Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) is to hold town-hall style open fora at least every three weeks next year, to address engagement problems which have been discussed several times at council meetings recently.
A motion passed at an extraordinary council meeting this evening mandates the TCDSU education officer to host the fora, as well as provide minutes and a report of the fora to council at least once a month.
The motion was proposed by TCDSU Education Officer Megan O’Connor and was seconded by Deputy STEM Convenor and Education Officer-Elect Bev Genockey.
O’Connor said that “we gained an awful lot” from holding such fora, and that they “better informed the work we were doing”.
The motion stated: “Council notes the [Students’] Union can sometimes be inaccessible to students not directly involved and existing fora are not conducive to free flowing discussion where students can raise concerns.”
“Council acknowledges the importance of fostering a welcome environment for students and the promotion of participation in the SU.”
Council is holding an extraordinary meeting this evening, after it lost quorum at its scheduled meeting on Tuesday.
The meeting was adjourned after it became apparent that there were not enough members of council present to constitute a quorum.
The request for a quorum call followed a challenge by first-year PPES class rep László Molnárfi to Chair of Council Yannick Gloster over the conduct of a vote to adopt a long-term policy on College’s investments related to weapons and arms manufacturers.
A procedural motion was brought forward to challenge Gloster’s ruling that the vote had been correctly run.
The number of people present to meet quorum for council is 120 members.
As the vote was taking place, Genockey asked how many people had voted for and against the long-term policy motion, and how many abstained.
Gloster said that 29 out of 128 people present on the call had abstained.
Genockey said that people may have logged onto Zoom for “attendance purposes” and didn’t intend on abstaining. Gloster said that there was no way to know whether members of council who were present in the call were still at their computers.
Walsh then called for a poll to see if council had lost quorum. After the vote was finished, Gloster announced that council had indeed lost quorum and all existing motions would be pushed forward until the next meeting.
