Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) council has voted down a motion to support a campaign opposing a full return to in-person exams this semester.
Speaking at council, second-year PPES class representative László Molnárfi, who proposed the motion, said he was delivering an open letter with over 5,000 signatures on the issue to the Dáil tomorrow.
“Our union should have this line”, he said, adding that exams should only be held in person where there were professional requirements to do so.
Speaking against the motion, TCDSU Education Officer Bev Genockey questioned why it was necessary to vote on the stance. “Students are free to sign this if they like”, she said.
Speaking against the motion, STEM Convenor Zoe Cummins said the letter was signed by “5,000 people, not [5,000] Trinity students”.
“Direct action – what does that mean?”, she said. “Does that mean we support students who boycott exams?”
The motion stated: “An immediate and full return to traditional ‘sit-down’ closed book exams in the RDS could have catastrophic consequences for student mental health.”
“Council Mandates the education officer to lobby the college for more non-traditional forms of assessment such as take home, open book exams, and to lobby against the immediate and full return to traditional ’sit down’ closed book exams in the RDS”, it said.
“Council further mandates that the TCDSU take direct action for the option of open-book exams when the majority of the course to date was held online only during the pandemic.”
The motion also stipulated that TCDSU support the #NoInPersonExams campaign, which is spearheaded by Molnárfi’s anarchist lobby group Students4Change.
Correction: 09:08pm, Tuesday, November 30th, 2021
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the motion also would have mandated the union to “take direct action for the option of open-book exams”. In fact, the motion brought to council was split into two motions, and this part was not ultimately voted on.
