Trinity College Dublin Students Union (TCDSU) is to lobby for the publication of minutes from College decision-making bodies.
A motion was passed at Council this evening mandating TCDSU to lobby for increased College transparency. This also includes lobbying for better availability of annex documents online for College meetings.
Under this motion the sabbatical officers are also mandated to lobby for the public availability of the agenda and annex documents before College meetings take place.
The motion was proposed by SF PPES Class Rep László Molnárfi and seconded by TCDSU President Leah Keogh.
During the meeting, both Molnárfi and Keogh spoke in favour of the motion, with Keogh describing it as a “really good first step” in trying to make College’s decision-making more transparent to students.
Speaking to Trinity News before the meeting, Molnárfi said: “Over the years, College’s governance has become bureaucratic, concealing the autocratic nature of decision-making at its core.”
He believes that “Through decades of corporatization, democratic structures have been eroded, and a key part of this is the obfuscation of how decisions are being made” and “there is no accountability within the College, and many minutes and annex documents are missing from the website”.
“We, as a community, have a right to know who is deciding on our behalf and why, and in fact, have a right to have our say in how things are being run.”
“This lack of transparency, which is just one issue in a web of a failing governance system, is a spit in our faces as it suggests that somehow, the College community is separate from and should have no say in decisions at a College-level” he continued.
He believes this lack of transparency is “not conducive to change and progress, which is what our university and others direly need”.
He also noted that “the publication of such documents is also a way to hold the union accountable, as the lack of minutes means that we cannot always know what sabbatical officers are saying in meetings on our behalf”.
He believes that “with full access to information, we can challenge College more”.
