This week, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) held its first referendum of the year. Although it passed well, an email sent out by the union last weekend, containing misleading information regarding the nature of the referendum, raises questions of transparency clarity.
With very little campaigning around the referendum, most students would have likely just read the email and been left under the illusion that it was simply about fixing typos in the constitution.
Upon closer inspection, however, the referendum contained much more operational changes beyond typos. These included removing the voting rights of the GSU President at Union Forum, increasing the size of the Oversight Commission, and removing the ability of the Education Officer to deem that a part-time officer has resigned from their position should they miss three meetings of a union body without giving apologies.
As this was the first referendum held during the coronavirus, it was likely that there would be some teething issues.
While the oversight was a mistake and TCDSU issued an apology and rectified its mistake once it was made aware of it, this incident still raises questions about how the original email was allowed to be circulated in the first place. The electoral commission shouldn’t have allowed reductive information about a referendum to end up in every students’ inbox.
Despite the omission of information being regarded as not that “big of a deal”, especially given that the amendments were hardly groundbreaking, the referendum still consisted of more than what was in the email. It is also worth noting that the extent of the referendum has been played down since it was triggered last year.
This referendum was about more than “cleaning up” typos – it was also about amending operational duties and students should have been made aware from the outset.
The bottom-line is students should know what they are voting for even if the changes are regarded as minor. Hopefully this mistake doesn’t set a precedent for future referendums. Transparency is key, especially when it comes to a constitution that all students are affected by.
