Trinity is looking forward to “renewing student partnership”, Vice-Provost Chris Morash said this afternoon, as College returned to normal following a huge Front Square rally.
In an email statement, Trinity has welcomed “the decision by the Students’ Union and Graduate Students’ Union to wind down protests and the occupancy of buildings”.
Speaking to The University Times, President of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Kevin Keane agreed with Morash’s statement saying: “We have ended our occupation of the Dining Hall but it is now vital that students maintain pressure on university management.” But Keane said “the union cautiously welcomes” the statement from College.
But “protests will end when College meets demands”, added Keane. The demands of the Take Back Trinity campaign are that there is a full reversal of the decision to introduce supplemental exam fees, that there is a freeze on postgraduate and non-EU student fees and that there is no increase to on-campus accommodation prices.
As speeches began on the Dining Hall steps earlier, Trinity took to Twitter to say it “looks like #TakeBackTrinity protests are winding down”, as hundreds of students gathered in Front Square to hear speeches and listen to the rally’s concert. Trinity said that the Dining Hall was “closed to new protesters yesterday on concern about safety”, and that they “strongly regret that the situation then escalated”.
The tweet was widely mocked on social media, with many using it to criticise a publication relations strategy that has failed over the last few days to control the groundswell of support for the campaign against the supplemental exam fee decision.
