Patrick Lavelle | Staff Writer
Trinity College Central Societies Committee (CSC) pulled out of the 2014 Board of Irish College Society (BICS) Awards this week. The awards, which were held yesterday in Queens University Belfast, are the national celebration of students involved in college societies at the highest levels.
In a statement to The University Times, the CSC said that the decision to pull out was made following contact with Queens University. During this communication, they were informed that the individual responsible for logistics for the awards was no longer an employee of Queens and had failed to put in place the logistics the CSC felt were necessary for the Awards’ judging and presentation. After continued lack of communication between this individual and the Awards Co-Ordinator, and their realisation of the full extent of the lack of preparation, the CSC made the decision to pull out. The CSC felt “it would not be possible for BICS to provide a viable event to which to send its representatives.”
The statement from the CSC outlined the burden of preparations required of students for the awards as one of the factors in their decision. They stated: “The preparation of applications and portfolios for the BICS Awards requires days of work; and this as a time when the students involved are also preparing for end-of-year exams; it is important that this extra burden of work is to a worthwhile end.”
The financial cost of attending the awards also played a part in the CSC’s decision; their statement added that “the cost of funding the TCD delegates to BICS is considerable; this expenditure also needs to be fully justified.”
