“Ultimately we’re all here in College to get an education, so trying to improve that and make sure it is a functional system is something I want to do,” says Eve Martin, one of two candidates running for the role of Education Officer in this year’s Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU/AMLCT) elections. The University Times spoke to Martin to discuss her manifesto and her priorities for the role.
Martin, a final-year molecular medicine student from Offaly, has been heavily involved in the Students’ Union throughout college. She was a Class Representative in her first and second year, and served as Deputy Faculty STEM Faculty Convenor last year. She currently holds the position of STEM Faculty Convenor. Martin is also a student representative on the undergraduate studies committee, which is the main academic policy committee in the College.
On her experience, Martin said, “During my time in these various positions, I’ve really enjoyed them. Getting to help people out with their various academic issues made me feel like I was making a real difference and that has inspired me to want to run for this position. It has also given me an insight into where the recurring issues are and what might need broader addressing in College.”
She added: “The Education Officer oversees the whole system of Class Reps, and it was through being a Class Rep that I met my best friend in college and really found my place here. I would enjoy having that role to have Class Reps more integrated and meet more people and feel more engaged.”
When asked about her top priorities if elected, Martin pointed first to AI. In her manifesto, she says she would like to push for a College-wide GenAI policy, aimed at promoting a more informed use of AI in teaching, as well as expanding information and teaching around its use and responsibilities. “My issue is that since [the current AI guidelines we have] are just guidelines and not policy, it is still up to individual schools to have to set the actual policies that they follow. There can be a lot of variety between them. Some schools are much more restrictive than others, saying that you can’t use them even to create study guides, while other schools say it’s completely fine to use [AI], [and] they encourage you to use it.”
Martin added, “It’s that disparity that is my issue and why I think there should be a College-wide policy. [Our current system] could lead to a situation where a student in one school is being accused of plagiarising and academic misconduct for something that in another school would be completely acceptable.”
Martin also proposes creating a discount for Trinity undergraduate students who want to continue into graduate study in the College. When asked whether this was unrealistic, and what level of discount she would seek, Martin said the idea had precedent elsewhere. “I don’t think it’s unrealistic. Several other universities in Ireland and across the world do it — DCU does it and they’re a smaller university than we are. It’s in line with a lot of the College’s other aspirations, keeping on high-quality graduates as a research university and also supporting lifelong learning. The one in DCU is currently 10 per cent, but the exact figure would have to be worked out considering the broader feasibility of the College.”
On academic progression and assessment policy, Martin highlighted ongoing work on policies for carrying over failed credits and modular repeats (modular billing). Buster Whaley, the current Education Officer, is currently working with a team to produce a report on modular billing and will present their findings and policy suggestions at the end of the year. Martin said she hopes to continue this work and implement the policy decisions the report recommends once it is brought forward.
This links, she said, to another manifesto priority: improving support for off-books students. As it currently stands, students who are off-books have no Tutor, no access to the library and no access to sports facilities. Martin said she is committed to working towards improved support for these students.
When asked about disability and exam support, Martin discussed “ensuring there is proper training of all the invigilators for LENS student exam venues”. The LENS report allows students with particular needs or disabilities to access specialised learning and exam conditions. She added: “I’ve heard anecdotally from lots of students that have LENS reports that they go to their venue and the invigilators there don’t know what their requirements are.”
Furthermore, she said, “Having other exam venues, like smaller ones and other things like that depending on the LENS requirements, is to try and reduce stress and anxiety around exams. To then be showing up and having them not know what’s going on is not really conducive to that.”
“I would campaign for either a way to improve Blackboard Ultra or find an alternative that has better support for students with LENS requirements. A big complaint I have gotten is that the lecturers just don’t seem to be aware of the students’ entitlements, be it in class or examinations. So to have a virtual learning environment that is streamlined would make it very clear what students’ entitlements are.”
Martin also said she would seek reform of Trinity’s Erasmus system, which has been a longstanding issue for students navigating Trinity’s bureaucracy with limited support. When asked about the fact that previous education officers have campaigned on Erasmus reform with limited progress, Martin said she was unsure what prior approaches had been, but with help from student surveys she is confident in finding a solution. “Obviously, it is a complex issue, depending on your course, course requirements, if you have special needs, where you’re going. Things like that can make it difficult to tackle and improve. I know currently in the union, we’re running a survey to try and collate some data about the main issues that students are having when trying to organise going on exchange to better be able to know what it is that actually needs to change. A lot of the time it’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, it was a mess when I was applying for exchange’. But knowing what the actual concrete issues are is important to try and find some way of fixing that.”
She said the survey is intended to identify “the actual concrete issues” students experience, so that any proposed changes can be targeted at specific problems rather than broad dissatisfaction.
Other plans in Martin’s manifesto include reforming quality review processes to incorporate more student feedback, focusing particularly on teaching rather than administration, and implementing a College-wide policy on lecture recordings.
Overall, Martin’s manifesto sets out a quantified approach to campaigning for solutions, relying on reports and survey feedback to identify problems and propose responses.
