The Students’ Union at Trinity College has told the university that it does not intend to pay a bill of €214,000 that was levied on the union for what the college’s Financial Services Division says were losses it incurred as a result of protests backed by the Students’ Union (SU).
In what was a highly unusual move Trinity College Dublin (TCD) sent an invoice for the amount to the Students’ Union just days before students embarked on an encampment in solidarity with Palestine and days after Trinity SU president László Molnárfi warned of an escalation of student action, advising on social media platforms that the Students’ Union was “organising something massive after [the] exams”.
The invoice listed four dates when protests were held and the SU was given until 30 May to pay the bill.
However, in a letter sent today to the financial services division the SU said that students at the university had exercised “their lawful right to peaceful protest”.
“If a loss of revenue coincided with such peaceful protests, none of which resulted in any arrests by An Garda Síochána, then such is a cost to the university of operating in a liberal democracy where peaceful protest is both lawful and encouraged,” the letter, which is signed by Mr Molnárfi, states.
The letter also argues that the protests were undertaken “by individual students” and that any alleged losses coinciding with the student protests were “entirely avoidable by the university”.
The SU has told the university that for these reasons it is rejecting its “purported invoice”.
“It is only in a court of law that the university could seek to make the Students’ Union responsible for any alleged losses,” the letter says, adding “and to endeavor to do so would be bad use of the university’s resources, reputationally damaging, and according to our advice would most likely be unsuccessful”.
“I trust that the Students’ Union will hear no further in relation to this matter and that the purported invoice has been cancelled”, the email concludes.
RTÉ News has contacted Trinity College for comment.
Meanwhile, Trinity College has initiated disciplinary proceedings against both current SU president Mr Molnárfi, incoming SU president Jenny Maguire and President of the Postgraduate Workers Union at the college Jeffrey Seathrún Sardina.
Initial hearings were heard last week.
The charges relate to protests that took place at the college over the course of this academic year.
The proceedings are being brought under college rules that govern the behaviour of students at the college.
Possible sanctions include disqualification from exams, suspension, or expulsion.
All three student leaders are challenging the disciplinary action. Disciplinary charges against a fourth TCD SU officer, Communications officer Aiesha Wong, have been dropped.
Ms Wong told RTÉ News “the disciplinary proceedings seem to not be about punishing individual students but instead attacking student leaders”.
