Jack Leahy
Deputy News Editor
The final meeting of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union of this academic year last night approved a motion calling for a referendum on TCDSU’s affiliation to the Union of Students in Ireland. Students will answer the question ‘Do you want TCDSU to disaffiliate from USI?’ at the same time as they elect their class representatives at the beginning of the next academic year. Counil also voted to support a motion mandating TCDSU sabbatical officers to ‘publicly and actively oppose’ official recognition of any fraternity or sorority.
The referendum motion, proposed by TCDSU President Ryan Bartlett and sconded by Communications Officer Ronan Costello, recognised the failure of the campaign to collect 250 signatures to force a referendum due to an error in the phrasing of the question that it posed. It was therefore decided to pose a straightforward wording through the only alternative method to signature collection of calling a referendum of all members of the Union.
An attempt to collect 250 signatures to force a constitutional referendum was abandoned upon the realisation that the signatures collected were towards the posing of an invalid question and collected separately rather than on one sheet. Bartlett also admitted to a previous meeting of Council that a number of signatures had been misplaced.
Earlier in the evening, a motion proposed by Cara Sanquest to mandate ‘the sabbatical officers of the students’ union to publicly and actively’ oppose any application for recognition made by a fraternity or sorority to one of College’s capitated bodies was passed with no votes in opposition:
Council therefore mandates: the sabbatical officers of the Students’ Union to publicly and actively campaign against College recognition of any fraternity or sorority, should any such organisation apply for recognition from any of College’s capitated bodies.
Several members of Council and ordinary members of the Union presented themselves to speak in favour of the motion, but such was the degree of consensus that a proceduarl motion to sum up and vote was passed without hesitation. DU Gender Equality Society chair Matthew Corbally and Cormac McGuinness – whose name is on the infamous charter despite having categorically disassociated himself from the group in its preliminary stages – were among the long line of students who did not get the opportunity to speak in favour of the motion as a result.
The current sabbatical officers of the Students’ Union as well as the 2012/13 and 2013/14 officers will henceforth be required to oppose any application made by any sorority of fraternity seeking official recognition from Trinity Publications, the Central Societies Committee, the SU itself, the Graduate Students’ Union, or DUCAC. The motion derived from Sanquest’s stated principle that a fraternity is ‘a necessarily sexist and elitist organisation’.
Speaking after Council, Sanquest told The University Times that:
I oppose the fraternity, not because of stereotypes or myths, but because of its aims of leadership and networking, as stated by Jack O’Connor, spokesperson for ‘the dynasty’. Contrary to O’Connor, and presumably the rest of the fraternity, the exclusion of women from such a group is not comparable to harmless ‘ lads night out’; it is an expression of a value judgement which claims that women are not capable of leadership and not worthy of networking with. The embodiment of such sexist and discriminatory beliefs is something that Trinity needs to take seriously. In order to prevent such offensive and regressive norms developing, students need to actively oppose the formation of a fraternity involving Trinity students.
In addition, the lengthy meeting also saw candidates for USI sabbatical officer positions compete for the block votes of the TCDSU delegation at USI National Congress in April, as decided by a majority vote of Council members. UCD’s John Logue beat DIT’s Ciarán Nevin to TCDSU’s votes in the Presidential election, while Kate Acheson (Campaigns Officer; unopposed), Denise McCarthy (Welfare Officer; unoppsed), Cat O’Driscoll (Academic Affairs and Quality Assurance; unopposed), Laura Harmon (Equality and Citizenship Officer) and Peader de Bluit (Irish Language Officer) all earned the support of TCDSU.
Council briefly descended into controversy when, having delivered her welfare officer report, Welfare Officer Louisa Miller was accused by Q Soc auditor David Doyle of ‘disrespect’ and being ‘deceitful’ in her handling of this year’s Rainbow Week, a campaign run by the SU to promote LGBT issues. Doyle claimed that too much work had been offloaded by the Union onto the society and complained about the quality of materials provided by the Union, while recognising that the problem had begun a number of years ago. Miller apologised for any personal shortcomings in these regards.
Katie Boyle rebutted Doyle’s claims by asserting that the complaint ‘could have been made in an email’ and that his timing – this being Miller’s last Council as welfare officer – would end a great year on a bum note.
