the tutorial at the time. On the Friday following the incident, The University Times made contact with acting head of security Michael Noonan, asking whether or not the department of security were made aware of the incident, and if so what action was taken. The response came through Caoimhe Ní Lochlainn,
During said conversation, Ms. Ní Lochlainn inquired as to the class, tutorial assistant, and year group involved in the incident and her end of the conversation indicated no awareness of the event, suggesting that security did not and perhaps could not provide College authorities with sufficient details. A verified account sent to The University Times by a member of the class was forwarded to the Communications office at their request and they issued us with the following statement: “The College’s staff, support services and security ensure that correct protocols are followed to ensure
Press Officer in the College Communications Office, who telephoned this reporter on Friday afternoon to inquire as to what exactly was alleged to have occurred.
been conducted was less than twelve. Late on Friday afternoon, The University Times contacted the head of the French department Professor Johnnie Gratton in person with a view to confi rming that the man was not sent by the department. Professor Gratton rejected our efforts to clarify the matter before civil conversation could begin, but Ms. WeyerBrown and a French department Executive Officer both indicated their understanding that the department were to carry out their own inquiry independent of that conducted by Security and the Senior Tutor.
Apology
“The matter was investigated and a TCD student will be apologising for his involvement.” College Communications Office
dent who was in the commandeered tutorial, told The University Times that the man was still present in the building after the session in question: ‘I ran into
to conduct a class until the tutor arrived. The matter was investigated and a TCD student will be apologising for his involvement. If and when such incidents occur, staff and students should inform their department and/or school office. Should assistance be required, the Building Attendants should be contacted.” Th is would appear to confi rm suggestions that Ms. Weyer-Brown did not inform security of the intrusion. It is also worth noting that the number of working hours which elapsed between the department fi rst making contact with this reporter and the receipt of the statement claiming an ‘intensive investigation’ had
In an article by Tom Lowe about the DUSSC ski trip on page 1 of our 25th January edition, a reference was made to a phone call made by Mr Robert Maguire to the perpetrators of an assault. a safe environment for both students and staff. The College can confi rm that an incident did take place involving a French oral class in which an individual tried
On reflection, mentioning him by name indirectly associated him unfairly with acts for which he was in no way responsible. The University Times would like to take this opportunity to apologise to Mr Maguire for any harm or offence caused. This apology was not requested by Mr Maguire or any other party.
SEMESTERISATION Some students have as many as 12 end-of-year exams. College’s staff and students are being placed under undue stress. Decisive leadership is needed to properly implement semesterisation without further delay.
Colm Kearney Senior Lecturer 2005-2008