Jack Leahy
Deputy News Editor
Trinity College Dublin Graduate Students’ Union has criticised the Union of Students in Ireland for failing to consult with Trinity’s postgraduate representative body before deciding to begin confrontational protest measures against the government’s abolition of the postgraduate maintenance grant.
GSU President Mary O’Connor was speaking in response to an email she received from the USI press office on Tuesday night informing GSU officers that a protest would take place outside the Department of Education on Wednesday morning.
‘As the President of the GSU, I am completely outraged with USI actions’, said O’Connor to The University Times, ‘USI barely recognizes postgraduates nor communicates with its USI postgraduate officer, myself’.
The GSU met directly with Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn and his financial advisors ahead of the budget and secured a back down from the complete scrapping of all postgraduate supports. In contrast, the GSU have grown frustrated with what they regard as a cynical tactic of by-passing negotiation with those it represents, opting instead for confrontational measures that the GSU regard as ‘increasingly ineffectual’.
‘The GSU worked with the government to maintain the grant and the fee portion. If we didn’t negotiate in a firm and mature manner, the whole grant would have been slashed’, O’Connor added.
O’Connor was also critical of Students’ Union president Ryan Bartlett, accusing her undergraduate equivalent of calling for a referendum on USI affiliation without consulting the postgraduate representatives, positing that ‘it was wrong of (SU President Ryan) Bartlett to run a referendum story on the front page of The University Times without discussing it with the GSU president’.
In response, Bartlett told The University Times that he made the comments in question in response to criticisms from both postgraduate and undergraduate students:
‘The comments that I made were in response to criticisms of the USI that came to me form both postgraduate and undergraduate students. The fact that GSU Council have identified issues with affiliation and have chosen to discuss the matter formally is the kind of complaint that led me to call for an open forum for discussion and a vote on the matter. In addition, it seemed counter-intuitive to discuss the issue with Mary at that time given her position in USI.’
The email from the USI, which asserted that ‘USI has warned Government that it will escalate its campaign over weeks to protect the most vulnerable in education’, detailed the launch of a campaign intended to force Minister Quinn to reverse plans to abolish grants for postgraduate students.
GSU Council, the voting body of the GSU, will now discuss its position on TCDSU’s proposed USI disaffiliation at its next ordinary meeting.
‘The GSU and the postgraduate body, who constitute 40% of Trinity students, will discuss our options as the body of the GSU, the only postgraduate representative body in Trinity’ added the GSU president.
‘It is time to start the discussion and let postgrads speak about the bodies that represent them externally. After all, postgraduates are paying. But for what? That’s a question I would like to ask’.
