The Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) will hold a “preferendum” to determine who the union will back in the provost election, with voting taking place from April 6th to 8th.
The GSU has four votes – in an electorate of around 850 – and will vote in a bloc in the upcoming provostial election.
The union’s president, Gisèle Scanlon, is entitled to a vote as she sits on College Board. Abhisweta Bhattacharjee, the GSU’s vice president, Nilki Aluthge Dona and Julia Wall can also vote as they represent the GSU on University Council.
Scanlon wrote on Twitter this evening: “Postgraduates who wish to vote for their desired Provost Candidate do not need to register anywhere, you are already registered with the GSU. As a postgraduate you will receive a Mi-Voice voting link on April 6th.”
“Poles [sic] will stay open until April 8th with results in the 9th [sic]”, she added. “As a postgraduate @tcddublin you are automatically represented by @TrinityGSU and we have automatically registered every single postgraduate with Mi-Voice to vote in the Provost election.”
Undergraduate students will be able to vote for their preferred candidate for the six votes held by Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU). Voting in the Provost election preference poll and the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) executive elections will take place at the end of this month via TCDSU’s online voting system.
Students have until tomorrow evening to register to vote.
TCDSU hustings for USI executive elections will take place on March 26th at 6pm, while TCDSU hustings for the Provost election will take place on 29th March at 7pm.
Four union members currently sit on University Council and three members on College Board. However, the education officer sits on both Council and Board, so the union has six votes in total.
To be eligible to vote students must register with a Trinity email address. If students have previously registered to vote for sabbatical officer elections or class rep elections they are already registered and do not need to do so a second time.
Earlier today, The University Times reported that the three provostial candidates had come out against proposed changes which would see sweeping changes to governance structures in universities.
A document outlining the legislation by the government stated that the Higher Education Authority (HEA) will first allow the university to fix any issues that arise. However, if the HEA decides that the issue “has not been resolved to the satisfaction of the HEA that action will be taken”.
In serious situations, this action can include the “dissolution and reconstitution” of the governing authority of the university.
The legislation also proposes reducing the size of governing authorities to 12 members, and swaying the College Board’s make up in favour of external members appointed by the government.
While all oppose the bill, some candidates were harsher in their condemnations than others. Doyle, for one, said that the legislation is “very bad for us”, while Ohlmeyer said that it would “wreck Trinity’s collegiate governance structure”.
Correction: 22:29, March 26th, 2021.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the GSU has three votes in the provost election. In fact, it has four.
