Ten societies have today signed a letter, addressed to the Provost, calling for College to reverse its decision not to send out the email mailout of society information, which has been sent out to incoming first-year students for the last two years.
The content of the mailout is compiled by the societies themselves, and submitted to the Central Societies Committee (CSC), before being sent out to students by the Academic Registry.
The deadline for submitting their information to the CSC was this week. As of this morning, however, College had not formally informed Trinity’s societies nor the CSC that the annual mailout would be cancelled. Instead, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President, Kieran McNulty, found out by chance on Monday and informed the societies.
A number of the chairs, auditors and presidents of the largest societies on campus, including the University Philosophical Society, DU Law Society, and Trinity St Vincent De Paul Society, signed the letter. The idea for a letter was proposed by Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President, Kieran McNulty, who contacted a number of Trinity societies, asking them to sign.
According to McNulty, the Academic Registry cited concerns over the difficulty extracting the emails and compiling the annual mailout, as well as the time it would take to put together. They also expressed concern over data protection issues that might arise from the mailout.
The letter was also signed by An Cumann Gaelach, DU Amnesty, Trinity QSoc, as well as DU BioSoc, Trinity SUAS, DU Players, and the College Historical Society, and delivered to the Provost’s office by McNulty this afternoon.
The letter describes the decision not to provide the email mailout as “disappointing”, adding that “decisions such as this hamper our work”.
The letter was also signed by Chair of Trinity Publications, Aisling Crabbe, and Editor of The University Times , Sinéad Baker.
Speaking to The University Times , McNulty described his concern that the society mailout was “slowly being eroded”. He questioned the reasons given by the Academic Registry for not sending out the email: “It is genuinely just a matter of time to extract the emails and Academic Registry are just kind of saying it might be too late, which I would reject.”
“I would say it is a vital student service, and Trinity prides itself on the value of its student services. I know we’re very proud of our Freshers Week and everything that entails”, Mc Nulty added.
In the letter, the societies state: “We will do all the work- we just want to inform students of what we do, and to invite them to join up in Freshers’ Week.”
In an email statement to The University Times , Auditor of DU Law Society, Hilary Hogan, questioned the decision to cancel the mailout: “Short of any compelling reason, it seems baffling to rob first year students of such an exciting moment.”
This disappointment was shared by Chair of DU Amnesty, Sadhbh Sheeran, who described the mailout as “one of the most memorable emails any of us have ever received” in an email statement to The University Times . “By not sending out this pack I feel that college are disregarding the work of societies and the important role we play in the lives of so many students”, she added.
This is not the first time a version of the mailout has been cancelled. In 2014, citing data protection concerns, College announced that the online mailout would replace the annual mailout pack of society information that had been used in previous years – a decision much-criticised by college societies at the time.
In April The University Times revealed the challenges faced by Trinity societies when dealing with College bureaucracy, and the difficulties booking through the Enquiries and Junior Dean’s Office. At the time many societies expressed frustration over College’s attitude to societies.
A meeting has been planned between McNulty and the Academic Registry, to discuss a substitute for the online mailout. “To be honest, I don’t know what that is, because whatever form it would take, it would still involve emailing out to Freshers”, McNulty said.
At time of publication, the Academic Registry had not responded to a request for comment.
Correction: 18:08, August 25th, 2016
An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the College Historical Society as the University Historical Society.
