Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) has said that seven heads of schools have committed to maximising in-person teaching after reading week amid fears of a continuation in online learning.
The news follows an open letter from TCDSU to schools last week warning College of “extreme backlash” from students should classes remain online after reading week.
Vice Provost Orla Shiels has written to schools asking them to communicate any potential limitations to a full return to in-person teaching so that resources may be provided.
In a series of tweets this evening, TCDSU President Leah Keogh said: “I raised the issue at College Board this morning as a matter of Urgent Business.”
“The Vice Provost has sent a form to all heads of schools, asking them to flag any obstacles getting in the way of a full return to campus. Additional spaces and funding for TAs is being sourced where necessary.”
“School commitment is trickling in, we have had contact from 7 heads of Schools, committing to maximise in-person teaching for their students”, she said.
“We have asked for sight of what teaching will look like student-by-student come November 1st and have been assured that we will receive this soon.”
“We have scheduled subsequent meetings with the Provost and Vice-Provost before timetables are released next Thursday.”
Keogh added: “We communicated the need for a hybrid approach moving forward that would make College accessible for ALL students.”
In last week’s open letter, the union said that it had recently learned that “there is no plan to re-timetable for the second half of the semester”, meaning that “little will change in the way of students’ current experience”. This would be in contradiction with the Provost’s promise to increase in-person teaching significantly after reading week as part of College’s “two-phase approach”.
The letter asked schools to commit to “maximised in-person teaching for all students” and added that “if this is not currently the plan … you have four weeks to do this, it is not too late to act”.
“Until now, TCDSU have worked within the parameters set by College, we have been solution focused by identifying and individually addressing problem areas.
Expectations have been building considerably as students have been asked to ‘hang tight’ until Reading Week. We strongly believe that by November 1st, only classes over 500 and those that have always been taught online for pedagogical reasons should be online.”
“Our students have been patient”, the letter continued. “We were the first University to close and will be the last to reopen. If teaching does not look significantly different by November 1st, we anticipate extreme backlash from students, parents, government and media & we will be joining them. As far as students are concerned, the whole country will be open, all other Universities will be open, and the College has had months to plan for this.”
In a statement to The University Times following the publication of the letter, Trinity’s Director of Public Affairs and Communications Tom Molloy said: “Trinity will definitely be using all teaching and learning spaces at full capacity with no social distancing after reading week. This will also apply to the library.”
