Candidates running for President of the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) have all expressed a commitment to improving engagement with the union. In interviews with The University Times, the candidates also called for a reformed and improved relationship with Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU).
The elections, which usually have a much lower turnout than the TCDSU elections, began earlier today. The president race is contested by three candidates. Voting opens at 8pm on Wednesday, after a hustings event, and closes on Friday at 5pm. Graduate students have been allowed to vote online for the first time this year, and online voting will close on Thursday at 5pm.
Low voter turnout, and low engagement generally with the GSU, is something that all candidates for president namechecked as an issue that needs to be addressed. Candidates presented a variety of ideas to tackle this issue. GSU Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Convenor, Ari Fogelson, who is currently doing an MPhil in intercultural theology and interreligious studies, thinks that changing the culture of the GSU is the first step to improving engagement: “I don’t think the president of the Graduate Students’ Union is meant to be the CEO of a business. I think they need to have more democratic accountability to their exec and their council.”
Katie Crowther, the current GSU President, said that she “totally would agree with that”. “Previously, presidents would have actually had a CEO-like role. It has been top-down leadership: making decisions and deciding that this is what is happening.”
She went on: “That’s why I’ve started the distribution of leadership roles, so you’ll see people leading different projects, and you’re there to liaise and to work with them.”
Fogelson wants to develop “more democratic, grassroots organising”, which will help lead to everything from “constitutional reform” to more open debates about the direction the GSU should take.
Lorcan Dunne, who is doing a masters in international peace studies in the School of Ecumenics, acknowledged the work done by previous GSU officers to try to improve the numbers of students involved. For him, the aim of the GSU should be about “building more of a community”, something which can be done through things as simple as organising more evening events, “not even alcohol-related ones”, and hosting “movie nights” in the first few weeks of term.
Dunne pointed to the difficulties of keeping students engaged, especially masters students who may only be here for one or two years, who feel that the GSU will not benefit them in the long term.
He also suggested that holding elections a week earlier would automatically increase engagement: “Most people are starting internships, finishing submitting or finishing exams and a lot of people won’t be here next week”.
Former founding president of the Marino Institute of Technology Students’ Union, Shane Collins, who is studying for a masters in politics and public policy, outlined his commitment to ensuring “that union policy is driven by bottom-up principles and that there is active civic engagement”. Referencing his idea of a “distributive leadership model”, Collins pointed to his plan to increase engagement: “In the constitution we would empower the officers at different levels. So class representatives will have more responsibility and faculty officers will have more responsibility.”
While there are some areas where their interests will clash the GSU and the SU should be collaborating on many, many things.
Crowther agreed with this, noting how crucial it is for the union to develop out its class rep structure.
Collins thinks it would be “good to give a faculty officer the responsibility of having a leadership role in a committee like that and then they can report back to the union on the different functions of that committee”. This will mean more postgraduate students have an active role in the running of their union.
At the start of April, the GSU Council voted to mandate the union to campaign for a third sabbatical officer, which would result in the splitting of the current Vice President position – who currently also acts as both Welfare and Education Officer – into a Welfare and Education Officer. The GSU is one of the College’s capitated bodies funded by the capitations committee and, to fund the new sabbatical officer, an additional €30,000 would be needed.
The need to campaign for a third sabbatical officer was something all candidates addressed, and something they all supported.
Fogelson, while acknowledging the need for a third sabbatical officer, said that “the capitations fight has to be done carefully”. In terms of relations with the other four College capitated bodies, he believes the GSU needs to make clear that it understands how it could be seen as a “burden on them to ask them to support more funding for us”, but emphasised that the union must show that with such funding, “we can better serve the community”.
Recognising the overwhelming amount of work done by the current Vice-President, Dunne supported lobbying for extra funding for the the role. He emphasised the numbers of postgraduate students represented by the GSU and how this doesn’t correspond to the amount of funding allocated to the union: “I think we need an increase in funding generally. The funding allocation was drawn up when there were only 600 of us. If you include post-docs, there are 6000 of us.” He continued: “We had to fight for a second sabbatical officer in the first place and that was when there were only 1000 of us.”
Collins acknowledged the consensus on the necessity for a third sabbatical officer, stating that “we all agree it is important”. To lobby for extra funding, Collins believes it is important to “professionalise” the union: “If we can get a union together that is effective and that is producing solid results, then we can make that case for financing a sabbatical officer but first and foremost, we really need to professionalise our organisation and show the GSU is a vibrant organisation here in Trinity.” In the meantime, to deal with the amount of committee meetings the GSU Vice-President should attend, Collins pointed to his idea of having faculty officers sit on some of these committee meetings instead of the Vice-President.
All three candidates spoke about the importance of working alongside TCDSU, but emphasised the significance of the GSU’s mandate to serve postgraduate students. Candidates felt that the autonomy of the GSU is crucial.
Fogelson said that while “there are some areas where their interests will clash”, “the GSU and the SU should be collaborating on many, many things.” He pointed out that GSU representation does not take from SU’s representation on committees as “the graduate students [who] are at college committees – they’re not just looking at their own interests. They actually understand how to foster undergraduates as well.”
Dunne highlighted the differences of needs between postgraduate students and undergraduate students, referencing his own time in Trinity as an undergraduate: “Postgraduates are more mature. Some of them are married, some have families, some have jobs and they are doing part-time or they have taken a year off. It’s a different group of people and it’s a very different mindset. They need someone to represent them.”
It’s a different group of people and it’s a very different mindset. They need someone to represent them.
Collins wants increased collaboration between the unions on internal issues such as infrastructure. He also suggested drawing up a document to clarify the relationship between the two organisations. He highlighted the advantages to come out of increased co-operation: “We have some very qualified individuals that could work on different collaborative committees together and lobby for improved communications between the likes of Dublin City Council and the union itself. I think the body of the network that a graduate student comes with, there’s typically a bit older than the union officers in TCDSU. They have life experience they can draw on on different issues that are of importance.”
On a merger proposal, Crowther said that it was something that the GSU and TCDSU should discuss, but noted that Trinity was at the “forefront in Ireland in having a postgraduate students’ union”, pointing to recent moves in the University of Limerick to get a second sabbatical officer for their postgraduate union, a union that is only eight years old. The GSU in Trinity has existed for 42 years.
Molly Kenny, the Education Officer of TCDSU, said that she didn’t think “merger” is the right word. Noting that TCDSU “currently has a structure that doesn’t fully represent all students” and that the GSU “currently has a structure that doesn’t represent all postgraduates”, she said that if something like a merger were to happen “there would be two postgraduate sabbatical officers”. “It would just mean that we have stronger links to communication with all students.”
Still, Crowther said, “we need to have these discussions without having any fear of the word ‘merge’”. “So I would suggest actually coming from the angle of what is best practice, and look at what is doing so well already”, she said. “We need to take expert advice without scrapping what we already have and throwing it out the window.”
Asked what challenges the incoming GSU President would face, Crowther pointed to the increasing postgraduate student numbers. The next President, she said, “needs to be somebody who wants to build on the good work that the GSU has already done. We need somebody who can actually forge positive relationships with the student community, the SU and the community at large”. Most importantly, she said, the GSU needs to have someone who makes sure that the processes that have begun in the GSU this year are continued.
Edmund Heaphy also contributed reporting to this piece.
