The council of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) could not vote on the candidates of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) Officer Board or on motions this evening because quorum could not be reached.
Fewer than 100 members of council were present. For quorum to be reached, 112 members of council must be present, according to TCDSU Education Officer Molly Kenny. The TCDSU constitution states: “Quorum for meetings of Union bodies shall be one third of the actual members of the body”. There are 333 class reps, according to Kenny.
The union this evening instead conducted a meeting where the sabbatical officers gave their reports, and where candidates for USI spoke to the group present. Asked by The University Times if this was constitutional, Kenny said that it was, as it was no longer considered a meeting of council.
Speaking at the beginning of council, Kenny issued an appeal to students to “message people who are class reps”, in an attempt to reach quorum. However, despite numerous pleas for class reps present to message other reps, quorum during the meeting, which is still ongoing, has not yet been reached.
Kenny told The University Times that attendance was low because students have assignments and deadlines during this week. Asked whether the event for this council was promoted on Facebook too late, Kenny said reps had the dates for council since the beginning of the year.
Constitutionally, TCDSU’s council must mandate its delegates to USI’s national congress, which takes place next week, to vote for particular candidates for USI’s officer board. This year, however, delegates will not be mandated by the council vote, and will instead vote for their preferred candidate at the congress. Kenny told council that “if we don’t have quorum, each individual delegate can cast their own individual vote at Congress”, without being mandated by the union.
Asked by The University Times if it was disappointing that TCDSU’s council would not be mandating delegates, the current USI President, Kevin Donoghue, said it was. “We’d be disappointed in terms of – on a human level, people have travelled quite a distance to be here tonight. I know if this happened to me last year, I would have been disappointed”, he said. He went on: “It would probably be good for one of the candidates to know where one of the largest blocs of votes would be going before congress.” He also said, however, that he was sure that Trinity would “pick capable delegates who would still be able to make an informed decision” next week.
Speaking to The University Times, the only candidate for the position of President of USI, Annie Hoey, said: “Obviously enough it’s disappointing. The candidates came here to share their vision for us next year. We still hope that students in Trinity will take time to consider what we have to say and that that will be reflected in the vote we have next week at congress.”
If the council does not reach quorum, a number of motions due to be brought to tonight’s meeting of council will not be voted on, including a motion to convene a TCDSU Election Review Committee and a motion proposing reviews of the union’s progress with the union’s strategic plan.
A camera crew from RTÉ, who have been filming a documentary about Trinity over the last six months, were also present at tonight’s meeting.
Edmund Heaphy also contributed reporting to this piece.
