Trinity Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (Trinity BDS) disrupted a Dual BA information session at the Trinity Open Day on Saturday November 29th over Trinity’s continuation of the Dual BA Program with Columbia University.
The disruption started at 2:40pm when two Trinity BDS members disrupted the event. The first protester spoke about how Trinity Dual BA students had been expelled from Columbia, and said “Reject the Dual BA, say no to genocide. Do your four years at Trinity”, and that “Columbia University remains complicit in the unlawful detention of students under the guise of the Trump administration”.
Following the speech by the first protester, the second protester started his speech, which led to the vast majority of attendees walking out of the event. The second protester said “do not join this course, do not engage in this talk”, and also said that they would be “complicit in genocide” if they joined the Dual BA program. Following the disruption, there was a verbal confrontation between one of the protesters and a member of the public.
This protest comes following a motion at Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU/AMLCT) Comhairle in October 2025, condemning the Dual BA. The motion also stated that “Comhairle regrets the unacceptable use of disciplinary procedures by Columbia University in attempting to silence Student activism regarding the genocide in Palestine.”
While the two Trinity BDS members were protesting inside the event, there were at least two more members outside the lecture hall distributing leaflets titled “End the Columbia Dual B.A.”. Trinity BDS posted an Instagram post this morning with the same text as the leaflet.
Harry Johnston, Chair of Trinity BDS spoke to The University Times following the disruption, and said “We’re here to protest the talks which are going on promoting the Dual BA, which is a partnership between Trinity and genocidally complicit Columbia.”
Johnston continued by saying “We’re here to…stand up for Palestine and say that…students who have been expelled from Colombia because of their activism need to be remembered and we need to make sure we’re not putting more students into an unsafe space. So we disrupted lectures. We’re handing out flyers as well.”
Following the disruption, security came up to the protesters and took their student ID cards. Security was seen writing down their student ID numbers, and they were subsequently given their ID cards back. Security and attendants were seen speaking with the protesters. When Johnston was asked what security said to him, he said “We had a very positive discussion with security, making sure that everyone was okay and just having a talk to reassure everyone on both sides. We dealt with a very nice security man.”
Another information session for the Dual BA took place at 3:45pm. Trinity BDS were told by an attendant that they were not allowed to enter the second event, but would be allowed to stay outside.
The Open Day is a day for prospective students to come to Trinity campus and speak with staff and students about different courses and student life. Every year, about 9,000 prospective students attend the Open Day, staffed by about 500 volunteers made up of staff and students, according to a spokesperson from the College.
This is not the first time Trinity BDS has protested at the Open Day. In March 2024, Trinity BDS and Academics for Palestine TCD protested the Open Day over Trinity’s links with Israel, handing out leaflets saying “Do you want to attend a university that is neutral on genocide?”
