On Monday evening, as Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) election candidates prepare for Trinity Hall hustings, students will be glued to their laptops. But it won’t be stump speeches and presidential policies they’ll be watching. The union’s decision to announce the Trinity Ball line-up on the same evening as the final election hustings beggars belief. For candidates, it must be galling to know your final speech will be lost amidst speculation about George Ezra. For the union, it’s a disappointing distraction from an election it’s worked hard to promote – and it’s also not the first time that there’s been such a clash.
This Editorial Board has already made its stance on Clare McCarthy’s ousting as Chair of Trinity Publications clear: it was outrageous, unceremonious and unjustified. The developments of the past week, which saw the Capitations Committee reinstate her as chair, give further credence to this conclusion. Not only did the committee not follow the – admittedly optional – “best practice” guidelines of its own constitution to remove McCarthy for actions that were hardly heinous, but it also seemingly did so without even giving the four days written notice required to put items on the agenda of a meeting.
At TCDSU council in January, the union’s Education Officer, Alice MacPherson, set up what should have been one of the biggest issues of this year’s elections: the recurring shortage of women vying for leadership positions in the union. But not one candidate felt it was necessary to mention how they would address the problem – in any coherent way – in either their manifestos or during the plethora of hustings over the past week. Nearly four weeks ago MacPherson threw down a gauntlet to the candidates. It is a poor reflection on this year’s candidates that they have failed to pick it up.
