Leftist students for social progress.
Category: TCDSU (Page 1 of 2)
Our fight is against the corporatized “productive” education, constant evaluation of efficiency above equity coupled with solidarity to the the workers’ struggle and the democratic deficit of the capitalist system.
Together with Trinity GSU, TCDSU and others, we fought for the rights of student and staff. With our combined efforts, we managed to, for example, secure a better re-opening while advocating for hybrid learning, reveal investments in the war-industry, stop the structure on College Park and significantly reduce the amount of in-person exams. Onwards to next year!
This is our “student partnership”. After the recent defeat of the same proposal through the work of TCDSU, GSU and S4C, they kept re-running the vote at Board until they knew opposition would die, or those who dissent would be absent, and their agenda would be pushed through. Disgraceful.
A non-EU international student in Dublin can already be expected to pay around 30,000 to 40,000 euros just for the tuition fee and rented accommodation. That is insane. To have the audacity to further increase this is beyond comprehension. No wonder many leave after they get their degrees.
We know students who are being evicted, who are struggling to pay for groceries, and who are at risk of not getting their degrees due to the tuition fee arrears.
According to an FOI request we filed, the number of students in rent or fee arrears shot up to 250 or so during the pandemic. In the face of this, our College has decided to further push us into precarity. The government’s complicity cannot be understated either, as they transformed our universities into for-profit businesses through decades of underfunding.
As a response, we need to boycott the Student Partnership Agreement, which is nothing but a piece of paper that offers students no protections, but is a great PR booster for College. To this end, we have launched a petition.
We invite the TCDSU to boycott the SPA, not just because of the fees, but because due to the HEA Bill 2022, we will lose the Education Officer and Welfare Officer from the Board in the time of the aftershock of a pandemic. Decisions like this will meet even less opposition. As such, we need decisive action.
We also invite the TCDSU to reconsider their political strategy. They should have organised a pre-emptive protest if they knew the 2.3% fee increase was imminent. However, they didn’t tell the union members, S4C, the GSU (who were ill at the time), or the press.
We need to revisit our political strategy because what we are doing isn’t working.
Sign the petition!
The fee increase is a 2.3% over a 4-year period, with a fee freeze in 2022-2023 but starting in 2023-2024.
Please find the survey results here. They have been cleared of any private information and are being released here for easy access.
Perhaps the most shocking statistic is that 71.4% did not feel part
of the College community in 2020-2021 due to online learning, which suggests
that the student experience was greatly reduced. This is why there
is so much support for fee refunds.
48.1% said that the College is not adequately considering student wellbeing in its decision-making.
44.6% of students said that they are not properly taking care of their own mental wellbeing.
A few comments from students as follows.
“This semester has been ridiculous. We are inundated with lectures posted at different times every week and a workload that never lets up. People are anxious about the pandemic and our futures and we are not being given any kind of lenience or empathy. We are also being assigned 6 hour exams at the end of term. Obviously this year is the first to count towards our degree and requires some level of rigour but we are in an unprecedented situation and I think the college and the School of Maths are being absolutely unreasonable. There is enough pressure on us already – the 6 hour exams should be changed to 24 hour exams.”
| It’s impossible to recreate the college experience from home. This is not the fault of the college staff, who have made huge efforts to adapt to the current restrictions. Regardless, this semester has felt very isolating and lonely, which has been somewhat taxing on the mental health. This is just something we have to manage ourselves, and I don’t know how a college can help this in any way, but perhaps some small level of mitigating circumstances in terms of assessment. |
| We all understand the complexity of the situation and that faculty are in a similar position to us, but its honestly ridiculous to charge the same fee for this years study relative to others, seeing as we get, at best, 1/10th of the exeperience, aid and resources. Charging for gym fees is just disrespectful. The material was clearly made with in person participation/labs, not having altered that comes across as lazy and effortless. I can’t stress enough that we are all sympathetic to the situation we find ourselves in but the respect the college has shown students is laughable. Most professors have put in a great effort to provide us with the material we need especially considering everyone has a different situation to work out of, they have done a great job taking into account that we all have different needs and resources and giving everyone the flexibility needed during these times. The same cannot be said for the universitites efforts or the relevant departments. They have made no effort to bring us back in even though a large part of our course is dependent on labs, rubbing salt in the wound by allowing us to come in one day for a lab only to cancel it again the following week, the means are clearly there but the effort is not. The lack of aid, effort and communication from the university and relevant departments has been nothing short of disrespectful and incredibly dissapointing. I cannot stress enough that charging the same fee for an experience that isn’t even remotely similar has shown the true colours of the university and where their priotise lay, they don’t care for students or the situation we find ourselves in, lining their pockets seems more important, the only positive being that our very kind and caring professors are showing respect to us and the situation we are in. |
The college at this stage is actually a joke. We are not being supported whatsoever, I mean how much are the student nurses going through right now with none of your help. Having paid 3k in fees, I have had at least 1 class a day cancelled or pre recorded with no reply to any questions sent through email. Today for example I had a double class in a subject and this morning got an email that it was cancelled, and no not rescheduled, we got a 6 minute podcast from a different lecturer all together on a lecture with 192 slides?! I’m sorry but how does that make sense?! I have learned nothing this year. And for goodness sake answer your emails!!!!
| Trinity Education Project is not working – this is the first time I and many of my high-performing friends have suffered from burnout. Partially it is due to the pandemic but we believe it is mainly due to TEP. As a fourth year I have seen us go from 1 exam period per year (which didn’t work), to 2 exam periods per year (which was manageable) and now it feels like we have 4 with all of the course work being split into essays due during reading week and at the end of the semester. 4 is insane, and it isn’t working. Normally we would have a break to prepare for exams and then a break after the exams to decompress. Instead my reading week was the busiest week of term – I had five essays due alongside extracurricular involvement. I have seen people drop their extracurriculars this year because of the intense workload which is insane when nobody has a social life at the moment. Then immediately after reading week I had no time to relax and was launched straight back into the everyday intensity of tutorials and response papers. With exams this year happening after Christmas I have essays due from 7th January, it feels like we will have no time to breathe until I graduate in the summer. Especially this year, with the mental toll of the pandemic, it just isn’t manageable. The essay period feels like an exam period in and of itself, and we have four essay periods per year therefore four exams periods. Something needs to change because this is not sustainable – I would recommend looking to other universities – particularly with the idea of decreasing the amount of module in senior years. We should not be doing the same number of modules as we were doing in first year, and most other universities will only give their students in their final year a couple of modules which makes far more sense than the current model especially with the implications of TEP. |
| Online college does NOT work. There is zero atmosphere, buzz or energy associated with it. Even students who are suited to it (of which there are v few) feel blindsided by the college’s lack of compassion and support for students in this time. Paying full fees this year is unacceptable, when many lecturers are taking on substantially less labour, facilities are not in use, Less TAs have been hired. This is daylight robbery. Trinity’s incessant appearances on the news have been disgraceful, with certain leading staff members once again more concerned with the image of the college to the public and to tourists than to actual students. Trinity’s constant dishonesty with regards to allowing students on Campus in small groups is simply unacceptable, as is their refusal to commit to a solid outline for the term ahead, especially when so many students have been forced to travel back to their homes across the world due to covid-19. Online “learning” and this new reliance on technology does NOT work in favour of the student, and the Trinity Education Project is nothing more than a passion project by college board members which practically no one – teaching staff and students alike, finds of benefit. |
Dear TCD BDS, dear SU Citizenship Officer, dear SU Ethnic Minorities Officer, dear SU President,
I am writing as Chairperson of Students 4 Change on behalf of our Students 4 Peace campaign, and all the students in this campaign who are very concerned about Trinity College Dublin’s involvement with the war-industry.
Students 4 Peace brings together students fighting for the pacifist and humanitarian principles of Irish neutrality. One of our goals, namely that of making our College divest from war-related stocks, is also the aim of BDS and TCDSU. As of 2020, our College invests ~2.6 million euros into Arms and Weaponry manufacturers, such as BAE systems, Lockheed Martin and the Boeing Company through its endowment fund. These companies are used, for example, by the Israeli government to uphold their illegal colonial project on the territory of Palestine.
