After two years of contested elections, the race for editor of The University Times has a single candidate once again, with the paper’s current Deputy Editor vying for the top role. Mairead Maguire is a third-year student of history and political science who has previously served as News Editor and Societies Editor of the paper. Beyond her work in The University Times, she sat on the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) welfare committee last year and has interned in the College’s Disability Service. She is also a Laidlaw scholar and a Trinity Access ambassador.
While last year’s unsuccessful candidate, Peter Caddle, garnered just 13.3 per cent of the vote, his unconventional candidacy ultimately started a conversation about the paper’s reliance on print and its accessibility to students.
Maguire summarises the mission of the paper as “holding College, capitation bodies and societies accountable and highlighting the issues that matter to students, as well as giving those students a voice”.
She points to the numerous “groundbreaking stories” that the paper has published this year as evidence of its worth to students. The candidate herself co-authored a major scoop on Trinity’s shares in the fossil fuel industry, which initiated significant changes to how College invests its money. This, she says, “is what UT is all about”.
This year has been a challenging one for The University Times, with the end of a year-long hiatus from print due to the pandemic. Maguire speaks candidly of the challenge that the paper’s staff faced this year as it returned to producing physical papers. “A lot of us who had to be at the helm of those print weekends had never experienced a print weekend. So it was definitely a learning curve.”
The paper has come under fire this year for its approach to inclusion and diversity, and Maguire is keen to bring about change, stressing the need for greater accessibility. She intends to start a mentorship program for LBGTQ+ writers and writers with disabilities, with a semester of mentorship dedicated to each cohort. She emphasised the importance of encouraging underrepresented student groups to write for the paper, “to show how much we value their voices, their opinions and their talent”. Not only will this make the paper more diverse and inclusive in terms of content and participation, she argues, but will hopefully have a long-lasting effect in encouraging a more diverse body of editorial staff at the paper, which at present is predominately white and cisgender.
When quizzed about how she would respond to the ongoing boycott of the Irish Times over its publication of an op-ed questioning a ban on conversion therapy, Maguire says that making the paper welcoming to all students was a “massive priority” of hers. Unlike its campus counterpart Trinity News, The University Times did not cease printing with Irish Times print plant in Citywest. It has committed to sourcing an alternative printer, but has not yet secured one.
“I’m queer myself,” she adds. “I know that there are issues within the queer community that could be highlighted more … Trinity is a place where you can come and really be yourself. So UT should be no different.”
She wants to change students’ perceptions of The University Times: “I think in some cases, we can be seen as a bit too serious. My goal is to be professional, but approachable.”
When asked about her priorities in terms of printing the paper, the candidate says she values the paper’s broadsheet format. But she asserts that she is conscious of the “fundamental morality” of the paper’s business partners, not just the issue of association. She added that despite the paper’s online-first model, she believes that “print is too valuable to cut completely”.
Staff numbers fluctuate each year, usually between 60 and 80 – which seems like a lot, she says, but notes that having more writers would be beneficial for those already involved. “I understand that not everybody can commit that sort of time, and not everybody wants to either. Not everybody wants to manage a team, or be responsible for sections’ contents. I just want to create different types of opportunities.” The paper prides itself on its mentoring of new recruits, something the candidate aims to continue.
As Maguire contests the election, the rapidly shifting online news landscape means that once-reliable platforms to share news, such as Facebook, may become obsolete very quickly. She says increasing social media presence next year is also a huge priority for her: she hopes to set up a social media team to expand the paper’s reach and “communicate more effectively what we do, how we do it, and how you can get involved”.
Previous editors Cormac Watson and Emer Moreau both created new roles within the paper at the start of their editorial roles. Watson introduced a Climate Change Editor and Moreau introduced an Ethnic Minorities Correspondent. When asked if Maguire had any new roles in mind for the paper next year, she syas that while the previous new roles were “logical”, she does not have any new positions in mind. “I think instead, we need to focus more on incorporating those issues into the fabric of the paper and not making it a separate role, or a separate thing. It should be what we just are.”
She refers to a piece she wrote last year about how unpaid internships place working-class students at a disadvantage in their career path. Covering such issues, she argues, is important and does not require a working-class correspondent. “Those are issues that matter to a lot of students and should be highlighted either way, I don’t think we need roles.”
Recently, the paper’s Editorial Board has taken firm stances on controversial news stories, such as Trinity’s decision to hold in-person exams last Christmas. Maguire says that “there’s really a separation there between opinion and news. I think maybe that’s something people don’t recognise enough”.
She defends the paper’s record of publishing a wide variety of views in its opinion section. “I don’t myself agree with them all – that’s the point. It’s not meant to be an echo chamber. We don’t write things because we want to make 100 per cent of people happy.”
On the paper’s Editorial Board, she says: “We sit down and we say what are the important issues of the day. Everybody gets an equal chance to share their opinion on each of the issues. And then we come up with a collective stance. And I think that’s a really democratic way of doing it.”
Indeed, she takes pride in the paper’s work across the board: “Our reporting is top notch. It has been for years and it’s only getting better. And it’s been incredible to watch this year as younger writers read their own stories and find their own sources and create change through that. It’s an absolute joy to watch that happen.”
Since this interview, Trinity News has published allegations that Maguire breached source confidentiality following her reporting on the perceived culture of sexual harassment and bullying in Trinity’s two debating societies. She has since strenuously denied the allegations, calling them “wholly false and defamatory”.
The University Times also refuted the allegations, saying in a statement that it conducted an investigation into alleged breaches of source confidentiality before Christmas, which found that the paper’s editorial and ethical standards “were upheld at all stages during the reporting of this article”.
She insists she’s aware of criticism of various aspects of the paper. “I won’t say that I’ve never read tweets or never felt slightly impacted by it. But it really comes with experience that you really get used to trusting your own judgement, or the judgement of the other experienced people in the paper.”
“You make your decisions, you publish your pieces, and I would never expect us to be immune to criticism.”
Maitiú Charleton is Societies Editor of The University Times, and will edit the race for Editor of The University Times in the upcoming TCDSU elections. Sarah McCarthy is Deputy Fashion Editor and will act as race correspondent.
