The TCD Postgraduate Workers Alliance – an advocacy group backed by the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) – tonight signalled its support for the petitions of no confidence in the union’s president and vice-president.
Students launched petitions to remove GSU President Gisèle Scanlon and GSU Vice President Abhisweta Bhattacharjee last week, after a chaotic EGM at which amendments and motions were passed using an insecure voting system.
In a press statement, released after a meeting of the group tonight, the Postgraduate Workers’ Alliance stated that it believed that Scanlon and Bhattacharjee had “made a series of significant and serious breaches of the GSU constitution that cannot be tolerated”.
“As both members of the GSU and members of a GSU sanctioned campaign, we cannot allow for the democratic processes and the constitution of the GSU be undermined.”
“Furthermore, we cannot allow GSU sabbatical officers to undermine the TCD PGWA and fail to uphold their mandate to support the group.”
The group also said that it was “aware” that the petition related to Scanlon had reached the requisite 60 signatures to trigger a vote of no confidence, and that the GSU Oversight Office David Donohue and Dean of Graduate Studies Martine Smith “have been alerted to this”.
It added that it would raise the issue with Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) and the Capitation Committee, which gives Trinity’s capitated bodies – including the GSU – its funds.
Scanlon and Bhattacharjee did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Last week, two separate Google Forms were circulated online collecting signatures to hold votes of no confidence in the GSU president and vice president.
A member of the union’s executive committee can be removed from their position by a vote of no confidence “which may be effected by a simple majority of the members at a General Meeting. The charges brought against the member of the Executive Committee must be signed by at least sixty members of the Union”.
The collection of signatures came after a chaotic GSU EGM, during which several members were highly critical of the union’s leadership, including Scanlon and Bhattacharjee.
Several attendees reported that they were unable to vote using the voting link that was sent into the Zoom chat box, while others said that the voting link allowed users to vote several times.
The amendments that were passed during the meeting included a major overhaul of the constitution. However, one of the most contentious amendments relating to the constitution did not receive a two-thirds majority, as specified by the old constitution.
Two of the most controversial parts of the amendment – one which changed the procedure for removing members of the executive committee and another to limit the focus of elected members to their mandated issue or cohort – were then voted down in a subsequent motion at the end of the meeting. However, it did not receive a two-thirds majority.
Multiple members at the meeting called the validity of the votes into question, since there was no verification process to ensure that those voting with the link provided were actually GSU members.
The GSU and the Postgraduate Workers Alliance clashed earlier in the year, after Scanlon refused to release data to the alliance from a survey the two groups had collaborated on. She cited data protection concerns.
Scanlon subsequently released the data, and the alliance published its report last week.