We are writing in essence to inform you of the next steps that Students 4 Change will take to make our College divest from their unethical investments in arms and warfare activities across the world. When we emailed Provost Linda Doyle in August, she was very forthcoming and informed us that she will convene a Committee on ethical investment the following month, with the involvement of a diverse range of representatives from College.
Since then, they have taken steps to divest from the fossil-fuel industry, but no news of the Committee and divestment from the war-industry. In addition to the news that our College has 2.6 million € invested in the war-industry, Students 4 Change has also uncovered that College has close research funding links with Mr. Declan Ganley, a multimillionaire who campaigned for anti-abortion in Ireland, is involved with the war-industry, and has close ties with Trump and the far-right.
I would like to note in particular, that Declan Ganley’s ex-Party, Libertas, allied itself with the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a pro-Israel organization which claimed in 2013 that BDS is a “thinly-disguised effort to coordinate and complement the violent strategy of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim ‘rejectionists’ who have refused to make peace with Israel for over six decades, and to pursue a high-profile campaign composed of anti-Israel big lies to help destroy the Jewish State by any and all means”.
We propose, if our College does not take further steps by the end of Semester 1 towards ethical investment and ethically-sourced research, for you to join Students 4 Change in formally challenging our institution’s status as a ‘University of Sanctuary’. Currently, our College, despite its efforts and certain notable achievements, does not live up to the latter award which is given for work in promoting the integration, inclusion and welfare of refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants.
We are informing the Provosts’ Office of this plan, so that they have ample time to act.
From the attached document, here is a quote from the Irish branch of the ‘University of Sanctuary’ movement. Awards should not be awards for the sake of awards; they should be given for concrete and continued commitments to a set of ideals.
University of Sanctuary Ireland (UoSI) is an initiative to encourage and celebrate the good practice of universities, colleges and institutes welcoming refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants into their university communities and fostering a culture of welcome and inclusion for all those seeking sanctuary.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Best Regards,
László Molnárfi
Students 4 Change
Chairperson
is an alliance of Marxist and Anarchist students from Trinity College Dublin focused on the housing crisis in relation to student accommodation, Irish neutrality, SU reform and other matters of student politics. Go on our website students4change.eu, follow us on social media or email us at [email protected]!
And here is our email to Provost Linda Doyle.
Dear Provost Linda Doyle,
I am writing again as Chairperson of Students 4 Change to seek your official commitment and update on the steps taken towards policies on ethical investment and ethically-sourced research at Trinity College Dublin, including cutting all ties with Israel, Declan Ganley and divesting completely from the war-industry. We would like to thank you for your work on fulfilling our College’s pledge to divest from the fossil-fuel industry, but we believe there is more work to do on this front.
To reiterate again:
- Students 4 Change has uncovered that College has close research funding links with Mr. Declan Ganley, a multimillionaire who campaigned for anti-abortion in Ireland, is involved with the war-industry, and has close ties with Trump and the far-right.
- As of 2020, our College invests ~2.6 million euros into Arms and Weaponry manufacturers, such as BAE systems, Lockheed Martin and the Boeing Company through its endowment fund. These companies are used, for example, by the Israeli government to uphold their illegal colonial project on the territory of Palestine.
- We would also like to note in particular, that Declan Ganley’s ex-Party, Libertas, allied itself with the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a pro-Israel organization which claimed in 2013 that BDS is a “thinly-disguised effort to coordinate and complement the violent strategy of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim ‘rejectionists’ who have refused to make peace with Israel for over six decades, and to pursue a high-profile campaign composed of anti-Israel big lies to help destroy the Jewish State by any and all means”.
After discussing with members of Students4Change, we propose that if our College does not take further steps by the end of Semester 1 towards ethical investment and ethically-sourced research and provide an official commitment, decrying its links with Israel, the war-industry and Declan Ganley, that we will challenge our institution’s status as a ‘University of Sanctuary’. Currently, our College, despite its efforts and certain notable achievements, does not live up to the latter award which is given for work in promoting the integration, inclusion and welfare of refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants. Every day, lives are lost, families are destroyed and oppression continues to reign because of the military-war industry – we must actively fight against it, regardless of profits or the prestige of our College.
