Postgrads given just two hours’ notice to register for TCDSU sabbatical elections

The GSU circulated the registration link at 9:45am on the day registration was to close at noon

Postgraduate students were given just over two hours notice to register for Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) sabbatical elections this year.

The Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) notified its members of the need to register for the elections at 9:45am on Tuesday March 1. The deadline to register was at 12pm the same day.

TCDSU notified undergraduate students of the need to register several times over the days and weeks leading up to the election and asked the GSU to notify postgraduates too, but it did not do so until the day of the deadline.

All postgraduate students are members of both TCDSU and the GSU. TCDSU has no method of emailing postgraduates directly, and it has previously been the responsibility of the GSU to forward TCDSU communications on to postgraduate students.

The memorandum of understanding between the two unions which gave the GSU a formal obligation to forward communications lapsed in 2019 and has not been renewed. This has led to postgraduates not receiving information about their right to vote in TCDSU elections this year, despite requests from TCDSU that the GSU pass on that information.

The GSU’s funding from College has been suspended for seven months now, after its leadership failed to comply with an internal investigation into its conduct last summer.

The GSU president and vice-president did not respond to a request for comment.

Jack Kennedy

Jack Kennedy is the Editor-in-chief of the 68th edition of Trinity News. He is a Computer & Electronic Engineering graduate, and a former Assistant Editor, Online Editor, and Deputy Online Editor.