The Trinity branch of the European Law Students’ Association (ELSA), a former Trinity society, has offered to refund students their €2 membership fee, following its loss of society status last year.
In an email to all students who signed up to be members, Lucy O’Connell, the Finance Officer of the Central Societies Committee (CSC), said that the membership fee could be collected from the CSC office.
The email offered students the option to donate the €2 to the Trinity Vincent de Paul society rather than reclaiming the fee.
The membership fees, currently held by the CSC, were mostly collected during Freshers’ Week of last year by the society, but were handed over to the CSC once ELSA’s society status was removed.
The society lost its recognition from Central Societies Committee (CSC) last year after its accounts from 2016/17 and 2017/18 were deemed unsatisfactory. The loss of recognition incurred a loss of funding for the society.
The derecognition followed an incident in which membership money was not lodged to the society’s official bank account.
ELSA describes its goals as the promotion of legal education and helping law students to find internships.
In an interview with Trinity News the current committee were keen to assure future members that they were working to regain CSC recognition, and are currently looking to ensure a similar problem does not happen again.
Sinead Flynn, a Senior Sophister Law Student and the current General Secretary for ELSA Ireland described the situation as “incredibly unfortunate and frustrating”. She said they “will be trying again next year,” and was keen to draw reference to the fact that, even without CSC recognition, “students may still participate in these great endeavours and opportunities” offered by ELSA.
The CSC is the governing body which oversees student societies and is one of College’s five capitated bodies, alongside Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU), the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU), Trinity Publications, and Dublin University Central Athletic Club.
