The University Times www.universitytimes.ie
March 10th, 2010
You sha’n’t go to the ball Steven Moloney explains why Ball season is so hard.
OH Balls
the cost of Charity
Conor Sneyd casts a critical eye over the Trinity Ball
Jonathan Wyse looks at how charity works Opinion p12
Arts & Culture p13
Features p8
College working party looking at the student service charge
Fellows reject plan to increase student vote in provostial election A proposal to amend the rules for electing a provost were rejected
Students’ Union will have input into the disbursement of the student service charge Sarah Grogan Senior Writer A working party of College Board has prepared a proposal that would change the way the student service charge is defined and applied in Trinity College. This working party, chaired by the Dean of Students, Prof. Gerry Whyte, has submitted their report to the Finance Committee whose recommendations will be discussed at its next meeting on March 19, following which the report will go to Board. It is thought that the report will contain proposals to form a new committee that will include student representation and will meet three times per year to examine the disbursement of the €1,500 charge on each student. The College will not confirm if the there is a new definition of a
Provost leaving Committee
student service included in the proposal. However, the Students’ Union is pushing for a change in definition that has been used in disbursing the charge. The charge is supposed to be used to pay for student services like health and counselling however when the Provost, Professor John Hegerty appeared before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Science he told the Committee that ‘every action of the University is geared towards students; it is why we exist.’ He explained to the Committee that most services of the College are student services but traditionally were not included in the calculations on the student service fee but as the fee rose more of the services could be paid for with the charge. The Provost was answering questions on why the charge was being used to fund the animal testing centre and core college services like the library. If the College changes the definition of what can be funded from the student service charge then it must reduce the charge to a level that matches the actual costs or admit that the College is charging students for core college services which is seen
as being tantamount to a reintroduction of thirdlevel fees. The College said that the ‘recommendations concerning the student service charge should be made available when due process has taken place, following the next Board meeting.’ The Minister of Education has been called to appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Education and Science on March 25 to answer questions about the student service charge. The Provost maintains that the core grant, which is the money paid by the State, never supported activities that did not include student services and that the College was just not defining those activities as student services for the purposes of the charge. In accounts released by Trinity Students’ Union the College wants to start charging Information System Services (ISS), the Centre for Microscopy, and Innovation services to the student service charge. Ó Broin says that ‘the universities are attempting to rewrite history by saying that the costs associated with running libraries and computer systems in their respective universities have always been “student Services”.’
Carl Doherty News Writer The fellows of the College have rejected a proposal put to it by the Board that would give the students a four per cent vote in the provostial elections next year. This was part of a number of changes put to fellows for their assent. Another proposal was to change the statutes to comply with the Universities Act, 1997 which requires the College to have an interview process to get a new president that is, in Trinity’s case, the provost. In previous years candidates would put themselves forward and the academics and administrative staff voted. The proposal was that an interview panel would be set up, to screen the potential candidates. The panel would decide whether or not the candidate was qualified enough for the position before the election would proceed. The second change was that of a change to the electorate. As it stands, academics currently have one vote each, administration and technical staff have 0.25 per cent of a vote and students are allowed only one to two per cent of the total electorate. A change to the electorate failed to increase the students vote from about two to four per cent, which would leave the students with more swing power in whom they would want as a provost. In order for a change to be made to the electorate, half of the 239 fellows of the College would have had to vote in favour of it. This failed to happen as only eighty of the fellows assented to the change, leaving the students with very little say in who will run the College. Students’ Union Education Officer Ashley Cooke stated; ‘it is incredibly disappointing that we’re going to have to wait another ten years before students can have a significant and influential impact on the election of a figure who oversees the direction of the University.’ Nikolai Trigoub-Rotnem celebrating after being declared president-elect in the SU elections
Photo: David O’Dwyer
Third-level grade inflation under investagition by Dept of Education
Trinity SU delegates mandated to vote for reforms to the USI
Marykate Collins Deputy Editor
Katie Haberlin News Writer
Minister for Education Batt O’Keefe is in the process of carrying out an investigation into the perceived ‘grade inflation’ that is occurring at Third Level Institutions. The Minister is concerned after a report was published by three researchers from IT Tralee – Simon Quinn, Brendan Guilfoyle and Martin O’Grady highlighting the considerable increase in the number of third level students receiving first class honour degrees. Research started in 2007 and took six months to collate, yet the three researchers claim that when they tried to gather further information they encountered significant opposition from higher level institutions. Dr Joseph Ryan, registrar of Athlone IT wrote: ‘I’m open to supporting a .
