Misc. Hilary Term 2023

The new student radicalism?

Page 6

Interview with TCDSU Gender Equality Officer

Jenny Maguire

Page 9 “CSC merger was always doomed to fail”

Page 12

ChatGPT: A guide for last-minute crammers

Hilary term 2023

EDITOR’S FOREWORD

A1967 article in Trinity News opined that Misc. (then T.C.D Miscellany) had, almost 73 years after its founding, “moved too far away from Trinity. However interesting and clever may be an article on Telefis Éireann or a six part serial on rural Ireland one could read it in any Irish paper. It would perhaps benefit from a more introverted approach.” Although Misc. was “undoubtedly a very well written magazine”, it was “sadly losing sight of its original aims”, said the writer. Another 56 years on, Misc. had appeared to have fallen into the same dilemma. Competing with ever more numerous and more frequent student publications on campus, Misc. carved for itself a niche which has ironically been more vague than any of the rival publications than which it is many decades older. This I have sought to rectify in this edition.

The very first edition of Misc., in 1895, set out to rectify the fact that Trinity was “without a publication reflecting the opinions of its students”, and this it has continued to do. This issue takes what Misc. has been best at in recent years – insightful commentary, analysis, and research – and grounded it firmly in the social and cultural context of Trinity campus and its studentpopulated surroundings. The topics covered in this issue range from student politics and culture, to the economic and social pressures facing students on a daily basis. It is no doubt influenced by my own simultaneous role as News Editor of Trinity News, and perhaps is too much defined by the perspective of someone who spends too much time in House 6. For this I can only apologise. This being a magazine which aims to reflect the opinions of the student body, I strongly encourage readers read the following pages with an open mind and critical eye, and we encourage you to share your thoughts with us.

David Wolfe Editor-in-Chief, Misc. Magazine

11 April 2023

CONTENTS

The new student radicalism: will Molnárfi’s mission overcome an uphill battle?

The art of science and the science of art: Finding common ground

Culture: 5 things to do instead of going to TBall

Feature: Captain America’s open mic nights

History: Trinity and the Inclusion of Catholics

Reflections on Erasmus

“Existing in joy, living without fear” TCDSU Gender Equality Officer Jenny Maguire talks protesting, performing and being a PTO

“The CSC-Publications merger was always doomed to fail”

HEA Act 2022: Presidential views

How AI can help you cram for exams (without cheating)

Feeding the vultures: The questionable solution to student housing

“My Erasmus experience in Jerusalem – an alternative view”

“Can we ever be truly “present” at College?”

STAFF

Editor-in-Chief

David Wolfe

Deputy Editors

Alex Payne

Emma Whitney

Assistant Editors

Akshita Hunka

Maisie Greener

Sarah Donohoe

Archives Editor

Kate Ryan

Social media

Billie Baumeister

Michael Corcoran

COVER STORY

The new student radicalism: will Molnárfi’s mission overcome an uphill battle?

David Wolfe

Following a landslide victory in February’s students’ union elections, László Molnárfi expressed optimism for the forward momentum of the student movement:

“In 3 years we have transformed our movement from an impossibility to an inevitability. It seemed impossible that student radicalism would return to TCDSU. In fact, it was difficult advocating in opposition, and those who did were made to feel unwelcome. However, the results of this election represent a return to traditional student syndicalism.”

Indeed, it has been difficult not to notice this shift manifesting itself. Two weeks ago Molnárfi was one of a group of protestors who caused a stir by telling a government minister that he and his party had blood on their hands. Since then, Molnárfi and fellow student radicals have protested against a similar visit to Trinity by Minister Paschal Donohoe, taken part in an occupation of the Department of Housing, and pushed the national students’ union to urge its members to vote against the current coalition government at the next election.

Outside of Trinity, Dublin and other cities have seen increased protest activity;,from the cost of living crisis, to anti-far-right demonstrations, to the housing crisis and end of the eviction ban, as well as environmental action. Mass political agitation is in no short supply. This too against an international backdrop of mass strikes in France, Germany and the UK, and widespread anti-government protests even among the settler population of Israel. As in 1968, student radicalism did not erupt in isolation, but alongside and combined with industrial action and popular mobilisation – an encouraging example for those who wish to see a repeat of such mobilisation in the near future.

However, there is the danger that the extent of radical student energy is being overestimated. Though Molnárfi modestly proclaimed that “this election was not about me”, the excitement of his charismatic campaign may, for many, have outweighed any interest in building a long-term radical movement. Not only that, but at 1,882, the turnout on which Molnárfi’s victory was won

represents just around 10% of Trinity’s student population – not a resounding display of enthusiasm for student radicalism. Looking beyond Trinity is further disheartening. UCDSU elections saw a third of candidates drop out before campaigning started, while in the University of Galway, an oversized vote to reopen nominations (RON) beat two of the four candidates, with victory ultimately going to one of two Young Fine Gael veterans left standing by the third count. If there is to be a surge in student radicalism, it appears unlikely to spread beyond the big smoke, at least for now.

That is unless the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) can facilitate this dissemination of radical energy, which, with its newly elected Vice-President for Campaigns, it might. Zaid Albarghouthi, a collaborator of Molnárfi through the TCDSU Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Implementation Group, was elected on a platform of invigorating campaigns and employing direct action that is “not performative” and forms part of a broader strategy.

During his campaign, Albarghouthi repeatedly highlighted the failure to capitalise on the momentum generated by the national student walkout in October, and promised to enact “escalation strategies” for when campaign goals are not met. If this momentum could be recovered – not unthinkable in the context of enormous pressures and challenges facing students – then it is possible that it may be channelled more effectively under new leadership, and targeted towards tangible outcomes..

Part of that leadership is however a somewhat unknown quantity.

Photo by Alex Payne

Chris Clifford, elected alongside Albarghouthi as USI President for 2023/34, ran on a joke platform, promising to bring back €13 Tesco vodka, a four-day lecture week, and an investigation “into whether Fermanagh is a real county”. Clifford’s track record does indicate genuine passion for the students’ movement, having served two terms as president of MTU Kerry Students’ Union, and one as Education Officer prior to that.

Clifford’s union supported the #NoInPersonExams campaign in 2021, a point which received the commendation of Students4Change, and also boasts one of if not the singular highest turnouts of any students’ union in Ireland (around 35%).

Acknowledging that he had run “a bit of a snuff campaign”, Clifford nevertheless indicated genuine desire to steer USI towards more radical waters: “My top priority is to engage with the students’ unions around the country and to work on general student engagement – they go hand in hand really. I want to be radical about that.”

What will come of this remains to be seen, but there is no doubt that significant pressure will be mounted to keep him on such a course.

Lastly, there is the crucial question at the heart of any campaign: will it be effective? While Students4Change, an “alliance of Marxist and Anarchist students”, has generated significant intrigue and gained a popular profile, there are those who would caution against the oppositional tactics which Molnárfi advocates for, favouring instead the cooperation and constructive conversation methods of previous union presidents. Leah Keogh, TCDSU President of 2021/22, for example, was praised by Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris for her cooperation in amending sections of the HEA Act 2022 to ensure effective student representation at College Board.

There is, no doubt, already significant apprehension at the very thought of Molnárfi entering the College Boardroom in September, conditions which may make College more reluctant to budge when it comes to issues of exams, accommodation, and fees – matters over which it generally has the ultimate decisionmaking authority. The sacrifice of this dynamic makes it all the more crucial that next year’s union builds an alternative form of bargaining power in the form of a united and energised student body willing to fight for change. However, given the myriad of problems which still face students despite engaging in good faith with the powers that be, it is fair to say that there comes a point at which enough is enough – minimal “big picture” progress year after year not only calls for, but demands a change of tactic.

In spite of any doubts, there is evidence that the momentum is building already. Students4Change is quietly infiltrating students’ union structures; Molnárfi himself is no outsider, and at time of writing, a number of its most committed members have put themselves in the running for part-time officerships. But, as they themselves know, the task at hand requires building a coalition that goes far beyond simple governance structures. “Bringing the union back to the grassroots” involves efforts which are less concrete and more demanding in their vagueness, creating not only a union, but a culture in which students wish to participate. While confidence is key to the success of the movement, overconfidence must not lead to the assumption that students will naturally follow. Nevertheless, there is little to show that the coming year will feature anything but tireless commitment from those wishing to achieve these goals, and lack of comprehensive government response to the crises facing students will turn ever more of them towards radical mob. This analysis ends necessarily on a question mark, albeit an optimistic one, which can only hope to be succeeded by a more substantiated optimism 12 months from now.

“All hail, then, to the mob, the incarnation of progress!”

– James Connolly, Labour, Nationality and Religion

“There is, no doubt, already significant apprehension at the very thought of Molnárfi entering the College Boardroom in September

“Existing in joy, living without fear”

TCDSU Gender Equality Officer Jenny Maguire talks protesting, performing and being a PTO

Kate Byrne

Jenny Maguire is pretty hard to miss. You may have seen her performing with DU Players, protesting for transgender rights, or working closely with other members of the Student Union as the Gender Equality Officer. Maguire is a busy woman and describes herself as “making up for lost time” from secondary school, during which she felt her voice was not heard. As the first person in her family to come to Trinity College, Maguire certainly aims to make the most of her time here, describing the college as a place in which she can “be celebrated for her voice and opinion” and “run ragged” with her activism. In her time here so far, Maguire has certainly already had a significant impact on the college community, and plans to continue doing so during her remaining time here. Being such an avid advocate does not come without its challenges, however. While student outreach is incredibly important to Maguire, she says that her block button is “always in reach”. She says that like any person in the trans community, “you’re going to get hate online”, but doesn’t let her stop the work she’s doing. She finds that her consistent advocacy for student issues has been “really rewarding”, allowing her to “feel a broader sense of community”. One of the places she has found this sense of community is within the students’ union, of which she is the current Gender Equality Officer. During her time so far in the role, Maguire has worked with the union’s Welfare Officer to introduce

a period product campaign, which has seen free period products placed in the bathrooms across campus. She said that “this is something that we’ve been looking to do for years and years and years. And, you know, the demand is truly there. And so, these issues exist, but it’s just about actually calling them out”. She notes that this sense of community does not only come from inside the union, but from students outside of the union reaching out to her also. She says that she enjoys helping other trans students within the college, as she knows first hand what it’s like to exist within the college community as a minority. She’s not surprised by the amount of people coming to her for support, stating that “it’s no surprise where a college fails to support its students in terms of gender equality”. She finds that many of the trans students share the same worries as her. “You don’t know if, going into your first tutorial of the semester, the TA is going to tear you to shreds”. She adds that while “these issues aren’t new”, it’s really satisfying to feel this sense of community, and she feels a sense of achievement when students come up to her to talk to her about her work.

