Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) has voted to create a €30,000 fund to provide financial support to international students and Asylum Seeker Access Provision (ASAP) Scholars.
The motion passed with 87 per cent of the vote.
The motion was brought to the union’s first council meeting but was postponed after fourth-year Integrated Computer Science Class Representative Yanick Gloster suggested the College solicitor be contacted first. He argued that the fund has limitations to its scope and that the union should be sure it has the power to spend before it does so.
The motion was seconded by International Student Officer Dylan Krug.
Gloster again raised the issue of legal advice this evening. Speaking in favour of the motion, TCDSU Welfare and Equality Officer Sierra Müller-Owens said: “This money has been used many times for student services and it is student money. It is completely unnecessary to consult the solicitor.”
Responding, Gloster said “we don’t know if this is actually an acceptable way to spend the money”.
Speaking in favour of the motion, Krug said: “I think it is essential we vote on this tonight. We want to offer financial aid to the international student community, a cohort with very few financial supports available.”
“I think it’s a proper and excellent way to spend the money”, he said.
Returning to defend the motion Müller-Owens said: “The union solicitor has never been contacted. This is our money, we decide how to spend it.”
The money for the new support measure has been allocated from the union’s HEA Fund with €20,000 set aside for this year and €5,000 for each of the following two years.
In an email statement to The University Times last month, TCDSU President Leah Keogh explained that “the HEA Fund came about as a fine imposed on College by the HEA in 2012”.
She added that “criteria for spending includes ‘student services’ and it can be accessed by a majority vote at Council”.
International students and ASAP Scholars may receive up to €400 by submitting an application to the TCDSU Communications and Marketing Officer who will anonymise applicants before the Welfare and Equality Officer, the International Student Officer and the Ethnic Minorities Officer make final funding decisions.
The support is designed to help with “any education or welfare-related expenses in-
including but not limited to: visa applications, travel to and from college, rent, groceries and medical insurance.”
Last year, the union voted to lobby for reductions in international student fees. The motion was proposed by a group of 10 students and seconded by then-Inernational Officer Patrick O’Mahony.
The union’s president and international officer were also mandated to lobby for “adequate provision of information for international students by the college, including but not limited to the planned methods of teaching for the rest of the year and student support services available”.
