UCD Students’ Union has issued an official statement condemning Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin’s administrations repeated “attempts and tactics to silence the student voice and infringe on [their] right to protest”.
UCD Students’ Union has issued an official statement condemning Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin’s administrations' repeated “attempts and tactics to silence the student's voice and infringe on [their] right to protest”.
They notably cite the €214k fine that was issued against TCDSU by the college administration yesterday and the forceful removal of UCDSU President Martha Ní Riada from the ex-White House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s honorary doctorate conferring in O’ Reilly on Monday, April 22nd.
The Union emphasises that “curtailing the right to protest is an affront to generations of students and hinders the University from moving forward” and assures that “[they] cannot allow protest and resistance to be curtailed on campus as they stand in solidarity with TCDSU and other Students’ Unions around the world taking principled stands.”
In a statement given to The University Observer, UCDSU President-elect Miranda Bauer states, “We stand in full solidarity with TCDSU because the decision to fine them a quarter of a million euro is clearly an effort to deter students from organising and fighting for their rights. I believe that we unfortunately can see a parallel between the Trinity administration and our own in this regard, with the treatment of Martha in the Nancy Pelosi protest. Of course, these decisions by management will not stop us from having a spine, so we will keep standing up for what’s right.”
As emphasised by TCDSU officers, UCDSU reiterates that meetings and official engagements are limited tools democratically-elected student representatives can use and that when these fail to generate the expected results, students are within their right to resort to direct action and protest.