Trinity has introduced an electronic system for registering the assents of Fellows, marking a departure from the traditional system of mailing hard copies to every Fellow.
Assenting is the process – enshrined in the College’s statutes – by which Trinity’s Fellows vote to approve changes to policy in the College.
A survey carried out after the pilot found that 100 per cent of Fellows who participated in the pilot were satisfied with the change.
The College hopes that introducing electronic assents, known as e-assents, will streamline a system that previously required the Fellows to return physical copies of their assents to the office of the College Secretary for counting.
Speaking to The University Times, the College Registrar Prof Paula Murphy said that by implementing the e-assent system, Trinity was “replicating exactly the same thing, having the Fellows’ voices in exactly the same way, but doing it in a more efficient and sustainable way”.
Trinity’s statutes stipulate that on matters concerning the Fellows, Trinity will provide them with 10 days to consider the issue before setting “a return date and appointed time by which the Fellows shall return their Assents”.
The process by which Trinity’s Fellows give their assent is historically significant. Speaking about the departure from the traditional system, Murphy said: “You don’t want to rush a change like this, you really want to do it right, as the tradition around Fellowship is very important.”
Electronic assent, Murphy said, was proposed as a way of bringing the process more “in line with our digital transformation”.
When the change was first mooted, an e-voting working party was established, which consisted of representatives from across the College. The returning of assents through an electronic system was piloted during February 2018, prior to the election of new College Fellows in April, and was later approved by the College Board.
During the pilot, 85 per cent of Fellows submitted their assent electronically, which Murphy said marked a “big improvement” to the engagement levels of the Fellows.
“One of the things we hoped it would do, apart from the efficiency, would be to make it easier for Fellows to engage. Because the response is good but could be better”, she said.
Before e-assents were introduced, a survey was circulated by the College to gauge the response of the Fellows. Speaking about the 100 per cent satisfaction rate among Fellows with the new system, Murphy said: “I think you can call that a success.”
“We did it with great care as to making sure nothing was lost and that everybody was happy, and that, I think, paid dividends because it played into the success of it. We’re very traditional, and we love our traditions. But we’re also willing to change when we’re reassured about it.”
In 2017, 62 per cent of Trinity’s Fellows assented to the introduction of a new academic year structure, which included the implementation of College-wide Christmas exams for the first time in Trinity’s history.
The changes required an amendment to the College statutes, the basic rules of the university, which could only be enacted with the assent of the majority of the Fellows. In that instance, the quota for the change was 123. The Fellows had the power to veto the changes.
The election of new Fellows is announced every year on the steps of the Public Theatre, and is one of Trinity’s oldest traditions.