Maguire is not afraid to speak up to criticise her fellow students, however. Just last month she was openly critical of the candidates’ responses at the Equality Hustings for the Sabbatical Officer elections. In an article for Trinity News, she argued that if candidates can’t advocate for all students, then they should simply drop out of the race. When asked about this, Maguire echoed her original statement, saying that “if you aren’t in tune with what the average student actually needs, then I’m not sure why you were there”. When questioned about whether or not she feels students are afraid of speaking over minority groups rather than with minority groups, she said: “No one expects you to be an expert. I mean, I’m inside the trans community and I don’t expect myself to be an expert. Unless you fully engage on the issues that affect every

student, then you are the problem. You need to use your privilege and use your position in the SU or any position within college or on society boards to speak as blatantly and unapologetically to the best of your knowledge”.

Maguire added that refusing to speak up because you believe you are misinformed is a “cop out”: “What do you mean you don’t know what ethnic minority students need? They have to go into the library named after a slaveowner. They have to go to tutorial groups where their TAs are saying racial slurs. What do you mean you can’t speak?” When asked why she believes students remain silent on issues like this, she feels it comes from a place of fear, which she claims, “doesn’t help anyone”. Her advice to students is to “recognise the power you have in the room”, because “recognising privilege doesn’t mean to step back and say nothing”.

When it comes to educating ourselves on the experiences of minority groups within the college community, Maguire pointed to Trinity’s student publications as a good place to start. She has noticed that “a lot of minority students find their voices in these publications”. She commended College media for not being “insular”, something that she believes is a problem within many college societies. However, she added that “it’s not up to the oppressed groups to hold us to account every step of the way”. She finds that people are very quick to criticise what they perceive as a “lack of engagement” from groups such as QSoc and Students4Change on issues facing minority students. Maguire encourages all students to use their voice, not just those in marginalised groups: “Use social media, use places like Trinity News, or TN2, or Misc., or any student society. A lot of people treat it like a job, like trying to make your way up in positions. But that’s not what activism is. Activism is solely just speaking out for other students.”

Maguire’s activism stretches far beyond the pages of College newspapers. Just last month she led a protest highlighting the fact that Ireland has the worst transgender healthcare in the European Union. The protest was a call for the college to “properly support its students”. Maguire has previously called out the lack of gender neutral bathrooms and signage on campus.

“Refusing to speak up because you believe you are misinformed is a cop out”

She noted that “it was shut down in ten minutes”: “We were told something along the lines of Trinity can’t take stances on things”. When asked why she has protested College repeatedly, Maguire noted that Trinity has the largest percentage of access students in the country, and prides itself on this fact, “but when it comes to something as basic as trans people’s healthcare”, the college is “so out of touch with its students”. Maguire believes that the “gap is starting to widen” between College and its students, and that this is a “slippery slope”. She thinks that “vulnerable students can see right through it”, and questions what the college’s intentions are, adding that choosing when the college “should or should not be political” is “hurting them”.

Despite this gap, Maguire still actively engages with staff within the college, including the provost herself. She said that “she was in close contact with the provost last

if their services are “up to scratch” to meet the needs of students.

summer in regards to the issue of the (LGBT) flag being raised over Trinity, and a message that went out to staff saying to be aware in case it offends ethnic minorities groups, which is not only racist, but deeply homophobic”. She has also worked closely with Academic Registry and the IT Services “to ensure that when a student changes their name, that Blackboard would then do it automatically, because up to that point, you could change it on Blackboard. But then when you went to submit an assignment, it would always dead name you, which was crazy”. She expressed some concern about engaging with staff, saying that “you don’t know who’s going to be on the other end of the email”. She finds the experience isolating, and feels that there is a “lack of teamwork in regards to the college community”. She said that engaging with staff is a “continuous evolution”. She finds that Trinity is too quick to “pat itself on the back”, instead of reassessing

Despite the barriers in place, Maguire plans to continue her activism: “You have to be optimistic; if you don’t, you die.” While she knows all too well the feeling of “activism burnout”, she uses it to her advantage. “The systems in place that hurt you are designed to tire you out, to make sure that you’re not shouting all the time, because they’ll just get rid of you. I don’t know if it’s some sort of stubbornness within me, but that kind of drives me.” She also finds inspiration to maintain morale in the people around her. When asked who inspires her, she points to her nana. “I would sit up at night with her as a child and she would tell me stories about people who lived in the Ballymun flats, in poverty, with no money whatsoever, with no education whatsoever, and people who find joy in the day to day”. She also noted that her friend, and current Student Union President Gabi Fullam, is a major source of motivation. “I would tell her that she’s kind of like marmite – you love her or you hate her – but she uses that to her advantage, and she’s not afraid of people hating her, because she knows what she’s doing is right”. Maguire finds that anybody who “exists in joy” and lives without fear stimulates her to keep going, be that her family, her friends, or other transgender people. The idea of existing in joy and living without fear is a theme that permeates Maguire’s work, acting as both a constant reminder of the everyday inspiration that ordinary people can provide, and as an ideal reality of how the college community could live. Whether or not Maguire has appeared on your radar before now, it is evident from her persistence, passion and perseverance that you will be hearing a lot more from her in the years to come.

Kate Byrne is a Senior Fresh history and political science student

Photo by Fern Kelly Landry for Misc.

The CSC-Publications merger was always doomed to fail Shannon

Connolly

Editor-in-Chief, Trinity News

The Central Societies’ Committee (CSC) and the Publications Committee are two of Trinity’s capitated bodies – and recently announced a proposed plan to set up a working group to merge the two. The CSC currently has the most votes at the Capitations Committee, which determines how funding for student groups is allocated, while Publications has one of the least, with only one vote. While it was continuously emphasised throughout meetings with the chairs of both committees that this was not an absorption of the latter into the former, I believe this claim to be fundamentally untrue.

The CSC, without a shadow of a doubt, has the most influence at Capitations should problems ever arise (they usually do not), with TCDSU having one less vote. However, a concern has seemingly arisen since the dissolution of the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) last September – where will the postgraduate vote go? Undoubtedly, in the coming years, an argument of some sort will be made that it will go to TCDSU, and that’s only correct. They do (supposedly) also represent postgraduate students, and a postgraduate officer will likely be introduced to the union to make up for the lack of a union body for postgrads. However, this would mean that TCDSU will equal the CSC votes at committee meetings – something which, for some reason, stokes absolute terror in the hearts of the CSC. Something which was highlighted to a Publications meeting by the CSC Chair was that there has never been a squabble between the two – so why is acquiring the Publications vote into their own so important?

There is no doubt that many committees have felt TCDSU stepping on their toes in recent months. TCDSU tried to pass a referendum last term in relation to the Sports levy that students pay – which would, arguably, only fall under the Sports Union jurisdiction. The Sports Union actively condemned TCDSU for this, and

ultimately, the referendum did not pass. There seems to be a growing fear among committees that in some form or another, TCDSU are “coming for them” – laughable for many reasons, partly because TCDSU can barely function themselves. But aside from that, I do not think the students’ union cares that much – they are, genuinely, only trying to represent what they feel are in the students’ interests. At our core, that’s what all of these committees aim to do: properly represent the interests of the students involved with them, and acquire the necessary funding from College to do so. That’s what it really comes down to: money. With the dissolution of the GSU, it is likely that College will be looking to relocate those funds to other capitation bodies – and those with the most votes will, most likely, come away with the biggest benefit. So, the CSC, though claiming they were acting in the best interest of keeping Publications alive, would also benefit from additional funding. There’s no denying that Publications has faced a difficult period in recent years; from executive members resigning, problems with handovers, and halting largely over Covid, there is a lack of contingency within the committee, and there is no denying that they would benefit from the full time employees of the CSC. However, I do think that it is quite ingenious to claim that this was only put forward in the interests of publications. The CSC would benefit; they would have an extra capitations vote, and would likely obtain more money. So firstly, how this merger was portrayed was a complete lie.

Secondly, the details relating to the merger were entirely vague. I was notified that the idea of a merger was being entertained back in January – and if they would have Trinity News’ support. Immediately, I asked for the details; I was told it was in early development, and may not even go to a vote this year. I said I would hear their plans, and would put it to my staff for a vote, because I was not comfortable making a call without consulting them on it. The details for the merger were vague; Trinity News would get its own office, we would benefit from more money, and we would have “complete editorial independence”. I asked what were the plans to ensure the latter – they told me they didn’t know and that it would be established by a working group. Funnily enough, months later, when meeting with CSC both as Trinity News and as Trinity Publications, that was still the same after – “the working group will figure that out”. So, secondly, there was actually very little thought put into the merger bar an initial idea – it was not thought out. I told the CSC that if they were to have Trinity News’ support at all, they must clear the hazy details of the proposal before putting it forward for a vote. This was not done.

How the merger was then announced to editors of Publications was nothing short of unbelievable – the press release was sent prior to the notification of editors who would be asked to vote on it two weeks later. As the only editor who knew of the proposal at all, and thought it to be in its infancy, I felt that preferential treatment had been given to Trinity News –which should never, ever happen. Trinity News is just one vote at Trinity Publications – every publication gets a singular vote, alongside executive members of the committee. Trinity News only votes once – so why were we the only ones aware of this prior to its publication? It was handled atrociously, and I believe the Chair of Publications was put under significant pressure to “push it through” before the end of term – again, begging the question: why? Why is this so immediate? Why could they not take their time, form a solid proposal, and then put it forward? The rushed nature made it seem nefarious, and thankfully, Publications voted against the establishment of a working committee to look into a merger.

A lack of communication, clarity and foresight ultimately sunk the idea of a merger before it even began, which really comes as no surprise. The whole thing was treated as though it was a favour to publications, something which I think is not at all true. There would be clear benefits for the CSC, and would be a “one-up-manship” against TCDSU. I think this was always going to fail, because it was not a good idea on paper – it may have been, if it had been developed at all.

A lack of communication, clarity and foresight ultimately sunk the idea of a merger before it even began

There is no doubt that many committees have felt TCDSU stepping on their toes in recent months

HEA Act 2022: Presidential views

Criticised as “essentially a government takeover” and an erosion of independence by Trinity Fellow Dr Sarah Alyn-Stacey; defended in the name of “accountability” and “transparency” by the ‘mastermind’ behind the Act, Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris; the Higher Education Authority (HEA) Act 2022 comprised the biggest transformation of university governance in Ireland in five decades. Though met with significant student and some university opposition, the Act was signed into law in October. Alex Payne spoke to two TCDSU presidents, outgoing and incoming, about the consequences of the Act for students and universities in Ireland.

Student representation on the College Board, the transformation of College into a business, and ignorance of students’ needs; these are the primary concerns expressed by outgoing president of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU), Gabi Fullam, and president-elect for 2023/24, László Molnárfi in separate interviews with Misc.

