Meanwhile, At Trinity

at

Last night.

Around 50 students stayed overnight as they continued their occupation of the Dining Hall in Trinity College Dublin.

The students are protesting over a flat fee of €450 for supplement exams – exams taken when a student fails and re-sits an exam.

This afternoon.

A series of ‘teach-ins’ are taking place including one from Kieran Allen, above.

TCD Students’ Union writes:

Kieran Allen is a sociology lecturer in UCD and a member of SIPTU grassroots. He has written extensively about the corporatisation of Irish education, the failure of social partnership and the importance of grassroots struggles against austerity.

All are welcome to today’s teach-ins.

Students Against Supplemental Fees Present: A Day Of Teach-Ins (Facebook)

Dining Hall Occupation Continues for Second Day (University Times)

Pic: TCD Students’ Union

UPDATE:

University Times reports:

Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) will pay the wages of any casual staff in Trinity’s Catering Department who can’t work because of the occupation of the Dining Hall.

The current cost of covering the wages is estimated at around €2,000, but the cost is expected to increase as the occupation continues tonight.

TCDSU to Cover €2,000 Wages Bill for Dining Hall Staff (University Times)

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43 thoughts on “Meanwhile, At Trinity

  1. anne

    Great to see this sort of spirit from students. You’d have to be optimistic about the future when you see this.

    The likes of Bernie Sanders has a huge following amongst the under 30s.

    1. some old queen

      I wish you were right Anne but most students only protest when it is something which directly affects themselves.

    1. Nigel

      I doubt it but it can happen and I suppose they don’t want to see people excessively penalised if they do.

      1. Cian

        There is a cost associated with re-running exams. Is the proposed €450 excessive?

        Do you think that the re-sits should be free?
        If so can you explain why this cost should be borne by the college (i.e. all students that passed their exams AND all those that failed) – rather than those that failed.
        Secondly, can you propose what other service provided by the college should be cut to pay for the re-sitting of exams.

        If you don’t think that the re-sits should be free what would a fair price?

        1. Nigel

          I don’t think repeats have ever been free. The rest of your questions are best addressed to the protesters themselves, since they can speak for themselves and will be more familiar with the issues, I’m sure.

        2. Ruffi

          Cian, it is excessive and yes, re-sits should be free. This proposed fee comes after years of them cutting the pay for students who actually work with the exams as invigilators. Re-sits are free in all other universities, who are somehow able to provide re-sits without going broke. Also, there are many reasons outside of a student’s control that may force them to re-sit the exam (illness, a death in the family, etc — I see it every year), it is not just those who have failed an exam that sit again in August. Also, the whole idea of re-sits is giving a student a second chance, which we all my need at some point — I was never that arrogant when I was in college that I thought I would sail through all my exams without ever needing to re-sit them (which, thankfully, I didn’t but that’s not relevant really). I have a bunch of suggestions where TCD could cut costs to pay for the re-sitting of exams — for example, axe the idiots who regularly ring me evenings/at weekends from the Alumni Office trying to get me to donate money to TCD despite me asking them to take me off the list, or, look at how much money that the Provosts Office spends on his jolly trips around the world, or his second apartment.

  2. Jake38

    “Kieran Allen is a sociology lecturer in UCD and a member of SIPTU grassroots….”

    All you need to know.

    1. Matt Lucozade: The Only Reader of the Village

      Are the children of IFUT members still exempt from fees and charges? You out there Mike Allen?

  3. Neilo

    I too enjoy a spot of idealism but I fear that spirit will last as long as it takes to read a payslip and realize how much they’re forking over in tax for so little in return.

    The under 30s follow deluded pied pipers like Sanders or Corbyn because they’re still young enough to believe in fairy stories by the Grim Brothers – Karl and Friedrich – with little idea of the horrors midwifed into the world by those tales.

    1. anne

      Better than being defeatist though.

      And better than the alternative of what we have..capitalism run completely amok.

      An education should not be a money making racket. Neither should housing & health, but sin sceal eile.

      Power to the people & all that.

