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TRINITY NEWS TRINITY NEWS
NEWS
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 October 28, 2008
“Why the same system as last year cannot be used is beyond me” »Students’ Union President Cathal Reilly on the current negotiations with College over Sunday library opening times. “A car is an inanimate object, it doesn’t harm anyone if it’s bombed” »National Animal Rights. Association spokeswoman Laura Broxson defending the association’s tactics. “Typically, when you saw someone in half, you would have a box, but we have no box. We saw from his crotch right up to his neck. After we saw him in half, we split him in half” » Joe Daly, creator and star of Magick Macabre on his act.
THIS FORTNIGHT THEY SAID... Compiled by Victor Jones “Scrubs has been a hit over here, but not so much back home. I mean, a lot of people aren’t even aware it exists” »John C. McGinley, who plays Dr. Perry Cox in TV’s Scrubs.
NUMEROLOGY
“At least the Scholars were safe” » One Scholar who attended the fire safety talks for residents this week. The talk for non-Scholars presented a fire hazard with students crowding the emergency exits. “If you inherit your political leanings from what some rock band says, you’ve got some problems” »Buzz Osborne of grunge godfathers ‘The Melvins’. “I’ve done this twice before; for Rosin Ingle, for Ross O’Carroll Kelly and [now] for Bertie Ahern. A friend of mine suggested I play ‘shag, shoot or marry’. My instant response was I’d shoot Roisn Ingle which left me in an awkward position for the other two names” » History lecturer Patrick Geoghegan on being called on to replace Hist speakers.
“None whatsoever” » Labour education spokesman Ruairi Quinn describes the chances of the Governement repealing the decision on the increase in the registration fee. “Bective had everything going for them” » Provost of Trinity College and keen rugby fan Dr. John Hegarty proffers his expert assessment of the damp match played in College Park last Saturday. “Stop robin us Battman” » One of the many signs and placards seen at last Wednesday’s march to Leinster House on the issue of fees. Students took some creative license with their placards, deviating from USI’s “education is a right, not a privilege” slogan.
15,000 march on Leinster House continued from page 1
Compiled by Victor Jones
15,000 »The estimated number of students who attended the protest against thirdlevel fees on Wednesday 22nd October.
15 » The number of rooms that the Accommodation Office say have been left vacant during the recent Rubrics renovations
600 » The amount that the 2008 Budget has increased the university registration fee for 2009/10.
10 » The percentage that food prices have gone up in venues run by College Catering.
the country demanding to meet with the Minister and his Department,” Mr Kelly said after the rally. The demonstration “just shows how many students value free access to education and how wrong the Government would be to reverse the decision to bring in free fees,” Mr Quinn said. The speakers were difficult to hear even from quite close to their position at the Leinster House end of Molesworth Street. The tannoy system was simply a loud-hailer. However, as a show of numbers, the demonstration was effective. City-centre traffic came to a halt, with buses on College Green and Burgh Quay simply abandoned. Wednesday was a day of numerous large-scale demonstrations as 15,000 pensioners also came out in force in protest at the removal of automatic entitlement to medical cards for over70s. The two groups of protestors were largely supportive of each other. Trinity College Provost Dr John Hegarty surveyed the demonstration on Nassau Street. He called it “fantastic,” and said “students have every right to protest”. However he said the protests had not changed his views. Dr Hegarty and other college heads favour a student loan scheme with the introduction of third level fees. The Provost recently told Trinity College staff that the College has a
Students assembled in Front Square before the march. Photo: Brian Martin €7 million funding deficit this year. Mr Hegarty stated that it was important to ensure those unable to afford fees did not have to pay upfront. The college heads also believe heavy fees on the highly wealthy could result in a brain drain to colleges overseas. College leaders believe that those who benefit from college education should pay for it once they reach an income threshold. “Deferred fees are still preferable to immediate payment,” Dr Hegarty told Trinity News. The system of loans the college heads have proposed has been compared to the
