When I enter Jenny Maguire’s office, I see a large, hand-painted ‘You Are Now Entering Free Trinity’ banner, from the BDS protests last semester. Outside, it’s a swelteringly hot day, with huge crowds on the Dublin streets to welcome Team Ireland home from their record-breaking Olympics performance.

“I thought, ‘There’s a protest outside that I’m not involved in!’” Jenny laughs. “And then I thought it might be against something we were doing. I was like, ‘Oh Jesus!’”

Maguire is no stranger to student activism, having fronted the campaign to get the college to divest from Israeli firms earlier this year.

“It was the most unbelievable five days ever,” she reflects. “It was as if time stood still, and it was all that mattered to everyone – the hundred odd people who slept there, and the hundreds of students who came to the events we held. That was our universe: getting this done and focusing on Palestine.

“There were people who had never been involved in the students’ union who were working 12-hour days for free,” she adds. “They were organising the amazing amount of donations we received, sorting stuff, and doing work I’m sure you could never get them to do for anything else! Everyone felt a responsibility that was bigger than themselves.”

Credit: Jesse Sleator

There was a once-in-a-lifetime aspect to it.

“Some people really struggled with it ending,” she says. “I had to sell it, because so many people were like, ‘I don’t really want to go now’. We had created something so beautiful. We were working outside of an institution, outside of the parameters of everything we had been taught. Working towards a goal, because we believe the cause of Palestinian liberation is the cause of humanity. We were trying to demand better of a world that seems like it won’t do any good. We did good, I think.”

Better For Everyone

UCD and UCC’s BDS encampments went on longer, four and six weeks respectively. But Trinity got the result they wanted quickly. Jenny considers the wider ramifications of student activism.

“College is a place where we all undergo some sort of transition,” she says. “We experience a whole new view of the world. You’re independent – you’re going out without taking your sister’s ID for the first time! College gives you the opportunity to find yourself and your tribe.”

It’s not all kittens and rainbows, though.

“I will say it is getting harder, because college and higher education institutions have become more and more unequal,” says Jenny. “We’re really good at getting students in the door, but we are really bad at supporting them. The actual experience differs so much, especially in a place like Trinity. A lot of Trinity students come through alternative entry routes, whether that’s the HEAR scheme – for under-represented groups within higher education – or the DARE scheme for people with disabilities. And then there are mature students.”

I suggest that the college experience varies vastly based on socio-economic background.

“One hundred percent,” replies Maguire. “Babe, look who you are talking to! College has been really hard for me. I had to take a year out and I repeated another, all because I just couldn’t do it. I was trying to live my college life, and do college the way everyone else was doing it. But they didn’t have jobs. They didn’t have other responsibilities. I was trying to do all that, plus 19 or 20 hours of work a week, as well as doing my exams.

“The last semester I did I was actually made redundant and, my god, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I had money, I didn’t have to work, and I was like, ‘Jesus, college is so easy! What are all these girls doing, needing all these supports? I’m grand.’”

She describes this divergence in college experience as, “Rotten! It’s never addressed or even remotely acknowledged.”

She is funny about people who really enjoyed their college experience. “Yeah girl,” she quips, “because you were just sitting on a couch! You went to three hours of lectures, you smoked outside for eight hours, had your chicken fillet roll and a can of Monster, and then you went home.”

Jenny Maguire. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

With so many people feeling financially squeezed right now, are there those who don’t want to pay a fee to support a students’ union?

“Well, if you don’t see the point of the union, that’s great!” says Maguire. “I am delighted for you. If you don’t have to avail of services that have students coming in and out of the Union every day, that’s amazing. But here’s how I look at it. We all pay taxes, even though we might not use some services they pay for. It’s about what’s better for a community. The same principle applies to being part of the Students’ Union. We want to make college better for everyone.”

Supports In Place

Maguire elaborates on the union’s activities.

“I’d say there’s two parts,” she says. “One part is the service we provide. We have staff and students here, fully focused on supporting other students through academic and welfare supports. They might just need someone to chat to, or their lecturers are being arseholes, or they need a little help. That’s our job. We love to be the bad guys – the ones who actually support students and be the loudest voice for students.

“The other side is the campaigning side, where we push for broader change, rather than responding to individual cases. You saw it with the Palestine BDS protests. That’s an issue that students brought to us and mandated us to fight for. There are issues of gender neutral bathrooms that we have pushed for before. The issue of student workers is something I am very passionate about, and providing recognition that students have jobs.

“There are other aspects too. Accommodation, health services and mental health supports are things we campaign for as well as providing as a service.”

Maguire reflects on her personal college experience.

“College didn’t work for me, but I made it work for me,” she says. “If you come into a university like Trinity, which is 500 years old, it exists because it has facilitated a very specific portion of society. Even though we have made great steps, it’s still hard. It’s still rotten. Just because there are fun things to do doesn’t mean it’s not a difficult journey.”

However, she emphasises that there are supports in place – students should avail of them.

“You owe it to yourself to give it your best shot,” she observes.

As we wrap up, she makes a further point.

“Besides, there are a million other routes outside university,” adds Maguire. “Which I am sure the college would be delighted to hear me say!”

Read the full Student Special in the current issue of Hot Press – out now: