An outsider may find it strange that Trinity has both a Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) and a PhD workers’ rights group. Surely the GSU exists, among other things, to advocate for the rights of PhD students?
This dichotomy was woefully apparent this week, when a row erupted over the results of a survey designed by TCD PhD Workers’ Rights Group which concerned the working conditions of PhD students during the coronavirus pandemic. The survey was distributed by the GSU, but the union’s president Gisèle Scanlon has now refused to release the results, imposing a series of conditions on their publication and demanding that both parties settle on “mutually agreeable” messaging.
Scanlon’s reasoning that the sharing of results threw up questions about data protection were valid, according to an expert on the subject. But why is this issue only being flagged now?
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the working environment of PhD students was unenviable. Shoddy working conditions and meagre stipends abound. The results of the survey could have really helped PhD students and started a much-needed conversation about how they are treated. It is a great shame that the survey’s flaws are stopping this from happening.
The GSU president’s insistence on “mutually agreeable” conditions for the survey indicate that there are more grievances at play here. That Scanlon went as far as making a veiled threat at this newspaper also raises major red flags.
While the survey might have greater impact if distributed by the GSU – a body that College recognises and engages with – and would also debatably be less questionable from a legal perspective, Scanlon and her union have plenty to answer for in this mess. The TCD PhD Workers’ Rights Group would not exist if the GSU did its job effectively, and this spat has highlighted the union’s problems more than ever.
The GSU must re-examine its purpose and conduct before it suffers irreparable damage to its reputation.
