The Electoral Commission of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) is to carry out a student-wide vote to determine students’ preferred candidate in the upcoming Provost elections.
TCDSU council voted in favour of a motion this evening that will see the Electoral Commission conduct a vote which will determine which candidate will receive the votes held by TCDSU representatives on University Council and College Board.
The motion was proposed by Dylan Krug, a third-year class representative for environmental sciences, and was seconded by TCDSU Deputy STEM Convener Bev Genockey. Some 86 per cent of attendees voted in favour of the motion.
Speaking in favour of the motion, Krug said it was important that student representatives “vote in line with the majority”.
“Bloc voting is an excellent way to get the candidates to care about our issues and to pay attention to what concerns students”, he said.
The election will affect “Trinity students for the next ten years”, he added, and it was important that the next Provost “represents students’ needs”.
Genockey added that she and Krug brought the motion to Council “in the interest of transparency”, so that all students can be involved “rather than just class reps or people who knew this was going to run anyway”.
TCDSU Education Officer Megan O’Connor said that the vote would be a single-transferable vote, so “if the person we are voting for is knocked out of the race we would then be voting for the person [who is] second-most popular”.
Applications for the position of Provost closed last Friday, and interviews for the position will take place over the course of December and January by the Interview Committee, which has been appointed by the College Board.
Candidates who are successful in the interview stage will then campaign from February 5th to April 10th, with elections taking place on April 10th. The elected candidate’s name will then be brought to Board for approval. A small proportion of the electors are student representatives.
The brief of the job is vast: a 10-year term of office at the helm of Ireland’s most prestigious university, leading its academic, administrative and financial affairs.
