Conversations swerved away from well-trodden academic issues and towards student services and the accommodation crisis tonight at Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union’s (TCDSU) provostial hustings.
Provostial candidates Prof Linda Hogan, Prof Jane Ohlmeyer and Prof Linda Doyle were challenged on student-specific issues, ranging from consent and accessibility to international fees and the long-awaited student centre.
Former TCDSU president Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne ran the evening, selecting questions from a list devised by a committee convened by the union. The last 20 minutes or so were taken up by questions from the audience.
Student services – or lack thereof – featured heavily: Ohlmeyer struck a personal tone when she spoke of improving childcare services as a former student parent herself. She also gave Academic Registry the berating that it has frequently received in provostial hustings, promising to end the practice of “anonymous emails” when students are looking to have administrative issues solved.
Hogan and Doyle more directly addressed student welfare. Hogan said she would “address student counselling issues so there is more access to counselling for wellbeing”, but did not elaborate on how this would happen. Doyle, in contrast, had more tangible plans: she pledged to immediately appoint a deputy director of College’s counselling services, something she has previously spoken about.
All three candidates made veiled jabs at College’s prevailing approach to housing students and backed a move away from using accommodation as a way to increase revenue streams.
Ohlmeyer said she does not believe “going to external providers” will solve the problem, something that will likely curry favour with students who ran into problems with Trinity-partnered, privately owned accommodation complexes last year. Hogan said that College should be offering rent below market rates, and proposed that College partner with “social enterprises” to house students. Doyle took a more national approach, mooting a national accommodation strategy.
All three candidates expressed support for lobbying the government for increased funding in the higher education sector, a hot-button issue for many students.
Ohlmeyer emphasised her manifesto point of increasing philanthropic donations to Trinity, but repeated that this would not let the state “off the hook”. Doyle, on the other hand, proposed an increased focus on financial supports. She and Hogan both touched on the ongoing SUSI consultation and said that access to grants must be broadened. Ultimately, none of the three candidates stood out with a clear plan to alleviate funding woes for students.
Over the last five years, there has been a three per cent increase each year in fees for non-EU students – a policy McGlacken-Byrne asked if the candidates would renew. Doyle was adamant that international student fees stop increasing in this way, stating that “we need to completely rethink” the funding model being used.
Ohlmeyer said that she didn’t like international students being treated “like ATM machines,” but admitted that some fee increases are “inevitable”. She said that any increase should be reinvested in improving the student experience.
Hogan fell somewhere between the other two candidates, saying that she would be interested in exploring more scholarship opportunities for international students and pausing fee increases in the short term. However, she acknowledged that “in a pinch” there could be fee increases of one or two per cent per year.
When questioned on consent and student safety, all three candidates strongly condemned all forms of sexual misconduct and harassment. However, Doyle and Ohlmeyer appeared to get mired in their experience dealing with the issue, with the former discussing her time as Dean of Research and the latter discussing her work with the Irish Research Council.
Hogan, on the other hand, offered up the most concrete plan for tackling the issue, pushing for the implementation of an Australia/New Zealand-style approach, in which College could register incidents of misconduct. She also promised to lobby the government for an independent ombudsman to help tackle the issue within the higher education sector.
The issue of the student centre, a promise from last year’s Provost elections which has been left unrealised for the past 10 years, was given plenty of airtime tonight, with McGlacken-Byrne noting that students are currently paying a levy for it while Trinity remains one of the few Irish universities that does not have a designated space for its students.
All three candidates committed to building the centre, but they differed on their priorities for student spaces in general, and none could give a definitive answer as to where the centre would be built.
Hogan noted how the Trinity Business School is indicative of the potential to build vast buildings in discrete areas across campus, while Doyle discussed building wider networks of students across its campuses and Ohlmeyer suggested the Nassau St car park and Goldsmith Hall as options.
On one of the more offbeat questions of the evening, all three candidates were unanimous in their denouncement of all-male clubs on campus. The Knights of the Campanile – an all-male secret society – has come under scrutiny in recent years for its gender exclusivity, as had the involvement of previous provosts in the club. Ohlmeyer, Hogan and Doyle were clear that they would not be accepting of such clubs in Trinity, a pivot away from the views of previous provosts.
The candidates seemed shaky when asked directly what place on campus they would like to see made accessible, with all delivering answers but none appearing convincing.
Doyle felt the symbolism of making the Provost’s residence wheelchair accessible would be an important step. Hogan felt that there were existing so-called “accessible” spaces that needed to be reviewed. Ohlmeyer’s answer was focused on student life, saying that student hubs like House Six and the Graduates’ Memorial Building need lifts.
Hogan’s focus on diversity and inclusion throughout the campaign was clear again tonight. She was the most ambitious of the three when the discussion turned to asylum seekers, floating the idea of increasing the number of asylum seekers in Trinity to one per cent, or roughly 180 students.
Doyle also pledged to increase the number of scholarships, while Ohlmeyer did not give extensive plans for increasing inclusion, but did say she wants more working-class people to “see themselves” in Trinity.
The TCDSU preferendum is now open, and will close at 4pm on Friday. The union has six votes, and will vote as a bloc based on the results of the poll.
Tomorrow, the three candidates will face questions from the Irish Federation of University Teachers.
Cormac Watson also contributed reporting to this piece.