Fullam deplores the “overall mindset” of government to view education “not as a good in itself, not as a right”, but as a system from which “to make money or upskill the current populace”. According to her, the state “fundamentally” views education as a business rather than a place of “innovation, expertise and creative learning”. Mólnárfi echoes these sentiments in describing the changes to come as an example of the government’s “corporate agenda”.

The new Act sets out that there will be three ‘student representatives’ on the Board. When the Act was in its early legislative stagesthe Bill stage it stipulated two. TCDSU lobbied for an increase from two to three student representatives on Board, and for them to be democratically elected. Fullam stated that the latter change was because “the quality of that representation wasn’t safeguarded”. “We are not totally reliant on management”, she says, adding that the TCDSU funding from the Capitations Committee is “safeguarded” through statutes. Although the TCDSU is relatively self-reliant, other universities around the country are in more vulnerable situations regarding appropriate student representation and funding. Consequently, an ambiguity between elected and “selected” student representation within university governance (as well as threats to funding) could lead to students’ unions struggling to remain an effective representation of students’ needs.

The HEA Act increases the minimum number of external members of The Board from six to nine and reduces the minimum internal members from nine to five. Of these external members, three are nominated by the Minister, with the remaining six recommended by the Board to be approved by the Minister. Molnárfi describes these external members as having “typically corporate leaning biases”.

This amounts to a greater level of “control of higher educational institutions” according to Fullam. Molnárfi describes this as a “neoliberal takeover of academia”, ridding College governance of “internal” democracy.

Through the supposed increased government control, “no

responsibility for their (universities’) long-term funding or their ability to actually see how that will progress into the future” appears to Fullam in the Act. Mólnárfi warns of an increase in the number of “casualised” academics (those without a permanent contract) and tuition and rent fee increases.

The president-elect has previously raised concerns in an opinion piece for Trinity News about the low pay, insecure contracts and lack of promotion amongst “casualised” academics. He says that “staff working conditions” are “student learning conditions”. Fullam similarly states that “harm to staff is harm to students”. She raises concerns about the model of “taking in more students to take in more money”, without provision of the appropriate infrastructure to cope with increased demand. She cites the staff to student ratio increasing as an example of this, as well as raising concerns about other teaching staff. Ireland’s current average student:staff ratio sits at 23:1 compared to the European average of 15:1.

According to the outgoing TCDSU President, a “lesser quality of education” results from the poor working conditions of PHD Researchers and Teaching Assistants. She highlights no reimbursement of teaching materials and issues with paid teaching as detrimental to the undergraduate experience. Paid training is also not a feature of the staff experience at Trinity. In other entities, Fullam points out that workshops around equality and diversity may not be voluntary and would most likely be paid. If unpaid and involuntary, she believes that they are mostly attended by those with a “pre-existing interest”, leaving significant gaps in the appropriate delivery of teaching and welfare services.

Accommodation fees at Trinity have slowly increased, epitomised by the weekly price of the new Printing House Square rooms – €245 to €270, including €19 per week for utilities. These accommodation charges, Fullam says, are a result of the College being “chronically underfunded”. In 2021 Trinity received 41% of its funding from the government, down from 70% in 2008.

Peter Reynolds, the Chief Financial Officer for TCD, stated in the 2020-21 Financial Statements that “the financial outlook for the University will continue to remain uncertain” without government commitments to long-term funding or a lift on the cap of student fees.

Mólnárfi perceives the Act to be hypocritical in nature. Set against the background of decreasing state funding, he argues that the “idea” of saving costs is what the Minister for Higher Education, Simon Harris, used to “push through this bill”.

“You’re not spending your money effectively. Your internal governance of students and staff – of community expertise –is not working” is how the president-elect summarises Minister Harris’ arguments in favour of increasing the number of “ministerial appointees”. He describes the situation of the last few years as “enforced austerity” and concludes that the Act is an attempt by the government

to fix an issue that it has created all by itself. Questions therefore arise, again, about the increased number of governmentappointed members of The Board, and what effect this will have on the choices made about who shoulders the cost of funding the College into the future. If students were to shoullder this cost with increased tuition fees and accommodation charges, Trinity becomes less accessible and students that do attend face a future potentially saddled with debt. This may be in the form of student loans, says Mólnárfi, who also draws attention to the rising food and drink prices at the college catering services.

Student loans are a feature of third-level education in the UK, a place the president-elect also uses as an example to express his concerns about the direction of academic funding.

In the summer of 2021 the UK government announced a 50 percent cut to funding for arts subjects in higher education. Roehampton, Wolverhampton, and Sheffield Hallam are just some of the UK universities that are having to reduce offerings in arts subjects. The Academy of Live & Recorded Arts (ARLA) closed last year and, symptomatic of the wider cuts to arts funding across the UK, the closure of the Oldham Coliseum has attracted plenty of criticism.

Mólnárfi is concerned that similar events may follow in Ireland. He suggests that this is because the government is focused on funding “marketable” research, ignoring education that you cannot integrate into the labour market as a “commodity”. It is not just the arts that are affected; STEM research is also under threat. In 2015, 1,000 scientists signed an open letter to the Irish government to raise concerns about the lack of funding for ‘blue skies’ research. As reported in the Irish Times, Tristan Mcloughlin, an associate professor in mathematics here at TCD, said that “basic (‘blue-skies’) research is essential for applied research in the long term”. He went on to explain that fundamental advances in research provide the bedrock for more practical advancements. Therefore, not only is the student experience at risk of becoming more limited academically, but College, and Ireland as a whole, risks falling behind more of its European counterparts in scientific development.

Mólnárfi says he plans to put up “one hell of a fight” in order to protect “community democracy”, the College from “corporatisation” and students’ needs. The HEA Act has begun to be implemented by the Board, with changes to the College statutes to take effect at the beginning of next academic year. Can Mólnárfi mount an effective resistance to the steady tread of government machinery? To be continued…

Alex Payne is Deputy Editor of Misc.

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It is not just the arts that are affected; STEM research is also under threat __

How AI can help you cram for exams (without cheating)

Tom Comer

One semester worth of laughing, breathing and generally wasting time - look where it’s brought you. The long metal barrel of exams stares you dead in the face, no extension will save you now. We have crossed the rubicon of the R rate, long gone are the golden days of online exams completed from your comfortable bedroom. Welcome all, the wooded vale that is exam season is no longer in the distance, but rather its roots gnarl your Doc Marten adorned feet. You cannot see a light past its thick shrubbery, nor hear the echo of your fellow coursemates through its thick fog. But fear not. We are in the new era of exam preparation. Unless you have paid as little attention to the news as to your lectures, then you will by now have heard of the infamous ChatGPT. The fresh-faced large language model to beat them all. Worse than the one person who does the readings in tutorials, this artificial intelligence is limited in its capacity for problem solving – but can be infinite in assistance to your learning.

Prompt #1: “Explain X to me like I am five”

Example: “Explain differentiation to me like I am five”

Response: “Okay, imagine you have a toy car that can move forward or backward. When you push the car forward, it moves in one direction, and when you pull it back, it moves in the opposite direction.

Differentiation is like figuring out how fast the car is moving when you push it. If you push the car a little bit, it moves slowly, and if you push it really hard, it moves quickly.

But sometimes, you don’t know how fast the car is moving just by looking at it. That’s when you need to use differentiation to figure it out. It’s like asking the car how fast it’s going and then using that information to help you push it just the right amount.

In maths, differentiation is a way to figure out how fast something is changing. If you have a curve, like the line on a graph, you can use differentiation to figure out the slope of that curve at any point. It helps you understand how the curve is changing, just like how you can understand how the toy car is moving by knowing how fast it’s going.”

Wow, what a journey.

Now a more arts-based example.

Example: “Explain the concept of viewing films through a Marxist perspective to me like I am five”

Response: “Okay, imagine you and your friends are watching a movie. You’re having a good time and enjoying the story, but then you start to notice something strange. The characters in the movie seem to be separated into two groups: the rich people who have everything they want, and the poor people who don’t have much at all.

“When you watch the movie from a Marxist perspective, it means you’re looking at the movie through the ideas of a philosopher named Karl Marx. He believed that the world is divided into two groups: the people who have power and money, and the people who don’t. He called these groups the “bourgeoisie” (boo-jwah-zee) and the “proletariat” (proh-luh-tair-ee-uht).

“So when you watch the movie from a Marxist perspective, you might start to see the characters in a different way. You might notice that the rich characters have all the power and control, while the poor characters have to work hard and struggle just to get by. You might also notice that the rich characters are treated differently by the other characters in the movie, almost like they’re better than everyone else.

Be very aware that ChatGPT can often simply make stuff up. The nature of large language models is that they are just probabilistic representations of human language, they don’t understand like we do. They cannot replace human judgement and your own first-hand knowledge of a topic. With that in mind, I am going to give you some prompts that will help develop your understanding of content in your course and hopefully aid your studying.

“Watching a movie from a Marxist perspective helps you see how the movie reflects the real world, where some people have more power and money than others. By understanding how movies and stories can show these ideas, you can start to think about how the world works and how we can make it a fairer place for everyone.”

I don’t know much about arts, Marx, or films – but that seems pretty good.

*Disclaimer – do not use ChatGPT for online exams, MCQs or problem sets. That is cringe and boring. Engage with your content critically and do not use this as an aid to cheat in any official examinations.*

“Fear not. We are in the new era of exam preparation.

Example: “Help me draw parallels between the Solow Growth model and unrelated domains, promoting a deeper understanding and the ability to apply knowledge in novel situation”

Response: “The Solow model, which is a mathematical model used to explain economic growth, can be compared to other unrelated domains to promote a deeper understanding of the model and its applications. Here are a few examples:

“1. Environmental science: The Solow model can be compared to the concept of carrying capacity in ecology, which refers to the maximum population size that a given environment can sustain. Just as the Solow model predicts that an economy will eventually reach a steady state where the growth rate of output per worker will be zero, the concept of carrying capacity predicts that a population will eventually reach a level where it can no longer grow sustainably…”

It went on to give me four other comparisons but I won’t bore you with the details. I particularly love this one –customise it to explain concepts in fields you are more interested in. Like anything but your degree.

Prompt #4: Now a silly one. “Explain X to me in the voice of a cowboy who’s being chased by a dinosaur”

Example: “Explain the beginning of the War of the Roses to me in the voice of a cowboy who’s being chased by a dinosaur”

Example: “Formulate effective questions related to linear algebra that will promote deeper thinking and stimulate curiosity.”

Response: “How can we use linear algebra to analyze the behavior of a system of differential equations?”

“What is the significance of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a matrix, and how do they relate to the geometry of the matrix?”

“How can linear algebra be used to analyze and optimize complex networks, such as social networks or electrical power grids?”