      1. Rob_G

        The fact that it costs about the same to go to the most prestigious university in the country as it does to go to a regional Institute of Technology hardly seems a symptom of ‘capitalism running amok’.

        1. anne

          Your comparison doesn’t mean capitalism hasn’t run amok.
          Read whst was written will you.

          1. Rob_G

            I did; what you wrote was not grounded in reality.

            Education isn’t a ‘money-making racket’ in this country; the €450 isn’t being paid out as profits to shareholders, it would be used to meet the costs of running the college.

            Regardless of whether or not €450 is excessive, Trinity isn’t a for-profit enterprise, your comment on ‘capitalism’ is nonsense.

          2. Andrew

            If capitalism had ‘run amok’ Anne, Kieran Allen wouldn’t be earning six figures for teaching sociology.

      2. Neilo

        Hi Anne, I’m a small ‘c’ conservative or classical liberal: incremental change, little platoons etc but I’ll happily take back my poke at Marxism when the Koch brothers inspire The Black Book Of Capitalism! I agree that ‘power to the people’ as a policy is most desirable – delegating more autonomy to the the demos – but I find it terrifying as a motto unless it’s Wolfie Smith yelling it outside Tooting Broadway Tube (very old cultural reference there, ask your nan or Bertie Blenkinsop) :)

  4. Matt Lucozade: The Only Reader of the Village

    Why is David Norris joining this protest? Shambolic virtue-signalling.

    And where’s Ivana Bacik?

  5. Matt Lucozade: The Only Reader of the Village

    It should be interesting to find out how many of these protestors can afford Beats headphones at 350 EUR a pop, the latest iPhones, Avocado on toast, but mostly importantly how many of them are ex-pat Brits over here escaping fees from the UK system in the first place. I suspect a lot of them are free-fee Brit tourists with wealthy parents in the UK – shortly to be dumped out of the EU – deservedly. Why defend these spoilt Baastards?

  6. Matt Lucozade: The Only Reader of the Village

    At least half these protestors are more interested in their mobile phones.

  7. DepthChargeEthel

    The occupiers have been now locked in to the Dining Hall with no access to toilets etc, by private security in an attempt to shut this down. This is what happens when the general public have been coached into a situation of more self interest than public good interest. Intimidation tactics to break the Right to protest!

    1. Cian

      Um. My “right to protest” doesn’t supersede all other rights.
      My “right to protest” doesn’t give me a carte blanche to break any laws I want.
      I don’t have a “right to protest” anywhere I want.

      If the students are trespassing (breaking the law) then they are free to move to a public place to continue their protest.

      1. DepthChargeEthel

        Well evidently Cian (by the tone of your response) you have never felt passionately enough about an issue to take decisive action against it!

        1. Cian

          I have protested. I have been on marches.
          But I have not (to the best of my knowledge) broken any laws while protesting.

          Do you think it’s okay to break the law while protesting? And if so – which laws are okay to break?

          1. DepthChargeEthel

            Presumably if they were breaking laws then TCD could bring in the Gardaí as opposed to their hired Noonan security goons!

          2. Cian

            Yes. If they were breaking laws then Trinity could bring in the Gardai.

            That is how it works. I’d someone breaks the law someone else can get the Gardai.

            I’m not sure how your point is relevant.

        2. The Ghost of Starina

          on a side note, sweet username, DepthChargeEthel. Do you offer exclusivity in exchange for being clothed, fed and bathed?

  8. Dermie

    They can’t go to the Jacks now…. Brilliant!!!! This story is the gift that just keeps giving!!

    1. Matt Lucozade: The Only Reader of the Village

      Wot? No gender neutral non-CIS nonbinary toilets to bang on about?

      Geldof was right about this shower of self-absorbed, Airbnb gentrification responsible, self entitled, selfie-obsessed twerps busy exploiting immigrants in the gig economy with their hand-delivered avocado pizzas:

      https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/bob-geldof-tells-students-to-stop-banging-on-about-transgender-toilets-1.2907578?

      Give these “students” four years and they’ll be in the SCU and RTE, milking the rest of us for their stinking rich salaries and pensions.

      Any wonder TCD is now a minor player in the academic rankings.

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