For the second time in recent years, a Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) council meeting at which candidates for the officer board of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) were invited to speak ended in shambles. That last Tuesday’s meeting was so protracted that not enough members hung around to mandate the union’s delegates for this week’s USI congress is a sign that a different approach to decision-making in the union may be needed – and an indication of the extent to which TCDSU values the national union.
Will Trinity Ball attendees be inspected by trained sniffer dogs under the direction of the Garda drug squad? You could be forgiven for thinking so following last Sunday’s ambiguously worded Trinity Ents Facebook post, which made it sound like the canines “will be on duty in the campus for the duration of the ball”. Thankfully, Trinity Ents has since made it clear that students will not be hounded. Rather, the dogs will “do a sweep of the grounds before the ball starts”. The entire affair is nonetheless one of the more peculiar communications mishaps in Trinity’s recent memory.
When close to 100 students occupied the stage at the UK’s National Union of Students annual conference, it was driven by anger at a lack of solidarity as much as it was by the filibustering that prevented a discussion on repeal and abortion rights in Northern Ireland. As repeal, alongside abortion reform in the North, has generated support from UK politicians in recent months, it’s disappointing to see students, usually so ahead of the curve, turn a deaf ear to this most pressing issue.