Australian system which USI recently described as “illogical and short sighted”. Dr Hegarty merely stated, “I have not proposed the Australian system.” Students were opposed to all forms of fees, with many pointing to the registration fee as a de facto college fee. The Minister for Education, Batt O’Keeffe has increased the registration fee, as an interim measure, by roughly €600 to nearly €1600. Many students also raised the other expenses of college life, such as the costs of accommodation for those living away from home. Local authority grants for
those qualifying are often late in coming, and there are borderline cases where families might be slightly too well-off to obtain a grant. “I’m protesting for my little sister,” said Aedin Clynes, a fourth-year student. Many lecturers were supportive of the students. Countering concerns about lack of funds for university research, Paul Horan, a Lecturer in the School of Nursing, said “If fees go through, you can say goodbye to the knowledge economy.” He pointed to his own experience of being financially unable to train as a nurse in Ireland and having to move to England. He had been lucky, he said. With fees, the Government “would be abandoning the jewels of this country.” All the Trinity College branches of the political parties were very visibly represented in Front Square before the march began, with the exception of Fianna Fáil. A Green Party member said the party as a whole was opposed to college fees. Green Party students’ protests were no embarrassment to the Greens in government, he said. “Greens are fighting from the inside: you don’t do it by screaming and shouting,” he added. A Young Fine Gael member rejected the suggestion by former EU commissioner Peter Sutherland that the party adopt a “Tallaght strategy,” whereby it would support the Government to remove partypolitical rivalry, as “absurd.”
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS While recognising that College societies may sometimes stray beyond their official raisons d’etre to pursue a wider range of interests, we were incorrect to report in our last issue that the Literary Society was hosting a “Boob Club” (What’s on this coming fortnight, page 9, October 14). They had, of course, settled for a Book Club. Dr Gerald Morgan has not been suspended from teaching, as we incorrectly reported in the article titled “No classes during Morgan hearing” published on October 14. At the request of Dr Morgan he has been granted study leave for Michaelmas Term 2008 and alternative arrangements for teaching have been put in place for the term. Also, the College never brought Dr Gerald Morgan to either the High Court or Supreme Court. In December 2002, disciplinary proceedings under the College statutes were invoked against Dr Morgan. Dr Morgan issued High Court proceedings seeking to injunct a disciplinary hearing in respect of those charges. He was unsuccessful in this regard in the High Court and Supreme Court.
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Rubrics renovations keep residents out By Niall O’Brien STUDENT RESIDENTS of the Rubrics building, having been told that they would be able to move into their accommodation by the 1st of October, are still waiting to be admitted. This follows extensive renovations which have taken place on the Rubrics over the past few months. The renovation works were originally supposed to be purely external, involving repairs to damaged brickwork, windows and roof tops as well as the building being painted and cleaned. However, the Accommodation Office (AO) then decided that the student rooms would be kept empty in order to “lay new flooring in rooms, kitchens, showers, and toilets and to provide new desks, chairs and some other furnishing”. This decision, which residents of the Rubrics contacted by Trinity News claim not to have been informed of, has apparently delayed them from availing of their pre-agreed accommodation for over three weeks. When student residents of the Rubrics entered the office on October 1st, expecting to pick up their keys for their Rubrics rooms, they were presented
Scaffolding envelops the Rubrics as they get a face-lift. Photo: Rachel Kennedy with keys to alternative on-campus accommodation. “I was never actually told that the rooms wouldn't be ready for the start of term”, one student resident of the Rubrics said. When the student asked when she would be able to move into the Rubrics building, the AO representative replied that she would be “e-mailed when they know” and that it would “probably be within two weeks”. The student was obliged to accept alternative accommodation in New Square until her Rubrics room was available. Three weeks have past by and the student has still not been contacted.
