Few students know or care about Trinity’s Capitation Committee. That seems reasonable, given its fairly dry remit – to distribute the money for student services raised through the registration fee between the five organisations which promote and manage student activities on campus – sports, publications, societies and the two unions. In the absence of a big change in one organisation’s favour, the committee’s job should be fairly uncontroversial.
Last term, however, the Senior Dean, who chairs the committee, proposed a new “Terms of Reference” document, to redefine its purpose. Included in this document is an article which proposes that the Senior Dean should be able to “seize” copies of any publication in Trinity which he feels could harm the college.
The Senior Dean claims that this measure is necessary to ensure that the college is not found legally liable for the content of Trinity’s publications. A reasonable ambition, I have no doubt, but as this college’s most famous literary alumnus, Oscar Wilde, said: “It is always with the best of intentions that the worst work is done.” All of Trinity’s major publications are voluntary members of the Press Council of Ireland, the same independent body which arbitrates disputes on the content of all newspapers in this country. Its staff is comprised of legal professionals who excel in media law. The Senior Dean’s field of expertise is Botany.
Quite apart from the Senior Dean’s lack of expertise, his office is likely to feature in Trinity newspapers for years to come, often with a critical tone. Say this article bordered on defamation (I’ve checked, it doesn’t). Can we trust the Senior Dean to cast a fair eye over it? I’m not impugning the Senior Dean’s motives, but he won’t be a disinterested party in many of the cases that would cross his desk in his new role.
Passing this measure will take the responsibility of legal adjudication on the content of newspapers from a dedicated, external, independent body and give it to an untrained individual member of staff in the organization on which these newspapers report. Imagine you found yourself in court accused of stealing from a shop. Who would you want banging the gavel, a judge or the shopkeeper?
This measure will permanently damage the relative freedom of communication that students have enjoyed for years. Trinity’s student media allow us to talk about the factors that affect our education, our living conditions and our social lives. They give us a platform from which to protest when college impinges on our rights. The average student has no say in the vast majority of important decisions made in college today. I’m willing to wager that a large proportion of the people who read this article didn’t know about this issue, which proves my point. A free and independently audited press makes for a happy and fair community where, if oppression is going to happen, at least the oppressed will have a chance to argue their case.
Fortunately students do have a say in this measure. If every student representative on the
Capitation Committee opposes the document, it will not pass. Unfortunately, the structure and purpose of the Capitation Committee usually pits these representatives against each other over struggles for funding, and they’re not used to working together in the interests of the student body as a whole.
That’s why I’m asking you, the reader, to do something about this. If you’re a member of a sports club, let your DUCAC representative know that you won’t stand for censorship. Society Treasurers will have an opportunity to vote on this issue directly at the CSC TGM on the 26th of this month, so let yours know where you stand. Email your union with your views: [email protected] for undergrads, [email protected] for postgrads. As Treasurer of Trinity Publications, the other organization with a say, I will be using my vote and my voice to oppose this measure to the last.
