Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) have failed to pass a referendum on the Sports Centre Levy.
68% of the 790 voters opposed the amendment to “Long Term Policy (LTP) 4: Sports Centre Levy”, meaning it will not be changed.
TCDSU will not be mandated to oppose the Annual Sports Centre Charge while booking, equipment and class fees remain in the Sports Centre.
The proposed amendment to the LTP required a 60% majority vote in order to pass.
Voting was originally to begin on January 30 at 9am, but was rescheduled to February 1 at 5pm. Voting closed on February 3 at 5pm.
Trinity Sports Union (TSU) urged students to vote no in the referendum “to safeguard student sport at Trinity”. Liam Bean, Chairperson of TSU argued that the proposed changes “will inevitably result in less access and capacity for student sport, higher charges to student sport clubs and an increase of commercial activity”.
The proposer of the referendum, PhD student Lórien MacEnulty, described TSU’s opposition as “unsubstantiated speculation”.
“Students currently pay from the total contribution charge a sum of €120 called the Sports Development Charge (SDC), which contributes massively to Trinity Sport’s income. The problem is that Trinity Sport is still immensely underfunded, and increasingly, students and sports clubs find themselves shouldering its financial strains, strains that College itself refuses to ease despite its financial capacity to do so.”
