Whether the Take Back Trinity campaign will have lasting repercussions for Irish higher education remains to be seen. It is nevertheless already clear that the protests will leave an indelible mark on Provost Patrick Prendergast’s tenure.
This Editorial Board has noted before that his almost-neurotic battle against declining rankings will likely come to define his legacy.
Yet the image this week of Prendergast, brought low by protests, occupations and social media assaults, entering House Six to parley with Trinity’s students’ unions is enough to act as a long-lasting reminder of Trinity’s unique ability to turn a misstep into a full-blown crisis.
The response to student anger has also forced Prendergast – known for his imperious approach to campus politics – into a rarer kind of pragmatism. Over the last few years, Prendergast has stripped power from the College Board, where student representatives sit, and has engaged only superficially with student concerns. If divestment was a high point, a brief visit to Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union’s activism festival two years ago looks increasingly hollow now.
In truth, Prendergast made his intentions clear six years ago when he ran for provost. After no attempt was made to court the student vote, his years in charge of Trinity have seen him try and treat students as obstacles to be outmaneuvered, rather than a genuine interest group to be listened to.
This is why the last week has been extraordinary. The news that Prendergast might have changed his mind on fee certainty – a key Graduate Students’ Union demand – suggests other conciliatory gestures are possible. It also is a sign that, for the first time in his tenure, the student voice isn’t being pushed to the sidelines.
Yet that Prendergast is the man doing the grubby business of negotiating a ceasefire with students only underlines the scale of his top lieutenant’s blunders. Given Vice-Provost Chris Morash’s reputation as a man in touch with students, one who has rallied student crowds at demonstrations and received rave reviews as a lecturer, Prendergast likely thought it a shrewd move to trust him with the implementation of supplemental exam fees. How wrong he was.