“What is the geometric interpretation of the cross product of two vectors, and how can this be used to solve problems in physics and engineering?”

“How can linear algebra be used to solve optimization problems, such as finding the minimum or maximum of a multivariable function subject to constraints?”

Thought deepened and curiosity stimulated, for sure.

Response: “Well howdy there, partner! Let me tell you about the War of the Roses. It all started back in ol’ England when the Lancaster and York families were fighting over who should be the king. These two families had been feuding for years and it finally came to a head in the 15th century. It was like a stampede of bulls, with each side charging towards the other, ready to take the crown.

of the Roses

“But let me tell you, that wasn’t the only thing causing a ruckus. Out of nowhere, this mighty dinosaur appeared on the horizon and started chasing me like a bull at a rodeo. I had to high-tail it out of there before it gobbled me up like a tasty morsel.

“Anyway, back to the War of the Roses. It was a real mess, with battles all over the place and nobody quite sure who was winning. It was like a game of poker, with each side holding their cards close to their chest and waiting for the right moment to strike. Unfortunately for me, that dinosaur was getting closer and closer, so I gotta mosey on out of here. But let me tell you, the War of the Roses was a real doozy, and it’s a story that’ll make your head spin faster than a lasso.”

You get the picture with this one. I am sure It’ll lighten up a neurotic study session in Kinsella hall at 2am, or maybe drive you completely insane. I would encourage you to experiment with this one; cowboys, samurai, aliens, celebrities – ChatGPT can do it all. Always remember you can be as specific as you like – don’t hold back.

Prompt #2: “Help me draw parallels between X and unrelated domains, promoting a deeper understanding and the ability to apply knowledge in novel situation”

Prompt #3: “Formulate effective questions related to X that will promote deeper thinking and stimulate curiosity.

“Well howdy there, partner! Let me tell you about the War

“Out of nowhere, this mighty dinosaur appeared on the horizon”

Image via Midjourney

This one is for the real crammers. A customised study plan, just for you. Feel free to set a time limit on this study, and inform ChatGPT of what you’re most and least familiar with.

Example: “Break down French Grammar into smaller, more manageable chunks or units, and provide a structured plan for mastering each one. I have two weeks, and know most of the irregular verbs.”

Response: “Sure, here’s a breakdown of French grammar into smaller, more manageable chunks, along with a structured plan for mastering each one in two weeks:”

French Grammar Study Plan generated by ChatGPT

Week 1:

Nouns and Articles: Learn the gender (masculine or feminine) of common nouns and how to use definite and indefinite articles. Practice identifying the gender of nouns and using the correct article in context.

Pronouns: Learn the different types of pronouns (personal, possessive, demonstrative, etc.) and how to use them in sentences. Practice substituting nouns with pronouns in context.

Adjectives: Learn how to agree adjectives with nouns in gender and number. Practice using adjectives in context, with different noun types and in different positions within sentences.

Verbs: Review regular verb conjugation in the present tense. Learn how to conjugate and use irregularverbs in the present tense. Practice using regular and irregular verbs in context, with different subject pronouns and with different verb types.

Week 2:

Adverbs: Learn the different types of adverbs (manner, frequency, degree, etc.) and how to use them in sentences. Practice modifying verbs and adjectives with adverbs in context.

Prepositions: Learn common prepositions and how to use them to express location, time, and other relationships between words in a sentence. Practice using prepositions in context with different verb types and sentence structures.

Pretty sweet if you ask me.

In summary, ChatGPT should be your new library crush. Stop looking at that person from across Ussher 4. Acquaint yourself with ChatGPT’s wiley ways and searingly intelligent takes. Be wooed by its mastery of language and resourcefulness; but beware - it lies like a rug. It will make stuff up, so check to make sure with relevant resources. It can be your best friend and guardian angel in this exam period if you let it.

We are entering a new frontier of artificial intelligence and assistive technology unlike anything we have seen before. Change your approach to education and learning, and leverage these new tools to gamify studying and supercharge your “productivity”.

Tom Comer is a Junior Sophister maths and economics student

Conjunctions: Learn different types of conjunctions (coordinating, subordinating, etc.) and how to use them to connect words and clauses in a sentence. Practice using conjunctions in context with different sentence structures and clauses.

Syntax: Learn the basic word order in a French sentence, and how to form questions and negations. Practice constructing sentences in different forms (positive, negative, interrogative) and with different grammatical structures.

Structured Plan:

Week 1:

Day 1-2: Nouns and Articles

Day 3-4: Pronouns

Day 5-6: Adjectives

Day 7-8: Verbs

Week 2:

Day 9-10: Adverbs

Day 11-12: Prepositions

Day 13-14: Conjunctions and Syntax

“For each grammar topic, you can use a combination of textbooks, online resources, and language learning apps to learn the rules and practice using them in context. Try to focus on one topic per day, and set aside time for practice and review. By the end of two weeks, you should have a solid foundation in French grammar that will allow you to communicate effectively in everyday situations. Good luck!”

Prompt #5:”Break down [topic or skill] into smaller, more manageable chunks or units, and provide a structured plan for mastering each one.”

Feeding the vultures The questionable solution to student housing

Mia Allen

The prospect of moving away from home for college is not a freeing one for most, but one riddled with guilt and stress. This sentiment when related to finding accommodation in Dublin does not seem to be alleviating. The broader context of a nationwide housing crisis due to a property bubble that has not been popped adds more pessimism. The more you look the worse it seems, and absence of supply combined with unaffordability makes this gruelling search a typicality for students in Dublin. Nonetheless, the situation seems dismal in terms of public policy, and the implications are damning. In a broader sense, land ownership is at an all-time low amongst young people, and the tradition of immigration is one that readily perseveres through this absence of housing, with 7 out of 10 aged between 18-24 considering it according to Red C. Government and higher education institutions understand the importance of housing for students. Their reports show the affordability and availability of student housing is absolutely integral not only to students’ social development, but to their retention in education and to their academic performance. The options for students in Dublin seem limited at best. Government and HEI remedy to the shortfall in supply has not been to implement affordable housing or increase construction, but to allow for international investment funds to swoop in to swiftly meet the urgent demands for housing. The growing role of these international actors is symbolic of a growing pattern that’s visible in nearly every aspect of Irish land and real estate, and it’s looking less and less defensible.

Between the vultures and the cuckoos it seems a whole host of animalistic private investors have taken a hold of the Irish property market. This is apparent in the realm of student accommodation with the continued growth of privately owned purpose built student accommodation. The dilemma remains that there is a lack of infrastructure or policy to create accommodation without these investors. Assistant Professor of Economics Ronan Lyons notes the immense shortage of supply in Dublin’s rental market. In his report for Daft.ie, private investors essentially provide an immediate supply to an area that has experienced decreased construction since the recession. This has created a lucrative market for international investors, and a country that needs them. Since 2016, our Government has been keen on developing more and more student accommodation. However when it comes to city-centre universities specifically, international investors are a focal part of this scheme of producing supply. The Government continues to incentivise these firms with continued tax relief. Looking closer this results in near impossible rents for the typical student, with the average sitting at €250 a week. Their general defence of this pricing is an intention to provide quality, modern and “luxury” accommodation for students. A sentiment which seems near deluded to what most students want, a simple roof over their heads for a manageable price.

Trinity has even partnered with these capital funds (namely Yugo) to provide further accommodation, with residences like Kavanagh Court priced at over €10,000 per academic year.

Furthermore, looking at university owned accommodation this trend is far more apparent, with more and more colleges offering an abundance of more luxury geared accommodation. The government has indeed created more supply, but this supply is extraordinarily expensive. Similarly, it’s important to note the continuing profiteering universities enjoy from student accommodation. Trinity’s new Printing House accommodation costs €13,000 a year, with all pre-existing Trinity owned accommodation rising in prices. The inability of universities to provide affordability, and the lack of availability in the private rental sector has only fuelled the growth of “cuckoo fund” backed purpose-built student accommodation. This leaves students to consider looking to other areas of the private rental market, which itself is facing issues of supply. For a typical student budget this results in living on the outskirts of Dublin, paying cash in hand, with a complete absence of tenancy rights. A quick search online vanquishes any hope of finding something affordable, safe, and relatively accessible. That once assumed goal of a rough around the edges, but affordable student house is now inaccessible to the majority. The abundance of Instagram story posts searching for anything, for students the

only solution seems to be pure luck. Ironically the aim of the government’s efforts of pushing more purposebuilt student accommodation was to remove students from the rest of the private rental sector.. However it has only forced those unable to afford PBSA into more unstable and insecure housing arrangements. Whilst tax relief schemes for rent payments have been employed they seem entirely disproportionate to the high rents, which continue to increase. Government’s current sympathies on the matter seem conflicted, with Leo Varadkar consistently referring to the “mess” that is the housing market as a whole, whilst dismissing the worry of increasing immigration

as “the grass is always greener” syndrome. Students in Ireland on average pay more in housing costs than any other student in the EU or UK, a fact Leo loves to forget. Despite this, current full time students cannot test Leo’s hypothesis, as we are bound to the Irish property market for the course of our degrees. This vulnerability of students in this housing market has been neglected, by both our colleges and by our government. Debt, long commutes and even homelessness are the very real concerns and realities of those trying to pursue third level education in Ireland, and are going to particularly affect the most vulnerable of students.

Government’s warm welcome to these international investors has had grave and far reaching implications on the Irish property market. There is a “chronic over reliance” on the private sector to afford social housing notes Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin. We see HAP payments as increasingly the norm for Irish renters, in effect creating a private sector which is subsidised by government as people cannot possibly afford these rents. Their defence to the situation is a retelling of the historic implications of the recession, and the lengthy time it will take to see stability once again, emphasising the need for these investors to meet the staggering demands. However, government affinity for these “cuckoos” extends much further than housing, and begins to look much less defensible. EU and government-backed afforestation efforts, which were designed to provide an income for farmers in rural communities for otherwise unusable land, have been invaded by cuckoos, disrupting communities without any discipline.

Earlier this year, Coillte and Gresham House, an internationally active investment fund, launched their joint venture into afforestation efforts. This went uninterrupted, despite the shocking decrease in local farmer engagement that ensued. No considerations were made by the government to the potential socio-economic or environmental consequences of the deal. With farmers and other local developers unable to compete, perfectly good and usable land is being bought by these huge cuckoo owned forests shunting development and growth of local businesses and farms. Nonetheless the afforestation scheme has been criticised by environmental scientists for being overly accelerated and antithetical to native biodiversity. However with the introduction of these actors in the market, this questionable afforestation has only accelerated. The reality of the midlands land becoming dominated by these multinationals is heavily concerning, for both the environment and the locals. When we look at contexts like this, a broader trend of government indifference to the conduct of these firms is visible. The uncaring attitude to its people is the same in relation to the market of student accommodation.

The government has allowed private funds like Yugo and Gresham House to swoop in and manage land, housing, afforestation, and even road infrastructure. The common catchphrase embodied by the government as always is an intent “to keep bad investors out”, whilst they incentivise their arrival, and seldom inhibit this free market. Land is a huge factor in wealth accumulation, and it’s a struggle to merely rent it, which is telling.. Protecting the free market is one thing, but the government seems to be relying on these private investors to somehow distribute housing fairly, particularly student accommodation. The road to “rebuilding” Ireland cannot be equitably paved by international investment funds – but all signs indicate that they will nevertheless be the ones paving it.

Mia Allen is a Senior Fresh law and political science student

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Debt, long commutes and even homelessness are the very real concerns and realities of those trying to pursue third level education in Ireland, and are going to particularly affect the most vulnerable of students.

My Erasmus experience in Jerusalem – an alternative view

Kerry O’Sullivan

The March issue of the University Times contained an article in which the writer described their experience of Erasmus in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It claimed that “politics and religion don’t define the lives of ordinary people” in Jerusalem, and that issues relating to conflict in the region “are not as black and white as they seem”. This is a response to that article.

The Erasmus experience may be a rite of passage for many students of cultural studies; what is not a rite of passage is unwillingly participating in the oppression of Palestinian people. I believe that an erasmus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is, by definition, just this. I spent a semester living in Jerusalem as part of my Middle Eastern studies programme and came to realise that one cannot exist in this city or indeed this apartheid state without rightly harbouring the guilt of benign support for Israel. Everything, from the bus you get to where you buy your weekly groceries, directly impacts the victims and perpetrators of the regime. It’s time we questioned whether a partnership between Trinity and such an environment is useful or constructive for our education; something we are getting for the sake of the betterment of society.

To say that politics do not define the lives of the ordinary people in Jerusalem is to say that Palestinians are not people of the city. The classes in the university and the state of the art student accommodation only exist because it was built on stolen Palestinian land in East Jerusalem. The university itself is a settlement on stolen land. Sitting

in class at the top floor of the International Rothberg School, one has a perfect view of the apartheid wall in East Jerusalem. A perfect view of the torn up footpaths and ramshackle homes people are forced to live in within the small pockets of East Jerusalem they are ‘permitted’ to. In other words, a perfect view of the result of your presence in that particular class on that particular day, whether you like it or not.

Whilst on the surface level it may seem that everything is safe and secure in the Hebrew University, it is one of the starkest examples of the power of Israeli propaganda I saw whilst over there. There are armed guards at every door; searching the bags and shouting at the few hijabi students and Arabs who brave the campus of the Hebrew university. If they believe their presence is warranted on this land, if they believe they have a right and a claim to East Jerusalem, the fear and hostility they have of Palestinians and anyone critiquing their regime directly contradicts this widely spread claim. Students perpetuate this oppression and hostility too.

During my time there, students performed a citizen’s arrest on a group of students who happened to be singing in Arabic on the university campus, the future and current soldiers of this regime already using their upper hand. Far gone were the insincere claims of equality and changes in Israeli society beginning with the students of the Hebrew University. They are being taught to fear and attack these communities. The classes, too, must be acknowledged for their bias. Many of the teachers were European or North American immigrants to Israel. I had a class on “counterterrorism”, which was essentially an hour a week class in propaganda surrounding the justification of the actions of the IDF using regular brutal force against Palestinians. I came to find it extremely ironic as I see the level of violence and terror that the Israeli government allows and encourages to happen as simply terrorism itself.

It is a privilege to believe that your community is not politicised, especially in Jerusalem. Claiming the privilege of being apolitical is in itself dismissive and ignorant of the

plight of Palestinians in the city. For Palestinians, buses, water supply, electricity supply, how they get to work every day past checkpoints, how safe their children are whilst playing on the street by their own homes, whether they are going to be safe from evictions and house demolitions are part of everyday life. These are political actions that this state is taking to ethnically cleanse the indigenous people of this land. Every interaction is steeped in the politics of hatred that the Israeli government has cleverly and quietly woven into every facet of society. People celebrate religious holidays, of course, but often they are used as opportunities to attack attendees at Al-Aqsa mosque, as happened just last week, or wreak havoc on the Muslim quarter of the old city, which is already suffering from an influx of Jewish settlements literally on top of ancient Palestinian homes and businesses. Existence in the city is political, whether this is because your life is easy and you can ignore these injustices or difficult to the point where all you can hope for everyday is to survive.

The question we must pose is whether this exchange partnership should even exist in the first place. I have learnt from participating in it that we should not have to see or experience the oppression of others to believe

it or do something tangible about it. The purpose of education, and particularly exchanges such as this is to increase our cultural awareness and be able to put this into practice to improve society and the world we live in.

Trinity maintaining links with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is not representative of the beliefs and views of the student body and certainly does not pertain to the betterment of society. Maintaining links with this university is sinister enough, but now Israel is the only country in the Middle East that Trinity offers funding to study abroad in. This means that it is the only opportunity for students of Middle Eastern studies to travel and study in the Middle East, an incentive to increase the number of people attending the exchange.

I felt like every penny that I spent in Israel was helping to strengthen an apartheid regime I didn’t believe in and didn’t want to support. Every class I attended was teaching me something that wasn’t true or was so based in bias that I didn’t want to know it, but was afraid other students were listening and believing every word coming out of a lecturer’s mouth. Every time I felt safe on a bus or walking down a street I was reminded of the fear that has become as ordinary to Palestinian communities as getting to school and work is. This exchange has no place in our education, the ideas and sentiments of the Israeli regime have no place infiltrating Irish universities. As we at Trinity try to peel back our own layers of colonial legacies, we should be more than mindful of the Palestinian cause; more than aware of how it feels to have your land stolen and culture suppressed.

Kerry O’Sullivan is the PRO of the TCDSU Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Implementation Group

“To say that politics do not define the lives of the ordinary people in Jerusalem is to say that Palestinians are not people of the city.”

The art of science and the science of art: Finding common ground

Sacha Pavry

The battle between the science and arts students of the world must come to an end. More often than not when arts students think about scientists, they imagine abstract formulas, monotonous mumbling and rambling jargon-based conversation. This is a fair assumption to some extent, it is important to be accurate and straightforward to describe reality and so sometimes scientists may come off as, well, severe. Moreover, scientists can have some pretty slanderous biases when it comes to arts students. Phrases such as “starving artist” or one I saw on Sidechat “your degree isn’t worth the paper it’s written on” are less than encouraging and of course entirely contrived. Sidechat has certainly brought the age-old feud between the Arts block and the Hamilton back to the surface. Unfortunately, to many of you keyboard warriors’ great dismay, the convergence of art and science could prove to be essential in solving many of the world’s more complex issues.

Writer Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan, who recently spoke at the Future Human 2022 event at Trinity Business School, put it very well “Art and science were never meant to live in silos. They’ve always been entangled, overlapping, interwoven things” and that to her “they are threads in the same tapestry: everything around you, on you, is the most tangible connection between arts and science.” This is certain to ruffle some feathers, particularly on the backs of proud mathematicians and astute theatre majors. I’m aware that both tribes find each other equally repugnant. However, when you bring things down to basics, they aren’t actually that different. Some of the greatest scientific minds in history have expressed a profound interest in art. There is a simple explanation; creativity requires imagination and imagination requires some kind of visualisation. Before we can create something we must imagine and conceptualise it first. Creativity is found in every form of genius. There is a fear that when we work independently, from one particular viewpoint, we seek one-dimensional solutions. For example, a molecular biologist will explore the climate crisis

The Línte na Farraige project visualises the impact of future sea level rises using a single white line marking everything that will eventually be submerged if current global temperature rises continue

Image: Línte na Farraige

Spanish Arch, Galway

from a molecular biological perspective and an economist will lean more toward the socioeconomic contributing factors. Unfortunately, no matter how excellent our research, the one-dimensional answers we seek are simply too one-dimensional. The more perspective you can gain on an issue, the clearer it becomes and any independent finding is redundant in solving any large-scale problem without every other angle as well. In the words of the genius of geniuses himself, Leonardo Da Vinci stated “To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; Study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” As we begin to think about it like this, the walls of segregation between the opposing fields crumble before our eyes. The system of “one or the other” that we have set up for ourselves has shown much progress and discovery in the respective areas but very few large-scale synergetic developments. This inherently limits us in our ability to progress. So why do we isolate these many kinds of genius into sad little prison cells? Usually

because certain people have a mulish, stubborn tendency when it comes to working with the ‘other team’. There is no need for the opposing parties to work towards the other’s demise. Collaboration will be essential in the coming years as we face more complex issues than ever before so natural selection will take its course eventually.

The next step in the integration process is, of course, education. In my humble opinion, universities should work under the impression that complex, real-world problems require interdisciplinary solutions. These involve problems like climate change, racial and financial inequality and the ethics of artificial intelligence. Issues as such cannot be solved by one subject alone. It is essential that students develop a sense of social responsibility by exploring ideas and cultures from all over the world and every field of study. I don’t see much point in a ‘to be computer scientist’ who doesn’t understand basic human morals in a world where AI is becoming our new greatest threat. Students must be well versed in as many varying

disciplines as possible including the arts, humanities, sciences, social sciences, languages, mathematics and writing. This would give all students the ability to break down almost any challenge from all viewpoints, analyse it and be as informed as possible when speaking about issues that they do not specialise in themselves. As well as that, they will be able to communicate and understand each other. Communication is limited for people who exclusively hone in on one area of education. I’m not saying that a world of generalists is the be-all and end-all, I merely believe in variety and consciousness outside of one’s own interests. Many colleges in Ireland and abroad have already begun to recognise the importance of interdisciplinary education. A new course titled Liberal Arts and Sciences has immigrated from the continent and appeared on the CAO in recent years and is a brilliant step in the right direction. The guiding philosophy of these courses is STEAM – STEM with the inclusion of arts. On the topic of STEAM, the Science Gallery on Trinity campus is finally set to reopen after its lamentable closure last February. In 2021, following unsustainable financial losses, Trinity took the executive decision to shut up shop. Upon closure, Taoiseach Micheál Martin commented that Trinity “needs to do work” to create a sustainable financial model for the gallery if it were to re-open. And surely enough, the gallery is currently working towards opening its doors with an exhibition this summer under a brand new operating model. It has been decided that the gallery will now work with an external company to create a more sustainable business going forward whilst simultaneously resurrecting the spectacular locale that we all know and love. Over the years, the gallery has brought many wonders right to our doorstep and I believe an ode of sorts is in order. Since the Gallery’s original opening in 2008, three million visitors have had the pleasure of enjoying 43 exhibitions at Trinity’s Science Gallery. With an array of curious exhibits stretching from the ecosystem of a belly button to a fishing net made from human hair, it is safe to say that the gallery has both shocked and amazed. As part of a greater organisation called The Science Gallery International, there are a number of notable mega minds at the heart of many of the projects as well as supporting them. For example, they have partnered with Pfizer (who you may recognise from the vaccine centre), SpaceEU, Science Foundation Ireland, Intel and many more. They also hosted a series of workshops called OPEN MIND studios for secondary school students. I was lucky enough to take part in one of these in 2020, after which I felt that Trinity was where I wanted to be. We explored areas of architecture, product design and problem-solving, particularly focussing on the

climate crisis at the time. I was very inspired by the work of The Science Gallery and it has played a huge role in the direction of my education. I know many other students in my year who took part in these workshops will agree. The revival of this invaluable gallery is a wonderful step in the right direction for Trinity and a great relief for all that have enjoyed it over the years.

