Trinity will run four weeks of online information sessions for prospective first years over the coming month, with guest speakers including the heads of Trinity’s Central Societies Committee (CSC) and Dublin University Central Athletic Club (DUCAC).
The first session began this afternoon on Zoom, with a webinar focused on student life and a questions and answers session for those hoping to come to Trinity next year.
Guest speakers include CSC Chair Lee Campbell, DUCAC Chair Jemil Saidi and Matt Dossett, the deputy head of Trinity Sport.
They’ll share insights into orientation, clubs and societies, support services and accommodation.
Prospective first years are looking ahead to a first semester quite unlike any that’s come before, with College forced to change its teaching methods as a result of the pandemic.
Freshers will start College – which will run a mixture of online and blended learning – with an orientation week on September 21st, a week before the start of the academic year on September 28th.
Christmas exams are set to be pushed back until January 2021, under a radically altered academic calendar that will see a shortened Christmas break.
It’s not yet fully clear how College plans to re-open its accommodation. Last month, unpublished minutes from a meeting of University Council seen by The University Times revealed that Trinity planned to tell students to “do things differently” as part of its plan to open its accommodation “on a phased basis”.
At the meeting, Provost Patrick Prendergast warned of the “need for students in College accommodation to do things differently by ensuring that kitchens and shared spaces are kept clean and tidy at all times”.
Last week, speaking on RTÉ Radio 1, Prendergast said Trinity is weighing up a “rotation system” in accommodation, which could see students allowed to use shared kitchens on a rota in order to ensure social distancing protocols are followed.
He said that the pandemic “doesn’t mean much-reduced numbers” in Trinity’s accommodation next year, claiming that a rotation system for the kitchen – coupled with the ensuite nature of most of College’s accommodation – could allow “quite a number of students to be in college accommodation”.
