Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) have announced the details of a town hall tomorrow evening, which seeks to address the widespread student criticism of their Sexual Assault Awareness month campaign last week.
Last week, members of TCDSU invited students to beat effigies of bodies hung by their feet around campus in a protest against rape culture, action that drew widespread condemnation for its likeness to lynching.
TCDSU Welfare and Equality Officer Hamza Bana also stated that STEM students “are more likely to be perpetrators of gender based violence” as they have a higher representation of men in their courses.
The town hall will be held on Wednesday 9th April at 6pm in the Uí Chadhain theatre in the Arts Building.
The announcement of the town hall was displayed on a notice board in the arts block, with the statement and details being posted on an A4 sheet of paper.
The date and location of the town hall, which was initially pledged in an apology statement made by TCDSU last week, has not been widely shared with students.
The event has yet to be advertised on the TCDSU social media accounts nor was it mentioned in the weekly union email yesterday.
The meeting, which is being led by President Jenny Maguire and Welfare and Equality Officer Hamza Bana, is being held “in the hopes of learning from [their] mistakes”.
“Last week, members of the union engaged in an action that provoked a lot of harm that negatively affected both staff and students alike. We view the action as being grossly misjudged, unrepresentative, and ill-informed traumatically”, the sign read.
The statement continued: “The organisers of the action extend our deepest apologies to those who were affected and remain incredibly apologetic about this […] our aim moving forward is to rebuild trust through accountability and action.”