Luckily, while the Science Gallery is still in the works, Trinity was lucky enough to host the “Línte na Farraige” exhibition, meaning “lines of the sea” in Irish, which was displayed in the Arts Block during Green Week. The installation was cleverly designed by Finnish artists Timo Aho and Pekka Niittyvirta to explain the progression of rising sea levels in years to come. Involving scientists from Trinity College Dublin, Maynooth University, The Climate Action Regional Offices and local authorities, they produced a disconsolate series of white lines that marked the impact of rising sea levels on various coastal areas around Ireland including Martello tower in Blackrock, Spanish Arch in Galway and Wexford Harbour. The impact of climate change was simply visualised by a single white line to show everything that would eventually be submerged if we continue on the same destructive trajectory with our emissions. The adapted artworks that were on view in the arts block visually explained different emissions scenarios from the recently published Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report 6 (AR6), and from Irish tide gauge data. Designers from Algorithm and Native Events worked on the aesthetics and visual communication of the research, making it more accessible and visually stimulating. An installation like this is far more impactful than an information board or a flyer, a real visualisation of the environmental repercussions that all of our actions have is the wake-up call we all needed to remind us that we are not infinite.

Art-science has the power to spark conversations that could be instrumental in developing society in preparation for the “dark hour” that we shall inevitably face as a planet. After years of exploiting resources and ignoring our wrongdoings, reversing the detrimental damage we have done to society and our planet is going to take a historic combined effort with every area of expertise at the forefront.

Sacha Pavry is a Junior Fresh student of biological and biomedical sciences

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Art-science has the power to spark conversations that could be instrumental in developing society in preparation for the “dark hour” that we shall inevitably face as a planet.

5 things to do instead of going to TBall

Didn’t get your hands on those coveted tickets? We’ve got you covered.

by Maisie Greener

What’s fully sold out, requires a short term loan to fund and is (allegedly) the biggest private party in Europe? TBall, of course. Next month, Trinity Ball will make its annual re-appearance on campus and, having declared to Trinity News that he ‘wholeheartedly believe[s] that this Trinity Ball will be brilliant’, Max Lynch has the student body on tenterhooks counting down the days until the 14th April. With this year’s festivities potentially being the last on campus for five years, it is no surprise that there was such fierce competition for those precious, few golden tickets. However, don’t let ticketmaster get the last laugh, here are our top five suggestions of things to do if you’re in the unfortunate demographic of Trinity students who are not going to Trinity Ball this year...

1Rehearse your monologue about not wanting to go anyways

“No one this side of 2010 even listens to Two Door Cinema Club” and “I didn’t even bother trying for tickets” are refrains that have played like a broken record across every corner of campus since TBall tickets sold out in under seven minutesthree weeks ago. How do I know they are lying? How do I know they’re repeating it until they believe it? Because I too was once a bold-faced liar, who failed spectacularly at convincing my friends I was unphased about missing hearing “Tell JK that I’m still rollin’, yeah, tell Russell I’m a Brand”live from Front Square. In fact, I was bringing my old speech out of retirement no less than a couple of days ago, before the stars aligned and I stumbled across a spare ticket (don’t be a stranger if you’re in need of any acting tips).

2Do not drown your sorrows in substances

While all your friends are on a come down outside the Berkeley, you could be holier-than-thou hitting your eighth hour of sleep. Snorting, swallowing and smoking, synonymous with the TBall experience, is a lot less socially permissible if you’re doing it alone in your bedroom. Alternatively, spend the money you saved on the steep tickets, hop on Resident Advisor and get pissed elsewhere.

3Stay off social media

Even those suffering with the mildest cases of FOMO will be irked by the inundation of prinks pictures on the timeline. Brace for Instagram impact. There’s nothing like seeing a houseparty from every angle to remind you that you were neither invited nor in attendance. For 3-5 business days, give or take, expect your feed to be nothing but drunken selfies and shaky videos. My advice: take a hiatus from the socials and protect your peace.

4Keep gunning for a ticket

Inevitably, interspersing Insta dumps from a Phibsboro pres will be last minute story appeals for tickets. If you can’t be unapologetically desperate with your close friends, then who can you be unapologetically desperate with? On the other hand, there’s definitely a tactic for the bolder and braver which entails lingering around the outskirts of campus in the hopes of snagging one of the many rejectees’ tickets whom, in their drunken annoyance, may sell it to you for a non-extortionate cost. For the small price of compromising your integrity you too could make a last minute show at the ball. Excessive? No – “resourceful” and “innovative”. One man’s loss is another man’s gain and it isn’t over until the fat lady (Trinity Orchestra) sings (plays).

5Come to terms with your fate

If your social media pleas and in-person accosting do not come to fruition; and your dignity and wallet will not allow you to fork out 250 on a resale ticket, then you may have to come to terms with your fate. This suggestion is last on our list for a reason, only follow if your arts block or Trinity Tunnels hiding spot gets found out.

And there we have it… a less-than-conclusive and less-than-savoury list of suggestions to kill your time on April 14. Contrary to popular opinion, the Trinity universe is not TBall-centric and the party is only one night in an already packed calendar. With that being said, it’s a real shame that constraints on capacity mean that the majority of the student body cannot party together, especially for those in the final year of their studies. Sanctimony and self-pitying privileges are awarded to all those not in attendance.

The Captain America’s Wednesday Night Extravaganza

Beginning in January, Captain America’s on Grafton Street held student open mics every Wednesday night, offering a free meal to all performers, be they singers, musicians, guitarists, poets, or even self-proclaimed comedians. Last week, it took the decision to end Wednesday night open mics, to the dismay of about four loyal regulars. Buster Whaley recounts the excitement and allure of Captain America’s open mic nights at their once glorious height.

By 7pm on Wednesday, my compatriots and I are nearly faint with hunger. The pained demands of an empty stomach can be tolerated no longer; we drag our weary bodies through town, across College Green, in front of speeding busses, and finally, up Grafton Street, stumbling slightly as we shuffle forwards towards

the beautiful blue and red neon emblem of justice and salvation that beckons to us through the rain and the darkness. But our struggles have not ended, for a shivering mob – those huddled masses, yearning to eat for free – stands between us and our reward.

Word has spread of Captain America’s Wednesday night affair, and human beings from all walks of life – and even some women, too – have put their differences aside to gather for an evening of free food, cheap drinks, and poor displays of “talent”. In a typical display of American culture, the “free” meal at Captain America’s comes with a price: your creative energy, and your time. As all Americans are taught from birth, and as the rest of the world by now is well aware, nothing in the Land of the Free comes without a cost; there is a price for everything. For your health, you must pay the bills; for an education, you must pay tuition; for a pension, you must wait till youth has fled and death has broached the horizon. And at Captain America’s, if you want a free meal on Wednesday night from 8-10pm, you gotta pull up the

ol’ boot straps, take to the stage, and earn your keep.

Out on Grafton Street the mob presses forward, with my compatriots and I somewhere on the growing outskirts. For now, the hunger has abated, replaced instead by a surge of adrenaline. The crush at the door, for those in the centre, can be deadly; the prospect of a warm plate of food has driven the crowd to a point of animalistic barbaricism. By now my friends and I have found ourselves closer to the middle of the crowd, driven forward by the arrival of fresh droves of the starving and the talentless. At the door, blocking our collective progress, stand the “bouncers,” faceless mercenaries dressed in black uniforms, bearing the seal of Captain America’s– the red and blue striped armband, a lone white star blazing from the centre. They wield batons and riot shields, occasionally clubbing down those desperate enough to try and force their way in. Sometimes, on evenings of exceptional violence, the blood trickles between the cobblestones like rain…

Finally, at five minutes to eight – when the tension has nearly snapped, and the hunger can wait no longer – the bouncers get word from upstairs that the first group can be let through. The shouting crescendos as the mass of bodies swells forward, every man (and the women, too) trying his best to get through before the doors are

closed again. Though my friends are left behind, I am one of the lucky few allowed to pass through; as I follow the rest upstairs, I cast one last glance over my shoulder. The guards have resorted to further beatings, driving back the screaming mass. I try not to think of my friends, turning my thoughts instead to the chicken and cheese enchilada that awaits me at the top of the stairs. The atmosphere upstairs is exuberant: men (and even the women!) laughing, cheering, shouting exclamations of dis belief at their good fortune. Drinks are purchased. In a city where a pint typi cally costs between six and seven euro, the prices are reasonable (or at least ex pected and tolerated). Out of the rain, with drinks in hand, we take our seats. Those who could not find a seat are content to stand, for the moment, while they wait for their turn to earn a plate. The first of us to take the stage is a twenty-yearold student from Trinity College Dublin. Long wool coat draped over his shoulders and well-worn boots laced haphazardly beneath baggy trousers, this first performer is nearly indistinguishable from the majority of the young men of his demographic; but he, too, has dreams, and he, too, remembers the wild and beautiful hopes of childhood, perhaps outgrown but never, never forgotten.

He holds in one hand the neck of a small guitar, and in the other, a bottle of Sol (on these, Captain America’s runs a three-for-ten deal; they even give you a free wedge of lime for each, if you can believe it). Placing the bottle gently down on the floor, he brings the guitar to his chest and begins to strum a few chords. D, A, G, the standard fare. The words come with some difficulty and his voice, shaky and out of key, stumbles along for a few minutes until the song, mercifully, ends. He retrieves his bottle and sits down, and the waiter – overworked, undoubtedly as hungry and tired as those he serves – takes his order.

