It’s fair to say Trinity does a lot very well. We have a vibrant student life with an abundance of societies that makes meeting new friends easy. Our Health Service is effective and helpful. The libraries are brimming with (millions of) books and well-lit study spaces. The Students’ Union (SU) shop is a welcome break from Dublin prices, and there’s certainly nothing more endearing than seeing the swarms of students out on the grass when it’s sunny.
“There is vast potential waiting to be uncovered in Trinity”
After an Erasmus year abroad, with a semester spent at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey, and a semester at the University of Granada in Spain, there are definitely some things that need to change back home having experienced the student life of these universities. From the inflexibility of our module system to our scattered infrastructure, going abroad has illuminated some of the things Trinity could do better—and the vast potential waiting to be uncovered here. Most of these problems stem from a mismanagement of our resources and land, which could be more effectively planned and less prioritised towards the groups of tourists that swarm the premises daily.
Most notable is Trinity’s unreasonable module system, in which failing one module means you need to repeat the year to sit one exam or retake the year entirely. Coupled with the highest fees for students in the EU, it’s a shockingly expensive system. In my classes in Spain and Turkey, my peers were from all years of the program, some having failed that class before or other years. And rather than sitting in an educational purgatory where they spend a year atoning for a single module, they are able to continue on with their university degree, just with an additional class the next year. All of us as students are vastly different, and our courses should reflect that rather than being package deals.
Trinity students can avail of the Buttery, Dining Hall, SU and Business building cafés (and probably a few other places I’ve overlooked from the myopic scope of my Arts Building experience). Yet in Granada and Boğaziçi, the student canteens are institutions. Every day Boğaziçi students line up to pick up a blue plastic tray and collect their rice, soup, main, drink, and dessert for the subsidized price of €0.73. Breakfast is also offered. In Granada, the cafeteria is not as cheap but offers a vast menu array of sandwiches, salads, and other dishes. Since most students use these canteens for lunch, you would run into all your classmates while looking for a place to sit—such a nice way to make friends or catch up on a topic discussed in your past lecture. These canteens were built and planned to accommodate huge numbers of students, with an efficient line for grabbing food and ample seating. Upon my return, I can say that these communal places of gathering to eat are sorely missing. A simple reworking of space could consolidate the Atrium, Dining Hall, and Buttery into one streamlined space. By subsidising the meals for students, a reliable and cohesive institution for eating and gathering can be created within our campus.
Trinity has lots of different initiatives for language classes; Irish can be taken as an open module and every semester a limited number of Irish classes are offered. DU ModLang runs a variety of language classes each semester, too. But this all pales in comparison to Granada’s Centro de Lenguas Modernas (CLM). For a small fee, students can sign up for afternoon and evening classes in Spanish, English, French, and many other languages. Over 5,000 students are enrolled in classes at the CLM. Opportunities to take language certification exams are also prolific. Following the University of Granada’s lead, the ability to consolidate and expand the classes that Trinity offers scattered around campus has so much potential for our student body, particularly in terms of providing more resources and available seats in Irish-language classrooms.
“The lack of organisation feels like neglect or at least a lack of initiative from the university leadership’s perspective”
By scouring emails or society Instagrams or the walls for posters, Trinity students can discover events run by societies and professors, covering concerts, evening lectures, dance classes, and more. The University of Granada is much more clear with its own cultural mission. In the university’s Casa de Porras, a 16th century palace located in the old medieval quarter, cultural classes are offered to students: flamenco dance and guitar, tango, singing, pottery, painting, botany, etc. Again, these classes are at a set time and at a price. Although the dozens of events offered daily at Trinity are healthy in a democratic, grass-roots sense, the lack of organisation feels like neglect or at least a lack of initiative from the university leadership’s perspective. What a great way to formalize or display Trinity’s own stance towards cultural, linguistic, and creative forms, and to highlight and propagate local culture.
“If other universities can do it, Trinity definitely has the means to as well”
Unfortunately, there’s not much space to build anything new on Trinity’s campus. The bit of garden that is left seems to be best served as a foundation for bright-red boxes for tourist experiences. But with a fresh re-evaluation of the buildings around campus and their uses, rooms or whole floors can definitely be found to accommodate places that serve students, softening the burden of the cost-of-living crisis through subsidized cafeterias or promoting the arts and language through intentional, larger-scale extracurricular programs. And, of course, it’s high time for a serious reconsideration of how Trinity modules work and how it extracts money from its students. If other universities can do it, Trinity definitely has the means to reconfigure space and funds to cement its place as a university that thinks of its students.
