Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) council has voted in favour of adopting a new strategy designed to tackle the difficulties faced by students who study or are on placement in off-campus locations
The strategy, developed by TCDSU President, Kieran McNulty, will be in place until the end of the 2017/18 academic year.
The motion to adopt the strategy was proposed by McNulty and seconded by TCDSU Welfare Officer, Aoibhinn Loughlin.
The strategy, which was put together by McNulty and was sent out to all students via the union’s weekly email, states that its aim is “to have a clear plan to support our off-campus students” and “is a clear commitment to our students”. The strategy focuses on “three pillars” to accomplish its goal: financial hardship, representation and support, and tackling isolation.
The strategy states that as part of the financial hardship section, the union will use the existing Higher Education Authority (HEA) fund along with the Senior Tutor’s Office to provide a bursary worth “roughly” €5,000 a year that will be used “to support students who have to travel for placement or find accommodation while on placement”.
This year, TCDSU council voted to remove the position of off-campus officer.
Along with this, the strategy aims to find “deals for students at or near off-campus locations”, which will be tasked to the union’s Communications and Marketing Officer as well as investigating the possibility of “block-booking” accommodation near frequent placement stops along with lobbying the College’s library service to supply “more copies of core textbooks”, particularly for the John Stearne Library located in St James’s Hospital.
In order to increase union representation and support of off-campus students, the strategy will create an “off-campus” committee to be chaired by the TCDSU President. The committee will be elected at the last meeting of TCDSU council this year, and will meet every two weeks and “will be given responsibility for alerting the SU to off-campus issues”.
A workshop held at the annual class rep training “aimed at training reps to support their classmates when they are off-campus” is also included in the strategy along with “special forums” held at least once a term to provide off-campus students the opportunity to “send in queries regarding off-campus issues”.
Other provisions included under this “pillar” are the mandating of the union’s sabbatical officers “to head off-campus at least twice a term” to hear concerns from off-campus students along with the newly established TCDSU academic senate having “a rolling agenda item for off-campus students”.
The strategy includes several provisions for “tackling isolation”, with the primary aim of fostering “a sense of community among all students who are off-campus”. Outlines for taking the union’s campaigns off-campus by having each of the union’s campaigns “feature an off-campus element” and opening off-campus student spaces are also included in the strategy as well having the union’s Entertainments Officer investigating “making ticket sales online at accessible times for off-campus students” and ensuring that the union sends “copies of The University Times and other SU publications to each off-campus location”.
In his report to council, McNulty said that he had been working on the strategy for the last month and had ensured that many people had been involved in reviewing it, “most importantly class reps from off-campus courses”.
Speaking to The University Times before council, McNulty said that the union has been asked what it plans to do for off-campus students “every year that I have been involved” and that while “there has been good work done”, McNulty decided that “there needed to be a dedicated strategy”.
“I think it is very comprehensive, it’s not just tokenistic things. I think it will make a great impact to students’ lives”, he said.