The AO claims that “15 student places have been left vacant'” throughout the course of the project. When asked why this alternative student accommodation was left vacant in the first place, the AO replied that “these alternative rooms became available when rooms were declined or returned by those who were allocated rooms” and insisted that the return of rooms around September is a “normal phenomenon”. The AO maintains that “after the situation normalises”, any vacant rooms will be offered “to students who have previously applied” for them. This does, however, call into question
how many more on-campus student rooms have been left uninhabited since the start of the academic year. The students will receive no compensation for being deprived of their Rubrics accommodation. The AO states that the offer of alternative accommodation due to the Rubrics project “is within the terms of the Conditions of Occupancy which the residents accept” and, therefore, there has been “no breach of the Conditions”. Students who are currently occupying inferior rooms will not however be charged the higher rent of their Rubrics rooms in the interim. Trinity News has been assured that the student rooms in the Rubrics will be available from next week. While student residents have been vacated from their rooms in Rubrics, most, if not all, staff residents have continued to occupy their rooms. Some temporary relocations of staff did take place during August and September, but they have since returned. The AO emphasised that “staff residents have shown considerable goodwill and forbearance during the project”. No similar reference was made to the goodwill and forbearance of the students.
Ten students filming reality show By Deirdre Robertson College News Editor TRINITY COLLEGE’S first reality television show will hit the screen in January but “it’s not as trashy as it sounds” according to creater/producer/ director Ian Kinane. The show is a DU Filmmakers project. It is an 8 part series which is being filmed this term and will be shown week by week starting in January. ‘The Hunt’ shows “10 contestants battling it out to solve cryptic clues to take them all over Dublin in search of a prize.” Each week the winning team will select a member from the losing team to leave the competition, until there are just three contestants, who will battle it out to solve a final clue. Ian Kinane was the founder of the project which he runs alongside Eoin Maher, head of Filmmakers, and Lisa MacNamee who Mr. Kinane describes as “the real force behind it.” The Central Societies Committee have also been involved helping to facilitate
filming which occasionally takes place on campus. Mr. Kinane came up with the idea of a reality show that is a mix of ‘The Apprentice’ and ‘Survior’ but in order to provide extra entertainment he picked contestants “on the basis of their college profile.” He cast the show in May “with the idea of generating controversy in mind.” Out of 50-60 responses he chose 10 contestants considered most likely to draw in a large audience and provide dramatic entertainment to those watching. Two weeks of the programme have already been filmed and according to Mr. Kinane “already there have been sparks flying, a lot of personal attacks on people and some have brought the game to a spiteful level.” He is hoping the programme will generate enough interest to put on a weekly screening in the Arts Building but Filmmakers have not yet sought permission from the College to do so.
The 10 contestants are battling each other for a large cash prize but Mr. Kinane was reluctant to reveal any details about how much they could expect. He would only say that the prize “is enough 10 contestants, 8 clues, 1 winner: Trinity’s upcoming reality show “The Hunt” as described by the organisers to keep 10 students running around in the rain”. Likewise, he refused to hint at who the contestants are. When casting, he informed participants that they could not tell anybody they were involved or they would be taken out of the show. While Mr Kinane sees the show as primarily a fun contest and entertainment for students, he also sees it as a psychological game. He believes that Filmmakers are setting up an interesting social experiment and points out that the
participants “are obviously competing, but we’re looking on to see exactly how lowly students actually get along when there’s a prize like this involved! What would they or wouldn’t they do for such a thing?” He continued, “as they get used to the cameras around them, the layers of their personalities are stripped back to reveal what they’re like at the core. How they play this game is a good reflection of themselves. Also, knowing that their peers will eventually watch the footage, does this effect how they interact with strangers?” Mindgames, rumours and rifts have already made an impact on participants, particularly as these are all students who will have to return to the same college reality together. A potential love interest between two cast members has added a further layer of interest to the show. A teaser trailer of “The Hunt” has already been released and will be shown on the DU Filmmakers YouTube page within the next few days.