Next up is a young woman. She studies computer science at UCD and has travelled across the city for a morsel of food. Lacking any musical ability, she stands timidly before the microphone to

read a poem. It is an original, she claims; the audience, relentless in their hunger, boos and jeers until her voice, faltering, finally ceases to enunciate the useless syllables of poorly written prose, and she flees the stage, seeking anonymity once again. Her search is not in vain, and soon she is just another member of

I love, the people I almost love,” as John Darnielle so simply puts it – and I watch with mild, drunken disinterest the displays of talent, some earnest, some ironic, some veiled in irony, so as to avoid humiliation… eventually, my food arrives, the waiter straining above the crowd, calling out, “Chicken

Lacking any musical ability, she stands timidly before the microphone to read a poem

Slow Surrender: Trinity and the Inclusion of Catholics

Brian Lennon

For centuries, Trinity acted as a citadel to inject Anglicanism into an intransigently Catholic Ireland. Fortress life is secure – it accommodates insularity and security. But after nearly two centuries of Anglo-Irish supremacy, Trinity College in the late nineteenth century had ceased to be a military as well as academic outpost because it had remained unchallenged. Consequently, the rise of an Irish Catholic middle class in the latter half of the century put the college back on the defensive and forced it to re-evaluate itself.

In 1793 Provost Hely-Hutchinson removed legislation that disqualified Catholics from taking degrees at the University of Dublin. While Catholics were still disbarred from ascending to scholarship, fellowship or God forbid, the Provostship, this liberalising of admission lay the foundations for a more inclusionary college. The introduction of non-foundation scholarships in 1855 showed further ‘progress’. Non-foundation scholarships finally granted Catholics and non-Anglican Protestants the chance to accrue the benefits of scholarship normally enjoyed by foundation scholars. However, these special non-foundation scholarships were created solely to disbar Catholics from voting with the Board of the College. As ever, this incorporation of minority groups had the semblance of equality without granting these groups any substantive agency to effectually agitate for change. The citadel was still secure.

Then, as thunderous as a summer storm, Gladstone and his Liberal Party swept the British political landscape. Gladstone’s mission to “pacify Ireland” was underway, and in 1870 the Church of Ireland was disestablished, diminishing much of its political power and prestige. This stunted Trinity College’s capacity to represent itself in Westminster, and it also lost the power of nomination over a number of Irish dioceses. Trinity’s realm of influence was shrinking on the island. Thereafter rose a broader campaign to remove all religious tests from the college. However, this movement was slowed, not only by conservative Anglicans within Trinity’s governing structure, but also by the Catholic church.

Finally, after much impasse, the University of Dublin Tests Act was passed in 1873, abolishing all religious examinations in the college. This granted Catholics and other religious minority groups (theoretically at least) to ascend to the Board of the College. In spite of this, continued Catholic opposition to the Act dissuaded many Catholics from utilising this newfound collegial privilege.

The Catholic hierarchy, political representatives for Catholics in Ireland after the Emancipation Act of 1829, feared the growing leniency of Trinity

College; to them, inclusionary policies allowed an intermingling that would dilute the purity of Irish Catholicism. Trinity was included with the newly founded and nondenominational Queen’s College, which had three campuses in Cork, Galway, and Belfast, as a “godless college” by the Maynooth Synod of 1875. With the creation of the National University of Dublin in 1908, which united Queen’s College and University College Dublin, the Catholic hierarchy lessened their censures and focused more stringently on Trinity as, somewhat paradoxically, an emblem of both “godlessness” and Protestantism. The Catholic reaction, then, to Trinity’s burgeoning inclusionism did as much to cement Trinity’s reputation as a sanctuary for Protestant snobbery than anything else. It also pitted two student bodies against each other; that of the National University and that of Trinity. This reified the polarity of religion in Ireland into the vessels of two student groups, and had violent and politically turbulent consequences.

During the Easter Rising, many UCD students took to the streets to fight for Irish freedom. Provost Mahaffy, conversely, and a number of Trinity dons allowed British soldiers to use the campus as a garrison. Mahaffy went on to label the National Universities of Ireland culpable for organising the rebellion. In the Autumn of Mahaffy’s Provostship, an article in the UCD magazine The National Student titled “Resurgamus” implored students to “combat the forces of West Britonism”. A whirlpool of hatred was turning in the bloody waters of Irish politics.

Mahaffy had been dead but half a year when, on

Armistice Day 1919, a crowd of Trinity students marched out onto College Green to solemnise in silence for the war dead. Outside the front gate fortress, they fell victim to a vanguard of National University students who virulently sang A Soldier’s Song. The Trinity students, awash in royalism, responded with God Save the King, and in anger marched to Earlsfort Terrace, the then site of UCD. They were met with a rueful throng of Catholic cavaliers. The UCD students sallied out, armed with such modern military marvels as rocks, sticks torn from unlucky trees, and wooden planks. This foray proved successful, and in the heat of the noonday sun which shone over bruised blazers as they cascaded in commotion through Dublin, the Trinity students were beaten back to the Shelbourne Hotel. The Trinity students reformed their serried ranks and marched to Grafton Street, where, outnumbered by a force of three hundred Spartan seditionists, the order “charge!” was levelled, and a dishevelled fight ensued. The Trinity combatants were routed, and retreated back to campus, shutting Front Gate behind them. The students, cloistered in their castled campus, were now safe. War was not over yet. In 1925, fuelled by

Republican triumphalism, two hundred UCD students attempted to storm the front gates of Trinity. Smoke bombs were used for cover. The recently-formed Garda Síochána, and a number of Trinity students, repelled the attack. On VE Day in 1945, UCD students

economic support. The founding members of the Free State, rueful of the College’s history and distracted by civil war, largely ignored the college. A small, recurring state grant was not enough to allow the College to expand its research abilities.

were brave enough to march into campus itself.

Trinity’s defensively Protestant ethos was waning, not only because of a broader liberalising movement within the college but also because of financial stagnation. Trinity had been dependent on the British exchequer for its entire history until 1922. It had also relied on Westminster for political as well as

It was not until after “The Emergency” that Trinity was to become a largely state-funded institution. This was more the product of desperation than co-operation, but also reflected the desire Trinity students had to assimilate into the broader population. T.C.D: A College Miscellany – the forerunner of this magazine – responded vociferously to the opinions of some ardent nationalists about “the intolerable suggestion that this University is outside the Irish nation”. Despite this desire for assimilation, Archbishop McQuaid’s effective prohibition on Catholics attending Trinity stunted this effort until the ecumenical atmosphere of the 1960s culminated in the lifting of the ban. Since then, Catholics have accounted for approximately three-quarters of the total student body, and the days of a sceptred, sectarian college have dissipated into a troubled and bitter past.

Brian Lennon is a columnist for Misc.

“The founding members of the Free State, rueful of the College’s history and distracted by civil war, largely ignored the college.”

Erasmus reflections

For many, the study-abroad experience is a time of increased independence and growing confidence, while for others it can be defined by feelings of isolation and homesickness. As Erasmus draws to a close for Junior Sophister students, and as Senior Freshmen consider the choices ahead of them, Emma Whitney talked to students who are currently abroad to gain some perspective on the adventure that they’ve undergone.

Lara Monahan, Paris

I am in Paris on my Erasmus exchange, having signed up for the full year at the Sorbonne. Everyone says that you should enjoy it while it lasts because it will fly by. They were, of course, right. But when you are faced with an entire academic year in a place which, usually for the first couple of months, can feel quite intimidating, this is hard to believe. When I arrived, I really found the admin of living in a different country quite hefty. The actual Erasmus admin is simple – but it was the other stuff, like getting the equivalent of a Leap Card, making use of discounts and student support schemes that felt a bit arduous. I think this might be specific to France and the systems in place here, and I realise it doesn’t seem like admin could bring you down that much, but it really sucked away a lot of my time at least in the first month or so and had me wishing I had gotten to know it a bit better before actually arriving. That said, those moments have been completely worth it for the type of life experience Erasmus has given me. It is a system which has really built my confidence and sense of self – a good balance between feeling like I was being protected and supported by the Erasmus system, while also feeling incredibly independent. I have found that the study is still challenging; my classes are all in English, but the texts we do are at the same level of analysis that we would be doing at Trinity. Maybe the style of assessment seems more lenient but getting used to foreign systems of essay-writing, and just the energy put into looking after myself in a different country has rendered this perceived lenience necessary. I know a lot of people who felt that when they arrived on their Erasmus course they hadn’t been prepared enough by the courses at Trinity; particularly for languages students post-Covid, lots of people I know arrived and felt justifiably overwhelmed by the standard, and amount of work required of them.

I know I have been quite lucky in my course that it was a good balance between challenging and comfortable. I knew that moving to a different country, even for

the relatively short period of time that an Erasmus exchange occupies, would change me, and that I would form an emotional, nostalgic bond with the place even before I have left. I already experienced this moving to Ireland from the UK, having never been before. I know already that the metro station by my flat, or the kebab shops that have graced many a 4am walk home, even the Carrefour aisle with the cheapest pasta sauces, will be nostalgic places for me if I am lucky enough to visit here again. The cultural experience of Erasmus isn’t necessarily what you initially suspect; it isn’t just things like being able to visit the Louvre when I want or walking around the Sorbonne campus that I will miss, but also the more ordinary things. All this to say, they were all right – anyone going on Erasmus should indeed enjoy it while it lasts, because however much the independence of it all can be bittersweet, the year will fly by before you know it.

Anna May Lyons, Berlin

If someone were contemplating whether to go on Erasmus, there is no doubt in my mind that I would urge them to go. My Erasmus experience has been just that; an experience, and a brilliant one for that matter. It seems something so natural and so fitting to be able to live and study abroad in your early 20s, and I truly believe that I will be grateful I got to do so forever. My time in Berlin, which I’m sure many people experience on their year abroad, has been a dream, a delusional fantasy, and life changing, whilst simultaneously being lonely, challenging and demanding. I think that perhaps I was slightly naive going into the year, not knowing what lay ahead of me, and carrying the simple expectation that I was entering into the best year of my life. Having to throw myself into a group of students from all over the world, scrambling to find common ground and establish a network in my new home, was nothing short of exhausting. Alongside this came navigating new areas, the foreignness of a new university system, and figuring out how to live alone for the first time in my life. But with adversity comes excitement, and for me, there was no city more exciting. Realising the depth of history and culture, the uniqueness, and the sheer mass of Berlin was amazing, and never ceases to amaze me. I would advocate for anyone to go to Berlin to study for several reasons. First of all, it is so incredibly liveable; with a cheaper rent and a general cost of living, a brilliant public transport system and a diverse and multilingual population. I also think that this is a wonderful place for any young person to be; as I mentioned, the cost of living is cheaper, but the city also places an emphasis on youth culture. Clubs, bars, and events are plentiful. Berlin is a creative and bustling place; there really is always something to do here. I really do think that if given the opportunity to go, do it, and go for a full year. To close, I think some words of advice would be necessary. To anyone going to Berlin, I would say; be as sociable as possible from the beginning (say yes to everything), save as much as you can before you go,

Berlin is a creative and bustling place; there really is always something to do here

“

don’t leave accommodation to the last minute, don’t be disheartened by the grim winter because the summer makes it more than worth it, and ask for help when you need it.

