TCDSU protests “100%” of unfulfilled LENS reports from department of history

Head of the School of History Prof. Joseph Clarke brands protests “inappropriate” and “misplaced.”

Today, Tuesday February 4, Trinity College Dublin Student’s Union (TCDSU) have staged a protest towards College’s department of history.

In a video posted to TCDSU’s instagram account, students can be seen putting a sign reading: “0% of LENS reports Fulfilled” and “Fix this Linda” on the door of an office in the history department, with various other signs stuck to windows of the office.

The action comes into response to a report carried out by TCDSU last year seeking student feedback on the efficiency of LENS (Learning Education Need Summary) reports, which saw 321 responses fro undergraduate, postgraduate, and ‘unspecified’ students.

37 of the 321 responses came from students in the School of Histories and Humanities

TCDSU have stated that 100% of responses from the students of the school of history claim that there LENS reports were not fully met.

Speaking to Trinity News on behalf of the Student’s Union, President Jenny Maguire said: “If the college remains inaccessible, we will make it inaccessible for the college.”

“Today, we taped up the door of the school of history and covered it in posters that displayed our results of the lens report survey last year – that 100% of the students in the school of history do not get their reasonable accommodations met.”

“When we put up posters last semester about lens reports on lecture doors, they were all removed,” Maguire continued. “This issue is constantly raised to us – and so we will make it unavoidable until our demands our met.”

However, an alternative perspective was offered by School of History head Prof. Joseph Clarke.

Speaking to Trinity News, Prof. Clarke noted that “staff in the history departmental office have no access to, or role in, processing students’ LENS reports.”

“For data protection reasons, those reports are only available to the Disability Sergice, and to each student’s individual module co-ordinators.”

“History’s policy is to facilitate every accommodation that [the Disability Service] recommends,” Clarke continued.

“As professional staff in the history department office have no access to LENS reports, it was entirely inappropriate to target professional staff’s working space in this very unpleasant manner,” Clarke said, labelling the act as “a form of harassment”, and “very distressing” for those in the departmental office.

TCDSU has promised further action on the matter.

College have been contacted for comment in relation to the protest.

Emily Sheehan

Emily Sheehan is a third year Law and History student, and currently serves as News Analysis Co-Editor. She has previously acted as Trinity News’ Assistant News Editor and as a contributing writer.