New college tutors have this year, for the first time, received training on trans* issues as part of their training in accordance with the recently launched Gender Identity and Gender Expression Policy.
All new tutors took part in a two-hour session ran by the Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) as part of a three-day training event for new college tutors. It is expected that all college tutors will receive training as part of their annual top-up training, two separate sessions of which take place per year.
The training aimed to provide tutors with the information and skills to support students on trans* issues, including an introduction to terminology, a briefing on common misconceptions and information on how to address challenges that students may face.
As part of their training, which took place over three days from 8th-10th September, new tutors took part in sessions about listening and support skills, received information about college services available to students, including the Student Counselling Service and Student Learning Development, and received training from the Student Finance Officer about issues such as grants.
This training session is in accordance with the College’s new Gender Identity and Gender Expression Policy, the first of its kind in Irish universities, which launched in March 2015. The policy is a formal recognition that “College will treat all trans* staff, students, alumni and service users with dignity and respect and seek to provide a work and learning environment free from discrimination, harassment or victimisation.” The policy pledges that “where desirable, College will develop, promote and run specific training on trans* issues for students and staff”.
At the launch of the policy in March concerns were raised by attendees about how the policy would be implemented and rolled out. In an email statement to The University Times Professor Martine Cuypers, who serves as a member of the Equality Committee and who sat on the working group for the policy, praised the introduction of the training, stating: “a policy is only as good as its implementation, which begins with raising awareness and understanding of the issues which the policy seeks to address.” She continued: “Because, for trans* and gender diverse students in Trinity, tutors are often the first port of call… the training new tutors receive is a very important step in the implementation of the policy.”
Speaking to The University Times Jack O’Sullivan, training officer of TENI and the person who carried out the training, stated he was “absolutely delighted that [Trinity] have worked on such a brilliant policy with TENI and we hope that other colleges follow suit”. He added that Trinity was “leading the way in terms of adopting this policy” and that he hopes students who may wish to talk about trans* issues feel that they are “able to come talk to their tutors following their training”.
All undergraduate students are assigned a tutor, a member of the College’s academic that acts as a first point of contact and as a source of support to students on personal and academic issues.
