Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President Kieran McNulty has tonight announced that the plan for a proposed student centre has been included in College’s new estates strategy.
Speaking at Council this evening, McNulty said the inclusion of the student centre in the estates strategy meant that the centre can be expected “in the next five years”.
The proposal to include the Student Centre in the estates strategy was put forward by McNulty in September of this year, at a meeting with consulting firm, Turnberry Consulting, who are developing Trinity’s Estates Strategy. The proposal includes offices for TCDSU and Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) offices, a common room space and a number of break-out rooms for students.
McNulty also proposed a 150-person venue and staging area, as well as a retail unit within the new centre. Trinity is one of the only universities in Ireland that does not have a dedicated student centre.
The new estates strategy developed by Turnberry Consulting follows a report made by the same group earlier this year highlighting the need for Trinity to develop a new strategy. The report described Trinity as not presenting it’s campus to its “maximum potential” and the College’s use of lecture and reflective space as “sub-optimal”.
McNulty expressed his hope that only students who will be in college once the centre is built will have to pay for it: “My hope would be that no student would have to pay for it if they’re not going to use it.”
