To anyone who has been paying attention to the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) this election season is not the first time you will have seen or heard of Patrick Keegan. Holding the current positions of International Student Officer, Business School convenor, and Chair of BDS, the Business and Political Science student has set his sights on becoming TCDSU’s next President.
Keegan describes the role of President as “the best job you could possibly have”. He tells me, “the role of president can actually allow you to change things and actually push the college in the way you want to push it”. He adds, I love campaigning so for me this is the perfect job. I can actually spend a year fighting for student rights”. Keegan considers himself an “activist first”. He tells me, “I consider everything I do with the core motivation being that I’m an activist”.
As current chair and previous secretary of Trinity BDS (Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions), Keegan has plenty of experience with direct action which he plans to put to good use in his potential presidency. He believes in direct action not just for direct actions sake but for the true purpose of enacting change. He shares that he has learned that direct action is crucial for when college refuses to negotiate or does not negotiate in good faith. When I ask him what sort of direct action he has in mind, he says the “key aspect is that it disrupts usual activities”, including banner drops, sit ins, and even the recently seen balloon campaigns.
Through his experience, Keegan tells me that he has “institutional knowledge of how the union works”. This allows him to have seen what works and what doesn’t. Keegan praises the current SU saying, “the college never knows what to expect” in terms of their creativity and campaigns. He says that the SU’s challenge of college and actually getting work done, pointing out the gaeilge signage as an example, is highly commendable. With his role as BDS Chair, he has experience organising campaigns, protests, direct action, and negotiating with the college
Of the SU’s relationship to college and notable figures within it, Keegan says “I think it’s important to work with them but also agitate them when need be. When you can work together, which I hope often we can, it’s about constructive criticism of the college. You want to be able to negotiate with them and work with them”.
His improvements, he says, is to bring wider awareness of what the union does to the student body. He tells me, “not just the past two years, but in general students just don’t know what the Union exactly offers them or they don’t know what they’re doing”. One example of this, he shares, is the 100 euro short term loan for food insecurity offered by the Union. Keegan hopes to publicise this and other supports available for students as well as expand via fundraising.
Keegan also plans to continue to push forward the work the current SU has done for the Irish language. Though an American, Keegan shares that he has taken Irish language classes and that he sees a large responsibility for the president to support the Oifigeach na Gaeilge. This means continuing to push for Irish signage around Trinity as he says “the more you see it, the more people are encouraged”. Keegan also hopes to work with the Education officer to lobby for modules, courses, and tutorials offered in Gaeilge. He tells me, it’s all “about supporting the Irish language community as much as possible because that is the home language of Ireland”.
When Keegan speaks of fundraising, he refers to his hope for fundraising that can be done in a “fun way”. Keegan hopes to collaborate with the future Ents officer to run events such as pub quizzes, club nights, and even SU Cafe coffee mornings. These wide range of avenues, Keegan says, are great as his target is to create and enact fundraising through activities and events that students enjoy.
When it comes to how he would approach the role, Keegan tells me “It’s most important to remember you are representing all students. It’s your job to take what the students say and what the students want and represent them at college committees and go from there.” Motivation, he says, is how things get done. “I know well myself working with college a lot that Trinity bureaucracy is not something that’s light at all, you need to keep pushing and pushing. Things could take awhile, Trinity time is very slow”.
In regards to what he would address first, he says the first month or so of the presidency would be about laying the groundwork. To continue the current protests for better LENS support, he would negotiate with the college for lecture recordings and better accessibility. Keegan states there are “huge problems with accessibility around campus”, naming Teach 6 and the GMB as “huge examples of places where elevators have been in the works but it’s about pushing it forward”. Also at the top of his list are introducing a red line for student fees, saying “we will take action against college if they try to increase fees. Students are already hurting enough as it is”.
Keegan’s manifesto includes these points along with others such as campus safety and general improvement of student spaces. Keegan hopes to implement the Blue Light System at Trinity, something that is standard in colleges around the world. He says this is not something that would be done quickly but could be an ongoing project for the Union. In regards to student spaces, he says it is critical to have consultations with students to gain knowledge into what they want to see brought to student spaces and to bring to Keegan’s attention any spaces that could be advocated for.
Student spaces are a critical factor for Keegan. “The most important one in terms of long term impacts for students would be student spaces”, calling the current spaces “lacking”. In working forward to create better student spaces, Keegan says this is “not just something that will help us next year but will help us in the years to come. In terms of longevity of plans, that’s something tangible that we can actually do”.
The aforementioned direct action aspect of Keegan’s campaign and potential tenure also focuses on his goals for the college’s relationship with Palestine. As one of the three SU representatives on the college’s task force along with current SU President Jenny Maguire, he says moving forward “it will really depend if the task force is still something making movement”. Keegan tells me he is “cautiously optimistic”. “I want to keep hope that something will actually get done but knowing Trinity, who knows” he says. “Will there be large-scale direct action? I hope not”.
When it comes to leading a team, a large part of the role, Keegan says it’s about “collaboration and constitution”. He insists, “it’s about making everybody not just feel involved but be involved”. Democracy, he tells me, is important to this and should be visible in every aspect and that for the president, it shouldn’t be about making decisions from the top down. He’s not in it for himself, he says, but rather to continue his passions as an activist and represent his peers.
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