Legacies

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Trinity College Dublin
Dublin 2

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Legacies@tcd.ie

Terms of Reference

Remit

Reporting directly to the Provost, the role of the Trinity Legacies Review Working Group is to document the historical evidence on specific legacy issues, to seek evidence based submissions from the College and wider community on each identified issue, and, based on the evidence collated, provide options for consideration to the relevant decision-making authority (College Board, Faculty Executive or School Executive) as is appropriate and determined by the TLRWG.

Rationale

At present TCD has neither a transparent mechanism by which stakeholders can raise an issue that relates to Trinity’s legacies, nor any way of processing or considering any such request when it arrives. The decision-making bodies cannot be expected to systematically contextualise these types of decisions, but require robust research evidence on which to base their decisions in an informed way. TLRWG will consider specific legacy issues. and commission the necessary historical research to produce an evidence-based response to internal or external requests in a systematic and transparent way. The current situation depends on ad-hoc responses to legacy issues.

Structure and Membership of the TLRWG (19)

The membership of the TLRWG will be broadly representative of the College Community, and includes students, professional staff, academic staff as well as external members.

  • Chair: Senior Dean
  • Three members to be nominated by the President of the Students’ Union (SU)
  • One member from each Faculty to be nominated by the Faculty Deans’
  • Three members to be nominated by their respective Unions (IFUT, SIPTU, UNITE and Craft Unions)
  • The Chair of the Fellows or their nominee
  • The Librarian or their nominee
  • The Associate Vice-Provost for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion or their nominee
  • The Director of Public Affairs and Communication or their nominee
  • The Director of Trinity Development and Alumni or their nominee
  • The College Secretary or their nominee
  • Three members to be nominated by the Provost

Secretary to the Committee (EO to the Senior Dean) - The secretary will manage the website, filter public requests, and compile and distribute all documents for TLRC.

Agenda Setting

The TLRWG will proactively invite the College and wider community to identify legacy issues associated with Trinity, and it shall be role of the TLRWG to prioritise the legacy issues identified and prepare an annual work programme to deliberate on the legacy issues prioritised and submit a work programme to the Provost. TLRWG commits to engaging with people who identify legacy issues at Trinity, and aims to work with them to propose pathways to the relevant decision-making bodies inside or outside the university, based on deep evidence-based research.

Three Stage Process

The TLRWG will operate a three stage process to provide an inclusive, evidence-based methodology to inform their deliberations.

Evidence Phase: The TLRWG will commission an initial evidence-based contextual review to be provided from expertise within the College, supplemented by external expertise when necessary and as determined by TLRC. The scale and scope of the review will determined by the TLRWG, but in general terms, the review will document the historical and other evidence on the issue under review. Depending on the particular legacy issue under review, legal opinion may also be sought by the TLRWG to establish the permissible parameters of possible options in relation to specific legacy issues. The evidence based contextual review should also seek to draw on comparative responses to particular legacy issues.

Public Consultation Phase: Following completion of the contextual review, the review will be made publicly available via the dedicated Trinity Legacies Review Working Group website, and the public / interested parties will be invited to contribute evidence based submissions to the TLRWG. The TLRWG may also invite oral submissions. The TLRWG may also initiate a citizens assembly in respect of a specific legacy issue, if they are of the view that such an assembly would aid the deliberative process and contribute to determining the various evidence-based options to the relevant decision making body.

Options Phase: Consideration of the evidence commissioned and submissions received by the TLRWG and the identification of options, based on the evidence review and the public consultation, and if deemed necessary, legal opinion, to assist the relevant authority in their decision making.

Terms of Reference