Everything you need to know about what went on at the second meeting of the year of the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Council.
1. Rejecting support for the Cut the Rent movement
Council rejected a motion to take a formal stance in support of Cut the Rent TCD, a student-led campaign working to reduce the rent of student accommodation. The demands of the organisation, as laid out at their second meeting, are a significant reduction in rent and for a new fund to be established by Trinity to aid students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to pay for the cost of accommodation through college. Council members raised concerns about the union offering a blank cheque of support for the campaign group.
2. Motion to support decriminalisation of drugs
Council passed a motion to reaffirm the union’s support for the decriminalisation of drugs. This motion was one of several that renewed union positions that had most recently been endorsed in 2016 and were set to expire. The motion allows the union to campaign on the issue on behalf of Trinity students.
3. Motion on accessible events
Another of the union’s polices that was set to expire and was renewed by Council is a policy which mandates that the Ents Officer hold events in accessible venues where possible and must include a list of accessible clubs in their crossover manual, which is passed on to the next person to hold their position.
4. Motion on accountability for University Times and part-time officers
Two motions passed on accountability measures for the University Times (UT) and the union’s part-time officers. UT, which receives €45,000 in funding from the union, is now mandated to provide three financial reports each year to Union Forum, while part-time officers are to provide a written report no longer than one A4 page to each sitting of Council.
5. Motion on renewing part-time officer positions
Among the other motions set to expire and renewed at tonight’s council were the provisions to have an Environmental Officer, Ethnic Minorities Officer and Access Officer as part-time positions within the union. Council voted to maintain all of these positions.
Additional reporting by Patrick Coyle.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the University Times’ annual €45,000 budget does not include the editor’s salary and accommodation. The article was updated at 9:30pm on October 29 to amend this error.
