Tonight’s meeting of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union’s (TCDSU) council has voted to invest €200,000 of the Trinity’s endowment fund allocated for student services such that the interest can be used as a bursary for students who travel during their placement.
Speaking at council, President of TCDSU, Kieran McNulty said that “hopefully” by investing this money, it can become “a permanent fund the [the union] can use”.
The Higher Education Authority (HEA) fund for student services arose after the HEA fined Trinity in 2012 for giving excess allowances to College Tutors. Trinity was fined €603,709 and was ordered to spend money on additional student services.
The HEA fund, which is controlled by TCDSU and the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU), can only be spent on one-time, non-recurring costs, and cannot also be spent on services which the College should also already be providing.
TCDSU’s council has previously voted to spend part of the fund on projects including a laptop rental scheme, and the conversion of the Parlour in Goldsmith Hall to a “Sun Room”. The union has also previously used to trial an extended 24-hour section of the Berkeley/Lecky/Ussher (BLU) Library, the data for which helped inform the official opening of the now-permanent 24-hour space in the Ussher Library, Kinsella Hall.
The motion, proposed by McNulty, mandated the union to spend the remaining €120,000 on “services which improve the student experience in College”.
“Transport, accommodation, living costs aren’t covered by courses in most cases”, for those who are on placement, McNulty explained.
The total value of Trinity’s endowment fund is €170 million, and is a trust fund made up of donations to the College. Trinity has invested the entire endowment in trust funds, and cannot control where those funds are invested.
The fund is managed by Irish Life Investment Managers (ILIM). Universities use such funds to gain investment income which then can be used for ongoing support of their activities.
