It is very easy for the Trinity campus to come across as a castle in the middle of Dublin 2. Indeed, it is easy to slip into the mentality that once you pass the gates of the Nassau Street entrance, the surrounding walls and battlements have transported you into a different world. You now are in the land of higher education, safe from the siege of the sometimes unpleasant surroundings of the real world.
“For many years, the college has lacked a formal arm for involvement with the wider community”
However, this siege mentality of the campus in relation to its wider environment adds a pernicious layer to the usual urban unease. Insulated from the stark realities of city life, a sense of complacency and detachment can often find its way into the highest echelons of Trinity’s administration. For many years, the college has lacked a formal arm for involvement with the wider community. Only now, under the tutelage of Provost Linda Doyle, are positive steps being taken in Trinity’s civic engagement.
Dr. Jo-Hanna Ivers is the Associate Dean of Civic Engagement and Social Innovation at Trinity College. She is the first ever appointee to the role after its creation just two and a half years ago. Dr. Ivers oversees the active involvement of the college and all of its constituents in the wider community in order to address prevalent social issues and promote change accordingly.
“We started very much on the backfoot,” she stated, referring to the creation of a civic engagement wing at Trinity. Making up for lost time was a recurrent topic. Certainly, Trinity has been much slower off the mark than its counterparts when it comes to this issue; for example, University College Dublin established “UCD in the Community”, a civic engagement initiative, in 2016.
This delayed start has served as a motivational tool for those within the department. Rising to the challenge, they have produced a comprehensive action plan that finally formalises the process of civic engagement within Trinity. Focus is afforded to ongoing involvement with the wider community by the college, collaborating to resolve wider social problems.
Dr. Ivers emphasised the need for a strategic plan. Before becoming formally recognised by the college, she stated that practices of civic engagement within Trinity were only “happening in pockets and haphazard.” Essentially, there were many people dedicated to the greater good, but they lacked the collective organisation and formal administrative support to extract the maximum potential from their endeavours.
“There is always the sense that both Trinity and the government could invest more in the practice of civic engagement”
There is always the sense that both Trinity and the government could invest more in the practice of civic engagement. It lacks the legal immediacy of initiatives relating to Diversity, Equality and Inclusion as well as sustainability measures, though it could arguably be instrumental in contributing to both initiatives if implemented.
Consequently, Dr. Ivers believes that civic engagement should be held in a similar regard rather than kicked to the curb due to its lack of legal associations. “Civic engagement should not just be seen as a bell and a bow,” she said: in essence, it should be taken as seriously as other initiatives and not seen as a secondary thought.
She went on to add that instituting change in society is about “changing hearts and minds”, something that she believes to be impossible without the practice of civic engagement.
For her, addressing the community is the grease that gets the wheel spinning. It is impossible to address societal issues without direct dialogue and engagement. Social initiatives may fall flat without this intrinsic characteristic.
Dr. Ivers believes that academic institutions are in a privileged position when it comes to involvement in the community. She cited collegiate recovery programmes in the United States, aiding recovering addicts attending American institutions, as a prime example of the ability of academic institutions to pick up where the government may have failed.
The research resources at hand within a university are overwhelming, as is the intellectual manpower. There are great opportunities to instil much change for the better in wider society. This sentiment is at the heart of Trinity’s outreach mission. The Civic Engagement Action Plan thus appositely ends with a quote from President Higgins: “Our universities are not just centres of learning; they are also institutions that nurture social engagement, critical thinking, and ethical values.”
In December, Trinity held the 2024 ceremony of their recently introduced civic engagement awards, with funding and recognition being awarded to a number of proposed projects that are set to take place in 2025.
This award ceremony is a key part of the Action Plan as an incentive to reward good practice, and once more, many members of Trinity have risen to the challenge.
Amongst the winners were two professors, Eimear McGlinchey and Dr. Erica Krueger, for Engaged Teaching and Learning at Trinity.
Zachary Chambers won the award for best Civic Starter; his project seeks to provide out-of-hours mental health aid for students living on campus. Chambers is the Security Operations Manager on campus, and his recognition at the civic engagement awards is emblematic of the all-encompassing approach that Dr. Ivers seeks to implement; civic engagement involving each and every person involved in the university.
One other award of the night was handed to Beth Corcoran of the School of Medicine, for Civically Engaged Activity. Corcoran outlined the function of her project HAPPY, a health awareness programme catered towards young teenagers with Down syndrome. Inspired by experiences with her own daughter, the programme plans to give such teenagers more autonomy and independence in regard to their own health by delivering lessons on matters such as anatomy, sleep, diet, oral health, and vaccines. Such specialised education is rarely catered for by government funding, but its importance cannot be understated.
“The project itself was strikingly well-designed and replicable. This engineered simplicity will make it easy to recreate across many Irish counties in a matter of years”
The project itself was strikingly well-designed and replicable. This engineered simplicity will make it easy to recreate across many Irish counties in a matter of years.
It is here where the tenets of civic engagement really come together: it is a small community-facing idea, seeing a gap and addressing shortfalls in wider governmental policy, but one with infinite potential. The good that will be done by the project is undeniable.
One can see how great things can blossom from the seed of an idea, but the fertile soil in which it grows is also required. Only through an organised task force, providing ample funding and offering heightened awareness amongst college staff, can such a concept flourish. In that sense, Trinity is now assuredly making up for lost time.
