The TCDSU/ALMCT President on the future, and failings, of our college.

Don’t allow your eyes to glare over. Give a shit. These are the words I wish to scream in almost every meeting with senior management I have had in my six months as our SU President. “Trinity time”, as it’s often referred to, is the term used to describe just how slow things happen within the university. The length of time it takes for decisions to be made or incremental change to be enacted within College  is not only frustrating, but widely accepted by management. The institution will, “of course”, always protect the institution. It is however, in the creation of Trinity time – a bureaucratic, inhumane and conservative concept – that allows it to do so. Trinity upholds this conservatism as an inevitable part of college life. It underlines the ideology behind all that occurs on our campuses, an ideology built to forfeit responsibility to support you. Whether it’s Gaeilge, your disability, or just needing to heat up a meal, it is the institution that will always come first – but we can and must change it.

With a university built as an outpost to civilise, colonise and demonise Irishness and the Irish people, promoting the language and integrating it into the heart of how this college runs this year has been…interesting! Trinity College once owned *2% of Ireland*, and collected rent right at least until the end of the twentieth century. It still sings the praises of the colonisers of Ireland at ceremonies, and a large reason it was able to be so lavish and grand was because it was paid for with money from its tenants across Ireland. Why do I bring this up? Because its role in the destruction of the Irish language and culture is not something in the past – it is our shared present. As TCDSU/AMLCT has worked to highlight this academic year, Trinity is in “direct breach” of Irish language legislation. When we beg, vandalise and organise for our language, we are met with the same hesitation and fear that it might rock the boat too much (despite that boat being built on colonial oppression). And yet, the boat is protected.

The Rubrics, standing at over 300 years old, most recently underwent renovations from 2021-2024 . It is, after all, Ireland’s oldest purpose-built residential building. It is, also, still inaccessible. Costing over €12 million, and housing a whopping 9 students and made unavailable to PhD’s, it served as a fantastic opportunity to spend millions of euros on a capital project that will serve very few staff and students and ultimately just boost tourism and Trinity’s global reputation. This privilege is not unique to The Rubrics. The Trinity East project (a redevelopment of the campus at Grand Canal Dock) was originally planned to cost close to a billion euro, yet does not have a single space planned for students and researchers to heat up a meal. I was reassured by one senior member of college that there is “a courtyard”, however. These builds exist not for you, but for the institution to show off to investors and international corporations. We are reassured that this money comes back to staff and students… looking forward to that.

Heralded in any article about these builds is their sustainability practices. Did you know the Rubrics is 100% heated by ground-sourced heat pumps? Or that Trinity East will “do great things in a way that responds to climate change and biodiversity loss” according to the Provost? Perhaps more relevant environmental information is that  TCD has an agreement to only serve Coca-Cola on campus, the largest polluter in the world. Or that TCD has a greenwashing partnership with Ryanair. Every year Trinity runs Green Week, highlights of which usually include some green ribbons on the exam hall and a self-masturbatory award ceremony. Much like DEI initiatives on campus, sustainable activities only exist to try and distract the harmful and environmentally horrific decisions made by the university. My transness and the destruction of this planet only matter when they  may be used as a publicity stunt. When it comes to the hard decisions, like defying the conversion policies of the National Gender Service, or rightly telling Ryanair to fuck off, Trinity hides behind time and bureaucracy, arís agus arís.

So what do we do? The nature of an institution as large as Trinity means that some delays are to be expected. Trinity does not operate in isolation from the rest of the country, as much as it often thinks that it does. It, too, must deal with the slog of government and the council and dealing with its thousands of stakeholders. However, this good faith allowance of time is taken advantage of. Why wouldn’t it be? There is no true means to hold university management to account. There can be slaps on wrists, but nothing to stop the wrongful wielding of power. Trinity belongs to us all. No one alive today was a part of its creation, we have all inherited it by  living in and around this city. We should (and can) have a say in how it is run,  making sure it is run for us and not for corporate interest.

“But Jenny”, I hear you call out. “You guys have been sooo class and sexy this year and achieved so much. A student centre? Free period products? Master fee freezes…” you then continue listing our accomplishments for 45 more minutes. I blush. It is these achievements that make my point even more pertinent. It is only because of the display of reckoning upon the university following its decision to fine the Union €215,000 and single out individuals (hey x) that the university has been, admittedly, lovely to work with for the most part. The provost and I dabble in queening out, in fact. We, the people of Dublin and beyond, managed to achieve something Trinity is built to withstand: accountability from its so-called college community. 

Students’ Unions do not have the power of strike action, and so it is in our community building and grassroots organising that accountability and wins can be attained. We have achieved this in actions with health science students, and will continue to agitate for greater goals or, in other words, for accountability. Unions within this university will suffer from their inherently shortsighted nature if they do not come together to demand a greater democratisation of the university, for the people who live, work and visit it. Every decision made is a political one that impacts the lives within this community, and yet you have little/no say in it. To benefit the institution must be to benefit the people within it, first and foremost. The people who know best about what benefits the people are the people themselves – they must be given greater opportunities to do so.