A petition has been launched by five PhD students to allow Dr Sarah Alyn-Stacey to run for election as next provost of Trinity.
At the time of publishing, the petition has garnered 190 signatures.
The petition was launched to the Election Steering Committee, the Body Corporate and the electorate PhD students. Alexandra Corey, Felix Frank, Louise Kari-Méreau, Ryan Alberto Ó Giobúin and Stefanie Sprong are spread across three different schools in College.
In the description of the petition the students took issue with the disclusion of Dr Alyn-Stacey, who they say “clearly meets the statutory requirements” for running. They believe that “the highly-educated academic electorate are best qualified to select whom they desire to be their next Provost from the full list of candidates”.
“We deem the decision to bar a highly-qualified and renowned candidate, nominated by her fellow academics, from contesting a democratic election to be, by its very nature, undemocratic.”
The decision was taken to prevent Professor Alyn-Stacey from running on the ground that there was a lack of “evidence of capacity for management and administration such as is required in an educational and equivalent institution” and a lack of “evidence of leadership skills and of the ability to represent the College externally”.
The writers of the petition contest this view by highlighting Dr Alyn-Stacey’s work as “founder and director of the Trinity Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, member of the Académie de Savoie” and as “an elected representative on both the University Council and Board”.
The three candidates running in the provost race were announced last Friday as Professors Jane Ohlmeyer, Linda Doyle and Linda Hogan. The announcement was followed by the kick-off meeting on Monday, February 8.
The candidates will campaign until April 7 with voting taking place on April 10.
