Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union’s (TCDSU) Union Forum tonight rejected the proposed budget of The University Times.
Union Forum consists of TCDSU’s five full-time sabbatical officers and 19 part-time officers. The forum can only accept or reject the newspaper’s accounts, and cannot amend them.
Accounts presented by Eleanor O’Mahony, the Editor of The University Times, showed that printing costs for the year are projected to fall to €20,773, down €1,243 from last year’s initial estimate.
The paper is allocated €100 per production weekend for food costs.
The newspaper also projects to spend €885.60 on website costs this year, as well as €150 on membership of the Press Council.
The newspaper’s overall projected expenses are €22,608.60.
The University Times estimates that its total income will be €20,800 this year, having brought in €4,100 in advertising since the beginning of O’Mahony’s tenure. The deficit is thus projected to be €1,808.60.
Last year, TCDSU recorded a loss of €15,000, halving its accounting shortfall of €30,000 from the previous year. An explanatory statement accompanying the accounts noted the increased expenditure on The University Times, since a referendum in 2014 saw students vote to introduce an independent editor of the newspaper, who receives a salary and campus accommodation.
Since last year, the Editor no longer receives campus accommodation during the summer months, unlike the rest of the union’s officers.
The union also has other areas of significant expenditure, such as welfare-related activities and class representative training. Last year’s accounts showed that the union had spent €45,000 on both the training event for class representatives and its council meetings, and almost €23,000 on welfare.
O’Mahony said in a statement: “I had a very productive conversation with Union Forum about the paper’s budget this evening. I will now work to amend the budget based on the union’s feedback.”
“During the elections, I vowed to raise our income through increased advertising revenue and the paper is already on track to exceed last year’s income”, she said.
O’Mahony said “The University Times reaches over one million unique readers every year and has a massive impact on debate and discourse in Trinity and beyond at both student union level and at College administration level”.
In an email statement to The University Times TCDSU President Shane De Rís said: “Union Forum recognises the efforts made by the University Times to increase income from other avenues, but given the substantial deficit burdening the Union it was necessary to reject a budget which didn’t lessen the expected loss from the previous year.”
