Trinity Ents – the arm of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) responsible for student nightlife and entertainment – could soon be set for radical and unprecedented change, with the launch of a new campaign that could see the position of Ents Officer abolished.
A group of students – one of whom says Ents has been “majorly in the dumps” for two years – is attempting to trigger a referendum that would give students a vote on whether to replace TCDSU’s Ents Officer with four paid, part-time officers.
The petition, which launched today, is already proving contentious – Judith Robinson, last year’s TCDSU Ents Officer, denounced its premise as “irrefutably incorrect”.
Those in favour, meanwhile, say the proposal “really addresses issues that Ents is currently dealing with” at a constitutional level.
Among the sweeping changes proposed by the group – led by Raphi Patterson, a former treasurer of Trinity Ents – is a requirement that the students who work on the Ents Committee must have had previous experience on the Ents Committee.
Currently, any student can run for the role of Ents officer.
For their work, the four officers – Head of Operations, Head of Logistics and Planning, Head of Marketing and Communications and Head of Community – will be paid €6,000 a year.
Patterson, who has the support of several current and past members of the Ents Committee, told The University Times that the workload of the current Ents Officer is “unrealistic”.
“Rather than having one huge order for one role, you have four more specialised roles, which encourages competition, but also they require some level of experience of something to do with the role or something to do with Ents to get in there”, he said.
The amendment envisages that new officers will be chosen through elections similar to the TCDSU elections, Patterson said. In an interview that saw him heavily criticise some aspects of Ents, he added that “Ents is majorly in the dumps – after two years of successive poor years, in my opinion, something major has to be done and it has to be done now”.
“What I’m hoping this will do is revitalise Ents, provide a more realistic roles at the top, increase incentives for people within Ents and for the Ents officers and to overall do what Ents is supposed to do – to bring more innovative parties, better parties and better events.”
Among Patterson’s backers are former Ents treasurer Greg Murphy, Art Installations Officer Jonny Gregg and the current treasurer, Anthony Gleeson. In an interview with this newspaper, Gleeson said the “capability within Ents has just been hindered by the constitution. The positions that we have are very much outdated and with Raphi bringing in this constitution, it addresses the issues and I am really behind it”.
Gleeson, who said the issues he sees with Ents “has nothing to do with the individuals that have been in Ents”, said the proposal “really addresses issues that Ents is currently dealing with” at a constitutional level.
But not everyone agrees: Robinson, who recently finished her term as Ents Officer, told this newspaper in a statement that “the argument for a decrease in engagement has not been quantified or shown with any viable data”.
“This”, she said in a stinging rebuke, “is purely imagined and put forward to create a reason for the role to be dissolved. This reason is irrefutably incorrect”.
Robinson, who said that “it’s important to know that the people who originally proposed this amendment are also the people looking to be in these positions”, added: “Like all have experienced in a college group project the split of work will not be even. Miscommunication and errors are inevitable.”
“Furthermore, the election process is integral to students knowing that a trustworthy and accountable person is undertaking a role that affects all students.”
“The money that would be paying these multiple ents officers would be coming from all students pockets. All students currently have the right to choose who that money is going to”, she said.
TCDSU’s Engineering, Mathematics and Science Convenor Daniel O’Reilly, who drafted the amendment on behalf of Patterson, said that he felt the proposed changes would be a “very bad thing for the union”, arguing that the Ents Officer “helps other sabbats, they help PTOs with various things, they organise non-ents events and I think this amendment is pretending that we have someone in the union and their entire job is to organise nights out and that isn’t true”.
O’Reilly also pointed out that it would reduce the level of accountability Ents was subjected to by the union.
“This proposal is taking about a fifth of the budget and moving it to this sub organisation that students don’t really control, that we’re just trusting to make money back.”
Speaking to The University Times, current Ents Officer Hugh McInerney said he will remain neutral on the constitution: “If this goes to referendum which presumably it will once it gets 500 signatures, we’re not allowed constitutionally to talk about it. My personal position and opinion is I’m going to take that up now.”
“If they don’t like something in the constitution, they can change it, so they’re going to do up their campaign. They’re going to bring it to the College community and the college community is going to decide – the way it should be”, he added.
