Trinity’s Academic Registry will hire students to work in the controversial cloakrooms that will be set up at the RDS for the upcoming exam period.
Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) has circulated a link to an application form for work in the cloakrooms during the upcoming assessment period from Monday December 9th to Monday December 16th.
The cloakroom, which was introduced during last year’s summer exams, is a mandatory drop-off point for bags and coats, which are no longer allowed inside the RDS Simmonscourt building where Trinity students sit their exams.
The application form states: “If you don’t have exams (or they end early) and you would like to help operate the cloakroom, please sign up here to work on exam week (Monday 9th to Monday 16th December).”
Students working in the cloakroom will be paid €10.60 per hour, with shifts lasting from 8am to 2pm, and midday to 5.30pm.
Academic Registry has requested that students applying for the position to ensure that their tax credits are in order, as their wages will be subject to tax.
Academic Registry was subjected to widespread criticism during last year’s summer assessment period, after the introduction of the cloakroom resulted in queues of up to 45 minutes before students were allowed to enter the hall.
Students took to Twitter to express their frustration with the queues for the mandatory cloakroom, critising TCDSU for not informing them of the move.
In response, the union said: “[Trinity Academic Registry] are running the cloakroom and didn’t relay information about it to us.”
Academic Registry responded, saying: “[TCDSU] where [sic] notified last Thursday about the changes to the cloakroom in the RDS. We apologise for the short notice and any delays this might have caused. We are currently looking into the situation at hand and will be in touch soon.”
Later that day, Academic Registry tweeted again, encouraging students to “drop their bag into the cloakroom a minimum of 45 minutes in advance of their exam”.
“We are aware this is not acceptable, and more staff will man the drop”, the tweet said.
Apologising for the earlier tweet in response to TCDSU, Academic Registry said: “We completely take responsibility for the bag-drop facility setup and the breakdown in comms with the SU.”
“That this was not correctly communicated with students is wholly on us”, the tweet said.
