Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union’s (TCDSU) council voted this evening to elect second-year engineering student Dipo Adebisi as the newly created Ethnic Minorities Officer.
Council also voted to elect the Chair of the Trinity Volunteer Opportunities Forum as an ex-officio part-time union officer at the last meeting of the union’s council of this academic year in a few months time.
Both the Ethnic Minorities Officer and Trinity Volunteering Forum Chair will serve as a part-time officer of the union. Part-time union officers sit on Union Forum and, according to the TCDSU Constitution, “formulate union policy on their area of competency to be debated at Council” as well as informing students of “Union policy and activity in their area of competency”. Existing part-time officers include the Citizenship Officer, Gender Equality Officer and LGBT Rights Officer, with the positions elected for the following year at the last meeting of the union’s council of an academic year.
The motion mandating the union’s council to elect an Ethnic Minorities Officer, proposed by TCDSU President, Kieran McNulty, and seconded by TCDSU Education Officer, Dale Whelehan, was debated and amended after council noted “the diversity of the Trinity population and the SU’s commitment to inclusivity and empowerment”.
Adebisi, McNulty and TCDSU Welfare Officer, Aoibhinn Loughlin, spoke on behalf of the motion, with Adebisi emphasising the two key aspects of the role – to give students of ethnic minorities a “true sense of belonging in the university which doesn’t exist on a whole scale” and to encourage students of ethnic minorities to “take a more active role in societies in college”.
Responding to a question on whether the officer would have to be a member of an ethnic minority, Loughlin said that it “would not be something that we would enforce” but that “we would assume that someone running for the role would give a bit of background” about their ethnic identity.
Only one person spoke against the motion, and following a brief discussion the motion passed easily, mandating the new Ethnic Minorities Officer to “chair a sub-committee dedicated to issues that students of an ethnic minority face in Trinity”.
As well as the election of the Trinity Volunteering Forum Chair, council also voted to support the Trinity Volunteering Opportunities Forum, with the motion noting that “the Trinity Volunteering Forum is not currently supported by the SU”.
Trinity Volunteering is a student-led initiative comprised of 10 different groups on campus, including DU Amnesty, Cancer Soc and Trinity VDP, which works to raise awareness of volunteering in Trinity and promotes cooperation between Trinity’s student volunteering activities.
The motion, also proposed by McNulty and seconded by the union’s Communications & Marketing Officer, Glen Byrne, also noted “that the work of the Volunteering Forum is crucial to supporting the extended college community and the city of Dublin”.
