The Postgraduate and Equity Hustings were held on Tuesday 18th February from 5:30-7:00 pm in Stanley Quek Theatre in the Biomedical Sciences Building. All candidates running attended and were asked questions on topics ranging from integrating post-graduate students further into the Students Union to Irish language promotion across college.
President
The three candidates for President of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) are Patrick Keegan, Giovanni Li and Seán Thim O’Leary. The Irish language was highly prioritised throughout the hustings; providing students with the option of holding their tutorials through Irish was supported by both O’Leary and Keegan.
Keegan also emphasised his commitment to taking direct action should College attempt to increase student fees, while Li to completely abolish the student contribution fee. Another of Li’s proposals was that TCDSU should be used to help students find jobs creating an “internal student economy”. One example given was a scenario where students could be employed to clean other students’ apartments. When asked if this may create a culture of classism Li’s reply was “absolutely not” and that there was “no shame” in having a part-time job.
On the question of their position on Palestine, which didn’t feature on Seán Thim O’Leary’s manifesto: they replied “I’m 100% pro-Palestine” and praised the work of the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) committee, giving credit to the work Keegan undertook as Chair of BDS. When asked what they wanted to achieve as President, O’Leary said they wanted to “reinstill a sense of hope in the Union”.
Education
For the two candidates running for Education Officer, Conchúr Ó Cathasaigh and Buster Whaley, they were asked how they planned to manage the workload involved in being Education Officer. This is reflective of the sheer level of responsibilities that the Education Officer has; sitting on more College and student union committees than any other officer, coupled with student case work, appeals and general day to day tasks. Ó Cathasaigh put himself forward as having enough experience from his time on the Electoral Commission to see how different officers have operated in the role and has an idea of how to deal with the workload of case work through this.
Whaley answered that it’s all about priorities, and that case work and appeals should be the first priority, as demand for case work increases. In order to increase outreach to postgrad students, Whaley referred to a need to find “common ground” between postgraduates and undergraduates by focussing on school-wide and college-wide issues such as the recognition of LENS reports.
Welfare and Equality
The four candidates competing for the role of Welfare and Equity Officer are John Garvey, Nina Crofts, Deirdre Leahy and Bhargavi Magadi. When asked what actions would be taken to ensure Equity, Diversity and Inclusion was not a “tick the box” exercise, Garvey answered that working with minorities on an individual level as well as an emphasis on culture weeks would be important. Also asked of Crofts, was what they would be doing to ensure that Narcan, an opioid antagonist used in emergency overdoses, was available for students across campus. Crofts highlighted that new EU measures would mean that Narcan would become available over the counter, and that it should be ensured that College can provide Narcan directly to students.
Leahy spoke of her experience as a Health Sciences student, reflecting on how the union has struggled to engage with off-campus students and tackle issues such as discrimination faced by students on work placements. Magadi spoke in favour of the introduction of mandated unconscious bias training for students, highlighting that “discrimination is often done by people who think of themselves as accepting people, people who don’t know they are contributing to discrimination”.
Oifigeach na Gaeilge:
Competing for the position of Oifigeach na Gaeilge are Niamh Leddy and Aoife Ní Bhriain.
Leddy was asked about the Official Language Act, which, means that all public services including universities must operate bi-lingually. Under the Act, College could have an obligation under the legislation to have 20% of their staff be Irish speakers. Leddy commented that currently only 25 staff are listed in Trinity as speaking Irish, something she wants to see change.
Ní Bhriain emphasised the progress that has been made this year including co-operation between officers to promote and include the Irish language in day-to-day activities. Ní Bhriain also shared her translation experience and says that she even pre-ordered the latest Irish dictionary, saying that she’s a “bit of a grammar nerd”. She also spoke of her experience studying maths, where she struggled with not knowing many of the mathematical terms in English and advocated for a glossary of technical terms to be provided to STEM students.
Communications & Marketing Officer:
Running uncontested, Channing Kehoe spoke on the current flaws in the accessibility of social media posts when sharing information and advertising events, specifically mentioning the difficulties that postgrads might face.“I think that a lot of postgrads are disenfranchised by not having social media posts shared on multiple platforms,” Kehoe said. They also suggested that Facebook should be used to engage postgrad students.
She also touched on the international status of postgraduate students. As an international student themself, Kehoe said that it gives them a unique perspective on the challenges that they might face. “International students want to feel a part of something,” Kehoe said, pushing for better communication with international students.
Entertainments Officer:
Four candidates are running for Entertainment Officer: Yuv Garg, Finn Hallwood, Orla Norton and John O’Hara. Garg spoke on the price of events such as the Trinity Ball, pushing more sober and cheaper events. He also wants to host monthly postgraduate events and to form subgroups to better understand the needs of postgrads.
Hallwood shared that he is “both a commuter and student who works during college,” sharing that one solution to better student commuter integration could be to release a timetable so students would be able to plan their commute around events. Additionally, he said that accessibility tickets for campus events would be an option for students who need accommodations. When asked about whether Irish would be integrated into this program, Hallwood encouraged students to use music to increase interest and engagement in the student body for Irish. Hallwood concluded by saying that he plans to host events for postgrads, making sure that everyone is reached.
“The current issues with events are both the monetary and time costs,” said Norton. Norton says that commuters often can not make it to events held late at night. She proposed more music events that are not T-Ball on campus. She also plans to announce events a week in advance and hold more events that are specifically for postgrads.
O’Hara emphasised that he is prepared to go into a monetary deficit when planning events for college, stating that he plans to focus on a postgraduate ball. O’Hara continued by stating that plans are currently underway in college to make Wednesday a half day for students and that this will benefit student commuters when it comes to being able to attend social events. He concluded with the promise of putting guidelines in place for graphics. O’Hara said that they have tried to have bilingual captions in posts but that this is “something we are looking to improve”.
University Times Editor:
The two candidates for Editor of the University Times are Sajal Singh and Charlie Hastings. Singh, the current Features Editor, spoke on the reporting of minorities at The University Times, saying that she wants to create the positions of an LGBT+ affairs editor and an Erasmus editor to “bring in stories that truly matter”. Singh plans to host workshops to support postgrads and wants to have a separate section on interviewing postgrads in order to “adequately represent them”.
Hastings previously worked with the University Times intermittently in his first, second and third year of College – he claimed that he once worked for 36 hours at weekend laying out the newspaper – something he is eager not to see happen again.
Hastings claimed that most contributors to the paper are asked via individual requests and he is thus pushing for “themed pitch callouts”. Hastings wants to hire a visibility editor to include minority voices, stating that “if you are a member of a minority group you will have the opportunity to come forward”.
