In just over a week's time, members of TCD's electoral roll will gather in the Exam Hall to elect a new provost. Dr Tom Mitchell, the present incumbent, is due to step down on August 1st. Unlike in other universities, the provost of TCD is elected rather than selected. Anyone, though, can stand for election. All you have to do is muster 12 nominations from members of the electoral roll. These include all the full-time academic staff, and student and other staff representatives. However, the college's large and growing number of contract academic staff are ineligible to vote.
The closing date for nominations is four weeks before the date of the election. Electing a provost of TCD is a bit like choosing a pope. Trinity staff will gather in the Exam Hall on March 10th, ballot papers will be handed out and electors will place a tick against the name of their preferred candidate. Papers will be collected and counted, and the candidate with the lowest score will be eliminated.
This process continues until a final winner emerges. The new provost, whose term lasts for 10 years, will command an annual salary of £100,000 and get to live in one of the most stunning houses in Dublin - the Provost's House at the bottom of Grafton Street.
Candidates have been lobbying hard since last autumn. "Running for provost is a crucifying, miserable job," according to one senior academic. "And if you get it, you have to give up your academic life."
Ultimately, it's personality that counts. "There's not that much difference on policy, and nobody's proposing radical changes," observes one TCD professor.
Of the five candidates who have been nominated for election (see panel), the two front runners are said to be Dr John Hegarty, professor of laser physics, and Dr Frances Ruane, professor of economics.
A number of people, including Dr Davis Coakley, professor of gerontolgy, put themselves forward only to drop out along the way. Coakley's retirement - for health reasons - came as a bit of shock. A medic and a Wildean scholar, Coakley was expected to garner votes both in the health sciences and the humanities. His mantle was passed to the professor of Russian, Dr Patrick O'Meara, who hopes to pick up the Coakley vote.
He may be disappointed, however. Supporters of genetics professor Dr David McConnell reckon that it is their man who will benefit from Coakley's withdrawal.
Both TCD and the role of its provost have changed enormously in recent years. "Trinity is no longer the little Protestant house beside the Liffey," comments a source. "The number of students - just under 15,000 - and the annual turnover of up to £100,000 million puts a different emphasis on the function of provost. The provost has become a CEO. In the past, we looked for a leading academic. Now we need someone who can lead the academic staff, manage the college and who is adept at fundraising and lobbying the Government."
The new provost faces a daunting task. She or he inherits a college that is property-rich (for the moment) and cash-poor. The capital programme initiated by Tom Mitchell has yet to be completed, and the central issue of core funding must be pushed at Government level. Within the college, the new provost will have to address growing staff concerns, maintain and, indeed, improve academic standards at undergraduate level and continue to develop the research arm of the college.
Unlike his/her predecessors, come October, the new provost will have to deal with a much more diverse and representative board. Under the terms of the Trinity College, Dublin Act 2000, the TCD board will, for the first time, include outsiders and membership will change every three or five years.
"The existing board has at its core a long-serving group of senior fellows," explained a college source. "That continuity will disappear. The new board will be quite a challenge for the new provost."
