Tonight, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) council voted to support the creation of a new union committee with the focus of contacting potential sponsors and to discuss and develop a commercial revenue strategy for the union.
The motion was brought to last council but was delayed due to a long discussion on fees being introduced for supplemental exams. The discussion resulted in the decision to hold a preferendum on the matter.
Speaking to The University Times before last council, Communications and Marketing Officer Úna Harty said “I didn’t realise how much of the job was sponsorship. I knew it was a good part of the job, but I didn’t realise how much money you really had to be making”.
“We want to see what [students] think about it and how they feel about it”, she explained.
She also commented on how she and President Kevin Keane “wanted to make sure that we did not have a [€30,000] deficit” from “day one”. “We knew we did not want that headline at the end of the year”, she said.
The group will be composed of the union’s President, Communications and Marketing Officer and Administrative Officer. The motion stated that additional members of the union will be introduced to the group if extra members were needed.
Harty proposed the motion and it was seconded by Keane. Speaking for the motion, Harty said that she believed it “was really productive for the union to do this”.
“I think it is a really good way to ensure that the union isn’t in a deficit”, she said.
The new group will approach potential sponsors under the same model the union uses now. The reasoning behind this, Harty said, is to “get more money from our sponsorship[s]” and “ensure that we get a longer term, more loyal partnership”.
In the most recent financial year, the union posted a deficit of €15,000, half of what the union lost in the last financial year.
