The assistant wardens living in Trinity Hall are somewhat behind-the-scenes players in student life on the Dartry campus. If you didn’t have many altercations during your time living there, you could probably count on one hand the number of times you met your house warden in person. In spite of this, the assistant warden system has been in place for over 100 years, and is integral to the day-to-day running of Trinity Hall. Each assistant warden is assigned a house, and any issues that arise with students in that house are their responsibility.
In the past, the majority of house wardens in Trinity Hall were PhD students, with a handful of college staff members among them. Over the last few years, this demographic has changed quite significantly, with only two PhD students now working as assistant wardens, while the rest of the House Wardens are college staff. According to current assistant wardens, they believe this is due to the Dublin rental market. “Well, the number one reason for applying is pretty straight-forward: it’s a free house,” explains Kevin Sullivan, Education Manager at Bridge 21, a Trinity-based education programme that aims to develop innovative new ways of teaching in secondary schools, and House Warden in Trinity Hall for the last three years, speaking to The University Times. According to Sullivan, the fact that the wardens receive free accommodation in Trinity Hall in exchange for their services is as effective as a wage increase as accommodation prices in Dublin continue to soar year on year. Ronan Smith, College For Every Student Co-Ordinator at Trinity Access 21, and Grace Lawlor, Bridge 21 CodePlus Co-Ordinator, both in their first year as assistant wardens, agree with Sullivan. “I think it’s becoming more and more attractive to staff members who maybe want to buy a house, and want to save, and can’t pay rent and save at the same time”, says Smith. Lawlor further emphasises this point: “The rent situation in this country is diabolical, so that definitely contributed to my wanting to apply.”
If a student contacts me and there’s a problem, I have to get back to them. I have to help them
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Given the hands-on nature of the position, however, it’s unlikely that the prospect of free accommodation would be the only reason one would apply. To apply to become an assistant warden, one must be a PhD student or a staff member of College. Applicants send in a CV and a personal statement and are then called to an interview with the Warden, Deputy-Warden, a representative from the accommodation office and the Dean of Students. According to Brendan Tangney, Head Warden of Trinity Hall, they are looking for people who can “do things”, such as those that get involved in sports or the musical with the students and can contribute well to the community of Trinity Hall. Speaking to The University Times, he defines the criteria for candidates: “We’re looking for people who like students, people who have good social skills and people who are capable of breaking up a party. You don’t always get them in the one person, but we like to put together a good mix of people.”
The job is two-fold, consisting of an authoritative role, such as breaking up parties and handling disciplinary matters, and a more pastoral role, dealing with one-on-one cases and helping students overcome any issues they may face during their time living in Trinity Hall. Smith likened the breaking up of parties to being a publican, emphasising that there’s a line to tread between coming across too harsh but ensuring that you are being taken seriously. “When you own a pub, and you want people to get out at 2am, you want them to come back the next day, so you have to tell them to get out in a nice way”, he explains. “That’s a skill, and when you’re trying to move people all on a night out in Halls, you still want them to feel that you’re on their team, so you have to do it in as nice a way as possible. Only when people get difficult and they don’t respond to you have to get really authoritative about it, or if there’s a danger to anybody. But generally it should be like, ‘come on guys, off we go’ – a friendly sort of thing.” Sullivan, however, describes the breaking up of parties as one of the more fun aspects of the role. “Breaking up parties is good craic, because you’re not really breaking them up, you’re just letting pre-drinkers know that the ‘pre-’ portion of the evening is over, and now it’s time for the thing they’ve been preparing for”, he says. “You’re not ending the party at all really, it’s ‘Great news! You’re all heading out, go and have a wonderful time! And if you could leave behind those cans that would save us some hassle because Temple Road is getting a bit messy.’ But generally people are happy and excited to go out.”
As far as their working hours are concerned, the assistant wardens do rounds one to two nights a week, during which they will break up parties if necessary. Any other issues that may come up cannot be scheduled. “If a student contacts me and there’s a problem, I have to get back to them. I have to help them”, says Smith. “Depending on how severe the problem is, like if they’re just wondering about something, I can meet them later on that week. But if they’re feeling unwell or maybe having some sort of emotional difficulty, they might need to meet me straight away. You’re kind of always on call a little bit.”
The pastoral aspect of the role is what most of the assistant wardens consider to be the most important part, and certainly the most time consuming. “The main thing is that students have someone they can talk to if something has gone wrong”, explains Smith, “because they might be very far away from their parents or their families. We have a lot of international students as well, and their families are a plane journey away. I think Brendan [Tangney] keeps that as the main concern, or at least that’s how I interpret it, that the students’ welfare is the priority”. According to Lawlor, a large portion of the job is to monitor and keep an eye on things until they are needed: “You’ve some investment in these people, and you’re just there really to give them a little nudge and be there to support them if they need it, but really your job is to be invisible. We’re kind of hands-off until you come to us, or if we feel there’s some reason we need to intervene.”
It would be nice to not have to get up in the middle of the night sometimes, and it would be nice to not have to shut down parties some of the time
Among the assistant wardens’ highlights of the year are the JCR events, Hall Ball, the last night of the year and the move-in weekend. “The move-in weekend is magic”, asserts Sullivan. “I went to college in Dublin and at the end of my first day of college, I went home to my mammy, and that was great. But that afternoon, where everyone’s there and there’s hugs and tears and everyone’s all excited, and then the parents all leave around six o’clock”, he says. “Immediately you see lads heading back in with bags of cans, and you start to spot, ‘Oh, so it’s going to be you this year’, and this thing starts where they’re going to make friendships that are going to last their whole lives, and they’re shy and excited. That’s a lot of fun.”
When asked about his reasoning for applying for the job, Sullivan’s answer is simple. “I thought it might be fun, and I was right. It’s tremendous fun. Ninety-something per cent of the time it is tremendous fun, and then other times it’s not at all fun”, he admits. “But mostly it’s lots of fun. My favourite bit of the entire thing is loading people onto buses at JCR events”, he laughs, “because they’re all so happy! It’s amazing. Nobody is looking to cause any trouble or do anything or hurt anyone. Someone might be trying to sneak a naggin on, but they’re doing it in such incredibly dumb ways most of the time that it’s funny and you tell them to put the naggin in the bin and they just look a bit dejected and then say: ‘Yep, okay.’” Smith also proclaims how fond he is of his work as an assistant warden: “It’s an interesting job. I thought it would be harder than it is. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it as much as I do. The only thing is it would be nice to not have to get up in the middle of the night sometimes, and it would be nice to not have to shut down parties some of the time, but it is for good reason, and you have to think of those other people who want to study and do well. So you do sleep at night.”
