The College Board today held a first-ever meeting in its new home in the penthouse of the Business School, ahead of the formal opening of the building tomorrow afternoon.
The Board, Trinity’s most senior decision-making body, has moved out of its previous location in House One into a new location on the top floor of the building.
The new board room, which looks out on Pearse St, boasts panoramic views of Dublin.
Last month, Provost Patrick Prendergast tweeted a photograph of Board members “to commemorate the last Board meeting in the Board Room in the Provost’s House”.
The Business School, which has been under construction for six years, is to be opened by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on Thursday. The building was originally scheduled for completion by 2017, but roadblocks – including a dispute with Dublin City Council – meant the project was delayed.
In March, The University Times reported that the building would not be opened until May 23rd – tomorrow – despite plans for its completion early that month.
As well as the board room, the building features a spiral staircase, and will provide a new home for Tangent, the College’s “ideas workspace” that aims to train students in innovation and entrepreneurship. The top two floors will be used for executive education, while the building will house a 600-seat lecture theatre.
Sodexo, one of the world’s largest multinational catering providers and the company behind the Perch in the Arts Block, will run a 300-seater restaurant, called the Forum, in the building.
The catering company – which recently took over the running of the Science Gallery Cafe after the previous inhabitant, Cloud Picker, announced it was moving out following nine years of inhabitancy – won a public tender for the restaurant.
In February, The University Times reported that the Business School would be verged on two sides by shrubbery, creating two living walls on the building’s facade.
At the time, speaking to The University Times, Dean of the Business School Andrew Burke said the walls “will add a nice bit of greenery on Pearse St”.
The College Board is made up of elected members of the College community, who serve for a four-year term. Four student members – the President, Welfare Officer and Education Officer of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union and the President of the Graduate Students’ Union – also sit on the Board.
Last September, The University Times reported that the College was to carry out an internal review of the Board, after years of concerns about various aspects of its running.
Speaking to The University Times in 2017, several members of the Board – some speaking on the condition of anonymity – roundly condemned College’s decision to increase postgraduate fees by five per cent.
In 2015, The University Times revealed the “dictatorial” approach of the Provost to aspects of the Board’s decision-making. Several non-student members of the Board spoke to the paper on the condition of anonymity, with one stating that they were treated “with disrespect” at a meeting.