The prestige of our College should lay not in its research funding or links with business donors, but in its eternal commitment to virtues such as social reform, democracy, independent research and peace – most of these virtues are listed on our College’s mission statement as well.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Best Regards,
László Molnárfi
Students 4 Change
Chairperson
is an alliance of Marxist and Anarchist students from Trinity College Dublin focused on the housing crisis in relation to student accommodation, Irish neutrality, SU reform and other matters of student politics. Go on our website students4change.eu, follow us on social media or email us at [email protected]!
- Apologize to students for the unclear and late communication concerning the re-opening plan, which conveyed a lack of care for students’ needs and a preoccupation with increased revenues.
- Provide more in-person lectures through using TCD’s unused real estate properties to hold classes provided the Covid-19 regulations allow, or alternatively, refund students for the loss of their in-person tuition and the educational experience that they paid for in 2021-2022, per module. Return or Refund!
- All lectures below 150 should be in-person. All tutorials should be in person.
- Do the best to ensure that timetables do not have in-person and online classes mixed on the same day.
- Work together with the TCD Students’ Union, Graduate Students’ Union, IFUT and lecturers to find a solution for handing over copyright of recorded lectures to lecturers, so as to enact a democratically-approved policy of courses being recorded for inclusivity, mental health reasons and for students with extenuating circumstances who otherwise can’t come back on-campus.
- This should be a personal choice, especially with the unavailability of accommodation and many students commuting, and should require no justification. This will also reduce stress for on-campus facilities.
- Students living in Trinity-owned accommodation should be allowed to have overnight guests and host guests as per government policy.
- Library capacity to operate at close to full capacity and students shouldn’t have to book in, the same for sports clubs and societies. They should also follow their pre-covid opening and closing hours, and time allowed to spend in the library should not be limited.
- Free repeats for those who failed last year due to the difficulties associated with Covid-19.
- Refund of the student contribution fee from last year for undergraduate and postgraduate students.
- Increase mental health spending to fix 40+ days wait times at the counselling services.
- As a compensation for the disregard of students during the pandemic, TCD should give us access to ALL recorded lectures and materials from our respective Schools, so as to make up for the loss of our education (due to its decline in quality due to online learning) with access and opportunity for more education.
This list of demands was written collectively by Students 4 Change, TCDRU, TCD F2F and the feedback of students. It also incorporates the demands of TCDSU as listed in their press release on the 14th of September and that of the postgraduate demands as outlined in the GSU press release on the 19th of September.
László Molnárfi
Thank you to Jody Druce from University Times for taking up the issue of broken promises made by Trinity College Dublin re. in-person lectures, and also to Jack Kennedy from Trinity News. Here are a few more thoughts to expand on our Chair’s quote in the upcoming UT article and a few general observations on how we should approach the core issues facing us students and wider society, illustrated by the example of Trinity’s botched re-opening plan.
Many students are overall disappointed with the low number of in-person lectures, and feel that the University did not communicate clearly and early enough the re-opening plans for the 2021-2022 scholastic year. As of the 12th of September 2021, already 130 signed our petition asking for partial refunds or some sort of compensation for those affected by the continued delivery of learning material solely online for bigger courses. This is exacerbated by the fact that Trinity’s waiting times for counselling services average 40 days, meaning that many stuck at home are left to fend for themselves. These reports of lectures with below 50 people being online-only events come as another blow to students, especially since we were promised the opposite. It is not an administrative error but a conscious policy choice which was changed without much notice, and it is also likely that the seeming ineptitude and the general lack of proper communication originates from Trinity’s efforts to safeguard its profits, as otherwise a sizable number of students would have deferred the year in light of the relative lack of in-person teaching. This issue is representative of a larger problem with how Trinity College Dublin views the provision of education and students – as sources of profit – which in turn is symptomatic of decades of commercialization of third-level institutions against the backdrop of successive governments failing to properly fund our universities. The conception of third-level education being for-profit institutions originates in the ruling mode of production, capitalism, and its intensified state, neoliberal policies.