. . study into the matter but would not wish to see a series of public pronouncements that can serve only to undermine confidence in a system of education that, whatever its faults, has served this country well.’ The minister’s concerns about the increased awarding of higher grades at the end of second and third level education are also raised in the context of the statements made by Dr Craig Barrett, the retired Chairman and CEO of Intel, which were critical of Ireland’s education system and our only average performance in international rankings of maths and sciences. The percentage of university graduates getting firstclass awards in honours degrees in Level 8 programmes has increased from 8.3 per cent in 1997 to 16.2 per cent in 2008.
The percentage of HETAC graduates getting firstclass honours awards in Level 8 higher degrees increased from 11.2 per cent to 16.6 per cent between 1998 and 2008 in the institute of technology sector, excluding DIT. The Minister said a number of influential voices in the employer community have voiced their concerns about graduate quality and it was important to listen to those concerns and be responsive to boardroom demands. ‘In other words, our approach to developing education policy must be strategic and more aligned with industry needs......the key to addressing possible grade inflation is through better internal quality assurance and external quality review,’ he said. These tasks are being undertaken by colleges
themselves and HETAC; the Further Education and Training Awards Council; the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland and the Irish Universities Quality Board. All these agencies have been subject to external review by international panels and have been adjudged to be performing these functions to relevant international standards. Legislation is now being drafted to set up a new qualifications and quality assurance agency that will merge these bodies. Speaking in the Dáil last week, Fine Gael education spokesman Brian Hayes described the findings as “very worrying”, saying they confirmed a trend that many in Irish education have suspected for some time. Continued on page two
Trinity College Students’ Union will be voting to remove a number of fulltime officer positions from the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) officer board. The SU Council voted on February 23 to mandate the delegation going to the yearly USI Congress to vote in favour of various motions to remove a number of full-time and replace them with parttime officers. The full-time position of equality officer and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights officer will be removed and replaced with part-time positions and the three full time area officers will be consolidated into a single
Editor: Robert Donohoe Deputy Editor: Marykate Collins Volume 1, Issue 7 ISSN: 2009-261X Phone: 01 646 8431 Email: info@universitytimes.ie Website: www.universitytimes.ie
full-time position called the constituent organisation (CO) liaison officer. Trinity SU will be proposing the motion at the USI’s annual congress to replace the equality officer with a part-time officer. All the twenty-two delegates from Trinity SU are mandated by the SU Council to vote in favour of this motion. The Trinity SU Council motion says that ‘despite the best of intentions, and a strong work ethic from the officers involved, the USI Equality Campaign has not had a significant impact upon the lives of students on campuses on a day to day basis.’ The USI’s constitution says that the equality officer has ‘responsibility for the implementation and development
This newspaper is produced with the financial support of Trinity College Students’ Union. It is set in 9pt Utopia and Whitney – a classic newspaper typeface and a modernist sans serif respectively. It was printed by Mortons Print Ltd.
of all Union policy in relation to issues of discrimination caused by age, disability, family status, gender, marital status, membership of the Traveller Community, nationality, race, religion, sexual orientation, and/or socio economic circumstance.’ Speaking to The University Times Linda Kelly, the current equality officer said ‘while we fully understand and support TCDSU’s democratic right to submit motions to USI Annual Congress, the Equality Campaign will be asking delegates to vote against the motion which calls for the downgrade of the Equality Officer position to part time. Continued on page two
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