Zaynab Zahar, Paris

Moving to study abroad is one of the most conflicting experiences you could come across. There’s just so much going on. On the one hand, you’re exploring this brandnew place and being exposed to different cultures. It’s this unique experience that really helps you discover more about yourself-your capabilities, your limits, your likes, and your dislikes. Meanwhile, you’re dealing with these ridiculously complex emotions; you miss home, but you know you’re going to miss being on exchange when you’re gone too. In short, you quickly conclude that going on Erasmus is a brilliantly infuriating contradiction. Like any other rollercoaster ride, being on Erasmus involves several phases. The first one consists of the stress of applying, getting selected, and then dealing with the overwhelming mess of instructions to follow. What are meant to be helpful guidelines only serve to confuse you often. It can be a bit staggering, but rest assured, once you’ve arrived at your destination, it’ll end up benefiting you. Next comes the administrative process of being enrolled to your host university, as well as the nightmare that is finding housing. Mind you, destinations like Paris are especially challenging, since anything remotely affordable is at least thirty minutes away from the city centre. The application procedures are particularly headache-inducing. Once that’s over, you can progress to the next step: moving to your host university. Getting acquainted with the environment you are going to spend the next semester or two in is very exciting. You could find yourself in a university with four different campus buildings, which would be especially fun to navigate. There are unexpected surprises that you will probably (and almost undoubtedly) encounter – such as transportation and garbage strikes in your host city. Even those are something new you can learn about and should help you understand more about your host city and its culture; for instance, I can report with complete confidence that protests have been a consistent part of the French political laboratory since the 14th century. Once the nerves settle down, though, you can finally start meeting people with similar interests from all sorts of backgrounds, as exchange programmes typically have a wonderfully diverse student body. Weirdly enough, the anxious feelings you had before the beginning of the semester start to wind down, and you start confidently navigating your surroundings. Here, the lovely confidence boost comes in as you figure

out how to resolve issues you may come across. You bond with other exchange students, while also learning from degree-seeking students at your university and teaching them stuff as well. It’s a lovely period of growth – filled with nights out and weekends spent preparing for assignments, along with the excitement to explore, and yearning for home, all in one. You’ve likely heard this before but going on Erasmus is a truly rewarding experience. If you’re looking to get out of your comfort zone and experience personal growth, it is worth considering.

Jack Delaney, Strasbourg

I’ve looked forward to my Erasmus experience since choosing my course in sixth year. Given my studies of the German language in school, my seventeen-year-old self may have found it interesting to discover that I’ve ended up in Strasbourg, France. But alas, here I am. I didn’t end up too far away from Germany. Located right beside the German border, Strasbourg offers a blend of cultures, showcased finely throughout the city’s narrow streets and peaks within the city’s world-famous Petite France district. With the European Parliament and the Council of Europe only a couple of tram stops away from the university, this city is European to its core and offers an attractive Erasmus experience. The central point of the city is firstly the stunning, world famous Cathédrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg and secondly, it’s buzzing student life. Beer pong tournaments, language cafes and other organised Erasmus events introduce you to individuals from every corner of the globe. The student hub is bustling but not large enough to become overwhelmed or feel lost in the crowd. My experience is all about the people I’ve met and the lifelong friendships I’ve gained here. Of course, Erasmus is about travel and fun, but within this exciting time, you also have to navigate the culture of a new country and an entirely new academic system. A student driven environment such as Strasbourg’s provides a comforting network of people sharing the same struggles and experiences. However, even in the midst of such a strong student hub, Erasmus can be an isolating and lonely period. You’re away from the strong social networks of your college life and expected to build an entire new life to get through the semester. Once the novelties of trying local food and exploring the local areas, you’re

Within this exciting time, you also have to navigate the culture of a new country and an entirely new academic system

still just in your second semester of third year without any of the characters, places or groups that created and encompass your love of college life outside the lecture hall. This love must be redefined rapidly from the moment you arrive and getting to this point can prove to be a difficult challenge. For me, the adjustment period took time. Getting to grips with the Alsatian, French culture and character of the city itself were the biggest barriers to my enjoyment in the earlier days. Strasbourg is much smaller than any major city, including Dublin. On Sunday, the streets are deserted, supermarkets are closed, and the city enjoys a full day of rest. The city also values its night’s sleep with nothing (apart from the nightlife) staying open after 9pm. This proved an adjustment from the luxuries of 24-hour access to Spar and late night munch. Believe it or not, you learn to appreciate the downtime and slow pace of life here. Life is chill and the academic life is undemanding here. Like many host institutions, my university in Strasbourg caters to a blend of native and non-native English speakers. Courses are taught in English, but the level of detail and the intensity of work involved is lower than in Trinity. As a final note, Strasbourg’s similarity to my home city of Galway provides a nice illustration of its essence and my overall experience. Like the City of the Tribes, Strasbourg seems to thrive in the sun. Its vast array of parks and outdoor eateries (which were boarded up on our arrival in January) set the scene for a perfect late spring or summer’s day. Its quaint qualities become vibrant, and the quiet streets become bustling with life. This transition proves that the journey of Erasmus, with its trials and tribulations, is worth it in the end and the experience is priceless.

Alanah Kennedy, St Andrews

I had never been so depressed as when I went away on my Erasmus to Scotland. My expectations were high, I had rarely heard a bad word against the Erasmus experience and when given the chance to experience it, I took it. In all my wisdom and all my sense, I figured St Andrews, a tiny little town populated by more Americans than actual Scottish people and with only one night club that opened two days a week... Yes, I somehow thought that is the place for me. I lived in privilege for twenty years without truly understanding the feeling of loneliness, it was not until the choppy Ryanair plane descended into Edinburgh airport that loneliness first found a home in me. This experience was a way for me to prove to myself that I was independent, without the help of parents or friends, and so I believed it was a great idea to bring 30kg of luggage with me. And so, imagine the foreshadowing of that rainy night as I stepped off the plane, embraced by cold bare air and

with a two-hour car journey ahead of me that I had to share with eight other strangers, strangers that were in their final years of university, that were familiar with the travelling routine and very cleverly brought someone along to help them. I say that it was raining and cold, and it must have been, it was Autumn in Scotland? But truthfully memories distort these facts to reflect how we feel in these moments, for all I know it could’ve been sunny and humid, but this wouldn’t accurately reflect how I was feeling at that time. So this memory will forever remain cold and rainy to me. I had the expectation that I would soon become good friends with my flatmates, but this assumption was quickly crushed as the awkwardness of the flat seemed to permeate the air. I assumed with four hours of classes a week my grades would greatly improve, I was in fact wrong, as it turns out the St Andrews’ stereotype that everyone is pretentious or intelligent is a stereotype for a reason. St Andrews all in all seemed a miserable time in my life. But within these moments of misery came moments of gratitude as I found meaning in the relationships I made around me. I appreciate my best friend Eve, who I would have been wholly lost without on this journey, and without her I would not have experienced the god-awful nightlife in St Andrews. I have rarely laughed so hard as I have with her. Nor would I have experienced the charm of poetry readings without my good friend Arrushi introducing me to the hub of creativity they were a part of. Slowly but surely these originally miserable moments transformed into things I knew I would appreciate in years to come. My perspective began to shift, and the relationships I made and the beautiful, picturesque seaside town I called home slowly became a place for me to enjoy. Before I knew it loneliness soon became independence, this once foreign place became familiar, and gratitude replaced my misery. I know I will forever fondly look back on this fluctuating stage in my life, appreciating both moments of hardship and beauty, a stage in my life in which I learnt that time and attitude can greatly change our perspective and ultimately our experience.

Emma Whitney is Deputy Editor of Misc.

The beautiful, picturesque seaside town I called home slowly became a place for me to enjoy

“

Can we ever be truly “present” at College?

AAt college, it can often feel like everyone is always one step ahead. Planning summer trips, internships, jobs, Erasmus. Days pass in a constant speculation on where we’ll be –and what we’ll be like – this time next month, year or decade. At this time of year especially, when daylight savings jolts us, slightly bewildered, into a new season, the future seems to be approaching all the quicker. But is that a symptom of the academic year nearing its end, or just of college in general?

As students, we live by necessarily numbered weeks, and in a state of nearly-but-not-quite. I am not quite a grown-up, haven’t quite left home, haven’t quite got it all figured out yet. When well meaning adults ask what course I am doing and I cautiously reply “English”, their next question is always “to do what?” College is seen by many – often necessarily, due to its cost and the work a degree mandates – as simply one step in the route to a career. It is a transitional period, and therefore definitionally liminal, constantly moving, dragging us along with it. But what defines the joy of college, for me, is those moments of forgetting about all of that. When the sun comes out unexpectedly, and your route to the library is derailed to doze on the grass, picking at splinters of green with your fingers and squinting up at the other people who stop to breathe, for a little, in the warmth. Sitting around after dinner with friends, plates mopped clean but no one moving them because the conversation keeps dissolving into a glorious mess of tangents. The in-between times in these in-between years, I guess. When time feels like it is whizzing past, there is a pressure not to waste it. This often manifests itself, for me, in neurotically planning out each day. Yet, maybe in order to really respect time, we need to let ourselves waste it, in a small way. We need to feel it slipping by without worrying about grabbing on. The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik coined

the phrase “causal catastrophe” to describe “the belief that the proof of the rightness or wrongness of some way of bringing up children is in the kinds of adults it produces.” Childhood is not valuable only as a means to a ‘good’ adulthood, whatever that might entail. In the same vein, the worth of our time at college is not solely determined by its effects on our futures, even if it is designed to carry us towards them.

I’m not trying to say we have some obligation to slack off in order to make the most of our time at Trinity. Or even that we have to savour every moment. Sometimes I just want to sit in a Lecky pod, eat some almonds and scroll mindlessly. At other points, the passage of time is a reprieve; there are moments you are glad to let pass you by. I still find myself caught though, every now and then, in the cliched wish that time could stop for a moment. I forget that it can, in a way, but it involves me stopping, too. In our economy, stillness is stagnation. If it is lauded, it is because a break can help you move faster and further in the future: a pause in productivity is only positive if it makes you more productive. Even sleep, the act of doing nothing, has been co opted into a measurable and an improvable, a period to optimise in order to better yourself and your time.

College years go by too quickly, everyone says it. But rather than trying to catch up, I’m resolving to see what happens if I’m content with letting them slip a little. Because it’s those moments of slippage, of not watching the clock, that I will remember when I do finish college. That time will undoubtedly come, but maybe we don’t have to think about it right now. To the contrary of everything I’ve heard teachers and lecturers say about thinking ahead, maybe we shouldn’t.

Phoebe Pascoe is a columnist for Misc.

It’s those moments of not watching the clock, that I will remember when I do finish college

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Phoebe Pascoe