Tonight, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union’s (TCDSU) academic senate met for the final time, after a pilot year that saw its members come to terms with a new, and sometimes vaguely defined, representative body.
After four meetings and copious discussions over academic issues and school-specific gripes, tonight offered a chance for senators to review the performance of a structure that has struggled to integrate fully into Trinity and the union’s structures.
Over 90 students make up the senate. Some are class representatives, others faculty convenors and ordinary students. It was created after a vote of TCDSU council in early 2017.
Speaking to The University Times, TCDSU Education Officer Alice MacPherson said: “I think as the year the went, issues emerged that were mainly based in the logistics of it and the organisation of the senate.”
Over the course of the year, the senate has become a dedicated space for academic issues. TCDSU council, which also addresses some academic issues, is the union’s decision-making body comprised of class representatives.
MacPherson said that the union will work to “put practical structures in place to realise the mission of the senate”.
From the night’s discussion, she said, there was “great hope for the senate’s future”.
“The aim of the students’ union should always be room for improvement”, she said.
The biggest debate is where the senate goes from here. Tonight, senators discussed how the body could gain more power and whether it might one day become a decision-making body.
TCDSU is currently reviewing its constitution. It is as yet unclear if or when the senate will be added to it.
