The first ever academic senate will take place this evening, as Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) hopes to develop a more consultative approach to academic issues.
With 90 student senators, the body is the latest addition to the union’s structure. While it has no decision-making power, the union hopes the senate will eventually influence the motions and issues discussed and voted on at the union’s council.
Conceived by last year’s TCDSU Education Officer Dale Whelehan, the project is being led by his successor Alice MacPherson.
Students were able to apply to join the senate towards the end of last year.
Speaking to The University Times, MacPherson said it was about trying to engage students in the most complex of academic issues and to “try and get more dialogue going with educational and academic issues”.
With up to five students from each of Trinity’s 24 schools, MacPherson chairs the senate.
Siobhan Dunne, the Head of User Experience in Trinity Library, will address the senate tonight, with discussion due to take place on everything from how students disclose disabilities to lecturers to the role of the union’s joint courses convenor.
Staff, MacPherson said, have been very excited by the senate. The union wants to “sustain those discussions and make sure we’re getting action from them”.
The senate is scheduled to meet four times a year, with the next meeting to take place on November 20th.
In the coming months, TCDSU will review its constitution, in part to ensure structures like the academic senate are added and placed on a constitutional footing.