Note that the profit motive is also the reason for the lack of lecture recording. This opposition comes from trade unions. If lectures are recorded and the copyright goes to Trinity (as it would currently do for certain remediable legal reasons), lecturers fear being let go by the University and their own recordings being used to teach instead, which is cheaper – absolutely dystopian. It is important to take away from this that in-person lectures and recorded lectures (for inclusivity reasons) are not mutually exclusive, but are presented to be contradictory due to the fragmented nature of a society lacking class consciousness, wherein issues are atomized so that their true solution is concealed from the masses. This supposed contradiction makes it difficult to advocate for a solution. The only way to unite the struggle is to realize that the ills associated stem from the profit motive, and the conclusion then can only be to overthrow the profit motive and dissolve the contradiction – as “man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind” (Marx).
This might seem reductionist, but it is a consequence of the momentum of history, not about the individual people in Trinity (or in any other institution) who want to or say they want to provide good education. It is not about the Provost or Management, but about the ruling mode of production which predetermines the victory of capital over individual’s intentions however good they may be in every societal institution. While there are individual variations in the extent of its intensification (spurred on by those in power), the yoke of capital is equally reactionary everywhere and impossible to resist by focusing our efforts *solely* locally. The only way to challenge the system is to challenge capitalism itself, rather than focusing only on fragmented and atomized single-issues and thinking that they are remediable by managerial means, i.e. we need to see the bigger picture. rather than focusing all our energy on this or that individual or policy.
Consequentially, it must also be understood that the way forward is to force the hands of institutions and of the ruling classes – after having exhausted all other means – through direct action (e.g. sit-ins, strikes, occupations, etc.). We need to make some noise and organize, and all organizations need to take part in this united front. For example, for the TCD Students’ Union, this would be an opportunity to provide support for students on the ground organizing, and a chance to prove that the union is not just a passive service provider but an active union which protects its members’ interests. A chance to overthrow the existing cultural and structural DNA of the union… at the moment, we and many other students are disappointed that the union, while negotiating at meetings, is not standing up more strongly for students affected by this issue.
With this in mind, let’s continue the struggle for our Universities and for a better society! We call upon Trinity College Dublin to:
- Apologize to students for the unclear and late communication concerning the re-opening plan, which conveyed a lack of care for students’ needs and a preoccupation with profit.
- Provide more in-person lectures through using TCD’s unused/underused real estate properties to hold classes provided the Covid-19 regulations allow, or alternatively, refund or otherwise compensate students for the loss of their in-person tuition and the educational experience that they paid for.
- Work together with the TCD Students’ Union, trade unions like IFUT and lecturers in addition to lawyers to find a solution for handing over copyright of recorded lectures to lecturers, so as to enact a democratically-approved policy of courses being recorded for inclusivity reasons.
- Increase mental health spending to fix 40+ days wait times at the counselling services instead of relying on the TCD Students’ Union as an arm of the College to make up for the lacking budget.
Hi friends,
The philosophical aspects of Marxism are often overshadowed by its social, political and economic aspects. However, I’ve recently discovered the joys of dialectical reasoning and I would like to share an example of how we can use it in everyday politics, such as in deciding student union policy.
The below is an excerpt from an email conversation I had which demonstrates dialectics.
http://www.universitytimes.ie/2021/04/tcdsu-to-support-full-refund-of-student-contribution-fee/My question was whether the Sabbatical team requested a refund at the TCD Finance Committee or in any way followed up on this motion? Motion is titled “Full Refund of Student Contribution Fee” I believe.
If we did, and our union’s request got rejected, it would still be a good idea to share that on social media for transparency reasons. To let the students know that the TCDSU did try… also especially because this is one of the most important demands by students this year. Not to mention that by sharing updates such as this – that our demands were ignored or rejected, for example – there would be a certain level of outrage and therefore we might increase engagement from students as this is a very pressing issue. Students have a right to know what the union did on their behalf and a right to be informed of the College’s decisions at every step.
