Madam, - Having heard our head of school, Prof Kevin Rockett, speaking on RTÉ Lyric FM's Artzoneprogramme last Saturday, I take it that we are allowed to follow his lead. (Until now we, the staff of the drama department, had been instructed to direct all press inquiries to the communications department of Trinity College.)
Prof Rockett said on air that the decision to cut the acting programme was made at a local, not college, level by the school executive committee - "without any consultation whatever with any of the senior officers in the College. . . it was taken by the decision-making body within the school itself". For your readers' information:
1. The school executive is not the decision-making body within the school; rather, the full school committee is charged with that responsibility - and it was never consulted before this decision was taken, merely informed after the event.
2. A recent report to the college board regarding the proliferation of new schools within college noted: "The Government core grant and research funds are allocated to the university, and it is the university, not the school or cluster, that is ultimately publicly accountable for decisions and services provided." To be continued. . . - Yours, etc,
CHRISSIE POULTER, Lecturer in Drama Studies, Trinity College Dublin.