User:Jnestorius/List of Scholars of Trinity College Dublin

<List of Scholars of Trinity College Dublin

• Provost, Fellows, and [Foundation] Scholars are body corporate, according to charter
• [Foundation] Scholars and Graduates have parliamentary franchise
• About 51 to 1609, later limit (1637 statute) is 70 (total at any time, not awarded per year)
• Originally a single exam, later multiple
• Formally "elected" rather than automatic by results
• Non-foundation scholars added 1854, no religious test.
• women ("non foundation scholars" -- money and prestige but not corporation or franchise or rooms. Women allowed 1904, first NF 1906 Olive Purser.[1]
  • 1907 calendar suggests only women were "Non-foundation Scholar" while men were "Scholars of the House". Perhaps not all "Scholars of the House" were "foundation Scholars"?
• Electoral Act, 1923

  the University constituency comprising a university in which he or she has received a degree other than an honorary degree or, in the case of the University of Dublin, has received such degree as aforesaid, or obtained a foundation scholarship, or, if a woman, obtained a non-foundation scholarship.

  ELECTORAL BILL, 1923.—REPORT.

  • William E. Thrift: This is a technical matter concerning the University of Dublin, but the Dáil may fairly ask that I should explain that technicality so that all can understand it. There are two points, one is that the words as standing in the Bill are indefinite because there are various scholarships in the University of Dublin. From the date of the Charter there was one special kind of scholarship established which gave the holders of the scholarships the privilege of becoming members of the Corporation of the College—that is the Corporation of the Provost, Fellows and Scholars, and as they were members of the Corporation they were called foundation scholars. These were the words chosen by the Minister so that he accepted the principle of the words I am proposing here. I wish to put the word "foundation" before "scholarship," so that only those who obtain our principal scholarships or foundation-scholarships would be entitled to the Parliamentary vote. We have various other scholarships which do not entitle those holding them to the Parliamentary vote, but all I ask is that those who have in the past been entitled to vote should be able to get their vote in the future. There is a second point which involves a principle which the Dáil has already sanctioned, and that is that we should not impose any disability upon women. Some twenty-five years ago when we opened scholarships to women there was the difficulty that if they obtained foundation scholarships they would have the right to the Parliamentary vote, to which women were then not entitled by the law of the land. And, further, they would have the right to rooms and Commons in the College which was inconvenient, and therefore the University set up scholarships to be awarded for the same examinations and for the same literary qualifications which they called non-foundation scholarships, because they were eligible only for women. If a woman obtains a non-foundation scholarship she is as qualified by her scholarship and her literary and scientific attainments as a man is, and I take it, therefore, that there will be no objection to this amendment which means that if a man gets a particular scholarship, a foundation scholarship, he gets the Parliamentary vote, and if a woman gets a non-foundation scholarship she will also get the Parliamentary vote.
  • Professor MAGENNIS : Will not that carry with it in equity that scholars in the National University should be entitled to the vote? Will it be sufficient to answer that this is the perpetuation of the historical arrangement that scholars in the Dublin University always formed part of the electorate? It seemed to me before the Minister accepted the amendment that the only way out was instead of creating an inequality between the Universities inasmuch as women scholars were debarred from election privileges, the remedy would be to confine the privilege of the vote to graduates in the Dublin University as it is confined in the National University.
  • Professor THRIFT : I pointed out the essential difference is that scholars, by the Charter of the University of Dublin, become members of the Corporation.
  • AN CEANN COMHAIRLE : The exclusion of scholars should have been raised on the Committee stage of the Bill when they were included.

• Preserved in Seanad Electoral (University Members) Act, 1937:

  Every person who is a citizen of Ireland and has received a degree (other than an honorary degree) in the University of Dublin or has obtained a foundation scholarship in that University or, if a woman, has obtained a non-foundation scholarship in the said University and (in any case) has attained the age of twenty-one years shall be entitled to be registered as an elector in the register of electors for the Dublin University constituency.

• 1968 first womnen Foundation Scholars
• Male Non-Foundation Scholars get vote in Electoral (Amendment) Act, 2001
• "The letters N.F. are placed after the names of students who are Non-Foundation scholars" -- may mean only in that list, as opposed to in general college usage.

Quotes from Tobin 2013:

• • Chapter VI of the Statutes addresses the role and responsibilities of the Scholars
  • possible new Chapter of the Statutes addressing the College Community in general, and the students in particular
  • The current Statutes are quite unclear as to the nature of the divide between Foundation and Non-Foundation Scholars.
  • the terms of the Scholars Declaration, which broadly do not reflect the actual running of the College or College policy
  • the Scholars' Committee is an independent organisation (as opposed to one actually set up by the Statutes)

References

• Amy Worrall "A Scholarly Guide to the Foundation Scholarship Exam" (21 Oct 2013) University Times
• Oisín Tobin Review of the College Statutes — Summary (24 Aug 2013) from the Scholarship Review Working Group website, summarising the work of the Statute Review Working Group as it relates to Scholarship.
• Scholars of Trinity College Dublin