Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union’s (TCDSU) academic senate may return revised next year, with fewer senators and less frequent meetings.
TCDSU Education Officer Niamh McCay will bring a proposal for a new, reformed senate to the last meeting of council, after she “entirely picked the senate apart” having decided against running it this year.
Speaking to The University Times, McCay said the senate began “with a certain function, which wasn’t brought into fruition”.
If the new structure is approved, McCay plans to recruit 30 new senators in April – down from 90 during the pilot. As well as a reduction in senator numbers, the new senate will meet once per semester instead of twice.
These meetings will also serve as an open forum that any student can attend and voice their opinions.
McCay hopes that the new academic senate will function like Seanad Éireann, consisting of a number of different people from College who will work together to function as “a body of students that critique academic policy so they can mandate”.
The academic senate ran for a two-year trial period and was set up in 2017 by then-TCDSU Education Officer Dale Whelehan and the Education Standing Committee.
The aim of the senate was to aid the resolution of academic problems quickly, making the role of school and faculty conveners more efficient while simultaneously lessening the workload of class representatives.
The academic senate met four times a year and would feed their findings back into the council, which remained the main democratic and governing body.
The education officer acted as the chair of the senate – which included sabbatical officers, faculty, school and programme conveners and elected academic senators. Anyone was permitted to attend, speak and put forward suggestions.
The academic senate struggled in its first year with a low turnout of student senators and confusion over the body’s lack of decision-making abilities.
It was re-introduced the following year with changes to increase student access and engagement, such as allowing first years to serve as academic senators and moving some meetings to the Hamilton building.
McCay said she believes the new academic senate will be “a breath of fresh air” and will serve as a platform where “I inform students and they inform me in return”.
