Trinity’s clubs and societies are facing into an uncertain year, after the Central Societies Committee (CSC) announced today that freshers’ fair will shift from Front Square to fully online – and none of them are hiding their disappointment over the news.
In an email circulated today, the CSC encouraged societies to focus primarily on online events for the immediate future, in the hope that in-person events will be re-integrated safely with time.
To facilitate this transition, the CSC is offering a range of additional supports including a subvention to cater for any losses in membership, special society grants, Zoom accounts and the introduction of society information points on campus.
The CSC also confirmed, however, that the relaxed social distancing rule of one-metre within higher education is applicable to academic activities alone, meaning that all society activity will have to adhere to the two-metre rule going forward.
Although the sudden clarity was widely welcomed, Trinity’s incoming society heads expressed their “disappointment” over the loss of the fair.
Chair of the Visual Arts Society (VisArts) Rachael Gunning said that incoming first years will bear the brunt of today’s announcement. In an email to The University Times, Gunning wrote that “the college’s approach to handling the coronavirus pandemic has been mixed to say the least”.
She said that the CSC’s decision, coupled with the rest of College’s reopening plans, means that it will be “very difficult for incoming first years to settle into college life, and making new friends and social connections will be borderline impossible”.
Gunning added that constant adherence to “the two-metre social distancing rule will make running events incredibly difficult”, but that VisArts hopes to continue to “provide its members with enjoyable events”, while “maintaining these really stringent guidelines”.
In an email to The University Times, Alix Philouze, chairperson of the Europa Society, said that her committee is worried about the logistical challenges of operating society events primarily online.
“It’s hard to see how people react to the events and how they are perceived by attendees”, she wrote. “Some might find them awkward to attend or simply not as fun.”
She added that the supports offered by the CSC today should help to “curb” the “negative effects on society life” that today’s announcement will have.
Speaking of her fellow Europa Society members, Philouze added that it will be disappointing for them to lose out on “classic committee experiences” this year.
For smaller societies, today’s news will be an especially bitter pill to swallow. Liam Kiernan, chairperson of Young Sinn Féin, said that the loss of a physical freshers’ fair is a major blow for those “that don’t have the publicity of other societies, or their means for recruitment during the remainder of the school year”.
“It’s the main opportunity for recruitment and forms a foundation for the society’s activities for the rest of the year”, he added.
In a statement to The University Times, Shane Macken, auditor of DU History, said that while today’s email from the CSC provided “some long awaited clarity in terms of society trainings”, it did not do “enough to bring societies complete confidence in the running of activities for the upcoming year”.
Some societies are still feeling lost and don’t believe that the CSC has given enough information to plan an online freshers’ week. “We were given no clear update on how this will shape up”, Macken said. “There was a lack of detail in relation to the format of online activity”.
Ultan Pringle, chairperson of DU Players, echoed Macken’s thoughts, saying that “more clarity in the days and weeks to come would be greatly welcome too as we all work as hard as we can to deliver vital-for-student-life society experiences at the end of September”.
DU Players has thus far held the crown of Europe’s most active student theatre society, but in the face of the CSC’s new guidelines, it’s hard to say whether it can maintain the title. Regardless, Pringle remains confident that the show will go on: “Freshers will know no different so we must ensure that we can give them a great virtual and physical experience that undoubtedly will help them settle into life in TCD.”
“It’s horribly cliché but we have to stay positive, optimistic and relentless in ensuring that we can roll with the punches and keep society life alive and thriving”, he added.
Though the re-imposition of the two-metre rule for society events came as an unwelcome surprise to some, Pringle said that DU Players is “more than happy to socially distance as much as possible if it ensures we can make plays, make theatre and make fun as much as possible”.
No doubt, conversation will continue to rumble on – in the virtual sphere – over the coming days as societies get to grips with today’s announcement. As Gunning points out, “the issues we’ll face with running [societies] remain to be seen at the moment” – for Trinity’s societies then, uncertainty prevails.
