The six student representatives from Trinity College Dublin Students Union (TCDSU) eligible to vote in the upcoming election for Trinity’s next provost are set to cast their ballots for Jane Ohlmeyer, following a survey carried out by the union which saw Ohlmeyer receive 46% of the vote.
1,127 students cast their votes in the poll run by TCDSU, with 513 selecting Ohlmeyer as their first preference to lead College for the next decade. Linda Doyle came in second with 452 votes and Linda Hogan in third with 162.
Ohlmeyer is the Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Modern History and has run for the position of provost once before, coming in second to the current provost, Patrick Prendergast, in the 2011 election for the role.
Ohlmeyer is the current chair of the Irish Research Council, a role she has held since 2015. She was president of the Irish Historical Society from 2003 to 2005, and College’s vice-provost for global relations from 2011 to 2014.
Six representatives from TCDSU are eligible to vote in the provost election due to their positions on Board and Council, College’s ruling bodies. They will vote alongside four representatives of the Graduate Students Union (GSU) and among an electorate of approximately 850 people, which is mostly made up of Trinity’s full-time academic staff.
At a meeting of the TCDSU Council in December, a motion was passed to mandate the union’s reps to vote in line with the result of a survey open to all students. The GSU Council passed a similar motion and are holding a separate poll of postgraduate students to determine how their four votes will be cast.
The two-month campaign to become Trinity’s next provost is now nearing its end, with the three candidates set to face one final hustings event next week.
The election will take place on April 10, with the winning candidate due to assume the role of provost in August.