The latter might seem counterintuitive, as some would say it would discredit and weaken the TCDSU due to people being angry at the TCDSU for failing to deliver on its promises. However, I think such anger would be more directed towards the College (or the Government), especially if TCDSU exhausts all possible ways of working with the system in its attempts to fulfill the mandate, and thus it would radicalize students in the process and increase “class consciousness”. In fact, I believe this is a prime example of applying dialectical materialism as dialectical reasoning – the form of the message that is shared is at odds with the content of the message. I.e. whereas the expression is one of failure (“form”), its potentialities (“content”) is one of increasing the respectability of the union by being transparent and radicalizing students due to the inaction/”greed” of College (or Government).László molnárfi
After all, It seems to me the motion itself (apart from its symbolism), being a maximum or transitional demand destined to not be realized via simply asking College, was designed this way. Therefore, its ultimate aim is to show the limits of the current system and the limits of the way the union interacts with the University decision-making structure, in the end showing the necessity for radical and mass action as opposed to the more moderate union we have now. In short, a way to shake ourselves, students, out of our own apathy.
László Molnárfi
Recently, the USI held a Town Hall event with students and representatives of Sinn Fein, People Before Profit, Labour and Fianna Fail. The Greens and Fianna Gail did not show. The #EducationForAll campaign demands an end to tuition fees, publicly-funded student accommodation coupled with a tenant’s bill of rights and better working conditions for academic staff.
At this Town Hall, many students and student representatives spoke about the myriad of ways the Government has failed us. This included personal stories about how the government’s lacking Covid-19 response affected students’ lives, international students paying exorbitant fees and being told they need to be on campus for this year (then not getting any refunds), students not being able to access SUSI – and even if they do, the payments barely covering the high cost of living and fees, etc.. The USI will have a recording of the event up.
As for me, I questioned Fianna Fail’s Malcolm Bryne on his support of the bill. Copied below is my speech which roughly matches what I said at the meeting.
“I am here to speak in favor of the The Residential Tenancies (Student Rents and Other Protections) (Covid-19) Act 2021 bill. I want to thank the USI, Sinn Fein, PBP and Labour for their work in bringing this forward. My contribution is targeted to Fianna Fail, as the representative present didn’t really say anything in relation to the bill.
My experience with student accommodation is as follows. As someone involved in the Trinity College Dublin Student Union (TCDSU) as a class representative, if there is one issue that is facing all students this year it is accommodation. Everyone has been complaining about accommodation. We are being exploited by Big Money multinational companies such as Hines and GSA – the latter, for example, being registered in the Cayman Islands. This has further worsened the housing crisis, and not to mention the financial backing of foreign vulture funds. The accommodation I am at, for example, has successfully lobbied the Irish government against fire safety regulations! Coming from an international background as a first-year student, I pay up to 5000 euros per semester for student accommodation which I am practically forced into, due to not knowing how to navigate the local rental market. On my very first day in Dublin, I met a homeless student… the very people that my 5000 euros per semester should go towards in support, if these big multinationals actually paid taxes. Instead, they use offshore companies in tax-haven Luxembourg and the likes to funnel money and avoid taxes. The situation is entirely unacceptable.
I believe that this bill represents a step forward.
However, seeing that Fianna Fáil was accused of “absolute hypocrisy” after eight councillors in party leader Micheál Martin’s constituency voted against social housing in January 2020 – this was the Lyonshall development – makes me worried that FF represent the interests of landlords and not of the students and people.
So, Will Fianna Fail come out in support of the bill? I urge government parties to support this much needed bill. Thank you.”
Many more students spoke of being ‘cash cows’ too.
In his short reply at the end, I perceived smokescreening, deflection and avoidance of answering the question. This was aptly picked up on by Deputy President of the TU Dublin Students’ Union Luke Daly, who Tweeted about how Malcolm Byrne “proceeded to scold people for ‘Anti-FF’ comments in his closing speech.”
“Malcolm, please don’t gaslight students. Fianna Fail along with FG have been one of the biggest offenders of anti-student rhetoric. It’s downright disrespectful to dismiss students’ well-deserved rage and scold them for dismissing your party.
FF need to adapt their programmes, policies and lead by example. Listen to these contributions. Students are living in a nightmare and your party has direct power to end that right now,” he commented in the Zoom chat.
See how you can help the #EducationForAll campaign at the USI’s website!
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