Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) opened applications for the “10k Have Your Say” project.
The money was released from the Higher Education Authority Fund after a motion was passed at council last week to ringfence the money for projects chosen by students.
The motion was proposed at the last Council by TCDSU President Leah Keogh and seconded by Citizenship Officer Julie Smirnova. Welfare Officer Sierra Müller-Owens also spoke in favour of the motion.
In the email sent to students, Keogh explained that the money would be used to fund grassroots student initiatives, and that this is students’ “opportunity to decide how student money is spent”.
The project aims to bring participatory budgeting into college. Participatory budgeting involves allowing members of a community to decide how money should be spent, described in the email as an “empowering, civic-minded, transparent, and inclusive model of budgeting”.
Speaking at council last Tuesday, Keogh said that the model “gives the stakeholders in the community the opportunity to decide how a budget is spent.”
The project is looking for student projects that “enhance the student experience”. These must be budgeted, short-term projects that are achievable in one year, are not-for-profit, and enhance the student experience. Applications for the project will close on December 10th.
The Higher Education Authority (HEA) fund for student services arose after the HEA fined Trinity in 2012 for giving excess allowances to College Tutors. Trinity was fined €603,709.
The funding must be spent on “student services” and it can only be accessed by a majority vote at council.
The money has funded a Student2Student intern, wheelchair fencing, a placement bursary, refurbishment of the mature student’s space and a laptop rental scheme.
The HEA fund, which is controlled by TCDSU and the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU), can only be spent on one-time, non-recurring costs, and cannot be spent on services which the College should already be providing.
TCDSU Council has previously voted to spend the money on converting the Parlour in Goldsmith Hall to a “sun room”. It also funded a trial to extend the 24-hour section of the Berkeley/Lecky/Ussher (BLU) Library, which became permanent, until hours were reduced again during the pandemic.
