The Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) president and vice-president have continued to receive their full salaries despite the decision of College’s Capitations Committee to withhold funding since July of last year.
Funding is being withheld until the union deals with complaints made about its controversial April 2021 EGM.
President Gisèle Scanlon and Vice-President Abhisweta Bhattacharjee receive their salaries through Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) as a result of a long-standing administrative arrangement that was not affected by the decision to withhold funding.
In an email to The University Times earlier this week, TCDSU President Leah Keogh said: “We share an admin officer who continues to pay both GSU sabbatical officer wages to ensure that service provision for postgraduate students is not compromised.”
Scanlon and Bhattacharjee have not responded to requests for comment.
In the financial year ending on August 21st of 2021, salaries topped the GSU’s expenses at €64,958.
The president and vice-president were both re-elected to their respective roles last year. Scanlon has also previously served as GSU vice president. The constitution – which was adopted by vote last year after a contentious meeting of GSU members – states that no member of the GSU executive, which includes the two sabbatical officers, “shall hold the same Officer position within the Union for more than two terms of office”.
This means that Scanlon and Bhattacharjee are not eligible to seek re-election to their current positions.
The union will elect its new sabbatical officers in July, breaching its constitution by selecting a new president and vice-president after they are obliged to begin their terms in office. The GSU constitution also requires that sabbatical elections take place during Hilary term, which ended on April 24th.
Newly elected sabbatical officers are constitutionally obliged to take office on the first Monday of July, which falls on July 4th this year. The GSU has announced that its election period will begin on July 5th and that the results will be announced on Friday, July 15th.
The GSU constitution states: “The date for this election shall be decided by the Executive Committee, and shall be in Hillary [sic] term of each academic year save in extraordinary circumstances.”
Scanlon did not respond to queries about any extraordinary circumstances which would have prevented the election being held during Hilary term.
