Students involved in various science associations based in the Hamilton at Trinity College Dublin have pleaded for more institutional support, citing continuous issues with a lack of funding and resources.
These associations, which include Theoretical Physics Student Association (TPSA) and Eirspace, were first founded in 2019, are not currently affiliated with either the Central Societies Committee (CSC), the students’ union or College.
Despite the recent formation of these groups, Trinity has seen a rapid growth of these science-based associations, starting with the TPSA in 2019 and its spin-off “The Problem Solving Association”, Eirspace as well as the Trinity Floating Wind Team.
Speaking to Trinity News, Casey Farren-Colloty, two-time former auditor and current committee member of TPSA, says that these groups are “passionate communities driven by ambition and dedication to science”, but collectively, they are receiving “very little material support.”
Despite the notable popularity of these organisations, with the TPSA alone having over 200 members and well-attended regular seminars, they currently do not have institutional recognition.
Due to associations like TPSA not being formally recognised by the CSC, Farren-Colloty says that the groups “can not avail of benefits that CSC societies would have”
“For instance, ease of access to booking spaces as well as funding opportunities, and the possibility of having permanent space. Especially when we were starting off, not being able not being able to get the same level of advertising, from social media and not being able to participate in Freshers Fair, it all really posed a challenge for us”.
As a result of the lack of institutional funding, Farren-Colloty states that the TPSA, despite running a myriad of events, workshops and talks, finds itself having to restrict its activities. They struggle to finance guest speakers, are unable to fund teams to go to physics competitions and can’t afford the occasional donut and pizza at events – a staple of Trinity society life.
“I think the level of support that we’ve gotten from Trinity as an institution is indicative of the level of support that we as a nation are giving these communities. The percentage of GDP spent on education in Ireland is 2.9% whereas the EU average is 4.4%. It’s horrible. It’s actually a miracle we’re doing so well as a research community, given our circumstances,” he further adds.
The former TPSA auditor praised the support of the School of Mathematics, School of Physics and Institute of Physics for TPSA, but noted its ad-hoc nature, and the limitations therein.
Lorcan Geraghty, founder and director of Eirspace, a cross-university group of 62 students who are passionate about the aerospace industry, reported experiences similar to Farren-Colloty.
Eirspace, owing to its unique cross-institution structure, did not opt to be recognized by the CSC, whose rules would leave the group restricted. Instead, they work with Dogpatch Labs, a startup hub outside of the university, for access to resources.
“It would also be greatly beneficial if we had access to machinery in the Parsons, but due to external factors outside the College, the cost to facilitate us and other teams would be too much for the School of Engineering to keep up with on top of the enormous amount of research being conducted,” Geraghty says.
Despite having no official affiliation with any university, Geraghty says Eirspace receive a small bit of help from professors, who “help create connections”.
The Eirspace director goes on to highlight the importance of these groups and the prospective opportunities they offer to the students involved
“I’m being introduced to very influential people, just straight out of the blue. I’m creating these huge networks, these huge connections. And then when I write up my CV as well, a lot of people in these groups, they write it down as work experience because essentially it is. In groups like in ourselves, we’re teaching other students how to work together, how to collaborate,”
Echoing a similar point, Farren-Colloty said: “If there is one thing I would tell the College and the government, is that there is so much potential in these groups. For now, it is our own ambition and almost forceful nature of collaboration and making ourselves known to people that has kept it going. Imagine what we could do if we had more resources”.
A cursory look at similar groups in other universities reveals a drastic difference in resourcing. DanSTAR, the Danish Student Association of Rocketry, founded by students in the Technical University of Denmark in 2016, is supported by its partnership with the university and other independent companies. With this financial backing, the association has its own permanent workshop and has participated in the European Rocketry Challenge competition.
It seems that the resource issues that these associations are reporting will only continue as long as their organisations remain unrecognised by the Central Societies Committee (CSC). However the associations often conduct activities outside of the “normal” society framework, and thus are left in an organisational limbo.
Speaking to Trinity News, the CSC stated that “in order to support any student-led organisation, we have to do so through our pre-existing framework.”
“Any such group has to reach out to us for formal provisional recognition, which is a process culminating in a presentation to the CSC Executive Committee in order to be put to a vote. Unfortunately, only one of the [science association groups] has formally approached us to try to gain provisional recognition this year, meaning they’re the only group we’re currently working with to try and support them in working through the process outlined above.”
Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU), speaking on this matter in a written statement to Trinity News, cited a wider issue of “College’s continued effort to quash the student experience for us all.”
“TCDSU sees and strongly regrets a huge gap in supports for STEM students, as well as for HS students. Student spaces must actively be defended, this extends to STEM through a complete shortage of lockers and storage space for those in labs, forcing students to dump their stuff outside of labs without any security for their belongings. Student-ran services currently stand as a light in an increasingly corporate and soulless third level sector, however, we would encourage all capitated bodies to reassess the means for which it supports STEM and HS students – as often we are the only ones that do.”
