Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) President Gisèle Scanlon’s report was tonight rejected by postgraduate students, after questions were put to her on her handling of a survey of PhD students which has sparked controversy over recent months.
The AGM had gotten off to a shaky start, with confusion arising about how postgraduates would vote during the AGM.
However, confusion was replaced by anger and frustration after Scanlon finished her president’s report, and questions were opened to the floor, in particular regarding a PhD survey, which the union and the TCD PhD Workers’ Rights Group had worked on together.
Postgraduate students voted down the report 14 to 13 – her answers to questions regarding the survey being the driving force behind their objection.
The president released the data from the survey with little warning yesterday, to the surprise of many in the workers’ rights group.
Scanlon had previously maintained that due to concerns surrounding GDPR, the results could not be released until the group signed a data sharing agreement.
After Scanlon presented her report, co-author of the survey Shaakya Anand Vembar questioned the president’s decision to release the results of a survey carried out during the year, asking her what had changed her mind about releasing the data and why the workers’ rights group had not received the legal advice that Scanlon said she had received regarding the survey.
In response, Scanlon said that “GDPR is extremely complicated” and that she was “relying on legal advice”. She also said that Anand Vembar ought to address questions surrounding the survey to a barrister Scanlon had hired to look into the data protection issues arising from the survey.
Dáire Tully, chair of the GSU, then came under fire from commenters in the meeting, after he muted Anand Vembar when she tried to respond to one of Scanlon’s comments, saying that “it’s one question – it’s not a back and forth”. One PhD student, Catherine Bromhead, said: “I think we have every right to get a straight answer from Gisèle”.
Scanlon said that the survey “needs people around the table”, adding that she was in favour of postgraduates “looking at what’s there and looking at the rulings and for you to make your own educated decision”.
Conor Reddy, one of the founders of the workers’ rights group, said in a comment in the Zoom chat box that he could not “accept a report when there are still so many outstanding questions”.
“This isn’t an unreasonable thing to ask of Gisèle or any elected rep, it’s basic democratic accountability”, he wrote.
