The Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) this morning postponed an EGM, planned to take place tonight, citing a constitutional stipulation that requires the union to give attendees 14 days’ notice prior to a meeting.
The EGM will now take place on April 14th at 7pm. In an email to postgraduate students, the union’s executive apologised for cancelling the meeting “on such short notice”.
The GSU’s constitution states that “at least fourteen days before a General Meeting, a notice of such meeting and an agenda of the business to be transacted thereat shall be posted in a conspicuous place in the Common Room and in the Arts Block and in the Hamilton Building and at other appropriate locations throughout College”.
Earlier this week, the union announced that a motion would be brought to the EGM on formally divesting from Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU). An email sent to postgraduates ahead of the EGM, seen by The University Times, included a motion to divest from TCDSU, mandating that the GSU be the “sole representative body for the Graduate Students of Trinity”.
It is unclear what this proposed motion could mean for student representation on College committees. At present, TCDSU appoints all student representatives on committees, apart from committees that call for postgraduate representatives. The GSU selects these representatives.
TCDSU went on to say that it would continue to represent postgraduate students, regardless of whether the motion passed.
In a press statement, the TCDSU said that it was “disappointed” to see the motion, and added that the change would “greatly limit the ability of both unions to effectively cooperate in representing all students within the college”.
“TCDSU has a constitutional obligation to represent the interests and provide services to all students in Trinity College Dublin”, the union said.
The GSU has had a tumultuous year: in December, its members blasted the “disorganized chaos” surrounding the election of part-time officers, the results of which were due to be announced at the union’s long-delayed AGM, and in November this newspaper reported that the union’s class representative elections allowed for voter fraud.
The AGM was initially supposed to take place on Monday, December 11th. However, in an email to postgraduate students at 12.23am the Sunday before, GSU President Gisèle Scanlon postponed the AGM, which the union is required to run before the end of the first full week of November according to its constitution.
