Buttery food to get even worse - we've lost all our nutritionists

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

this is a fairly dramatic piece of news. what happens to teaching next year for students in this area?!

Trinity professor and his entire research team move to UCD


The State's foremost nutritionist, Prof Michael Gibney, is to leave Trinity College Dublin and bring his entire research team of 19 people to University College Dublin. Seán MacConnell, Agriculture Correspondent, reports.

His move from Trinity's medical school, where he is professor of nutrition in the department of clinical medicine, has been welcomed by a spokeswoman for UCD.

She said that the university was delighted and Prof Gibney would be a great addition.


The move has created a stir in academic circles where movement on such scale is rare and is being seen as a major coup by UCD.

Confirming that he would be leaving Trinity after 23 years this autumn, Prof Gibney said that he had been very happy at Trinity but a new opportunity presented itself in UCD.

"Every university has its priorities and UCD wants to build a centre of excellence in the food and health areas and that is where nutrition comes into play," he told The Irish Times yesterday.

He said nutrition was not a priority at Trinity but the work he and his team were doing fitted into the framework at UCD where nutrition was now being made a priority.

He said in all, 19 people would be making the move to UCD where it had been said the entire spectrum of food from health, veterinary, food science to agriculture was once described to him as "everything from slurry to curry".

He accepted that the move represented a big investment by UCD, but said it intended to enlarge and develop the area of nutrition.

The UCD spokeswoman said Prof Gibney's work fitted in with the thematic areas of food and health which was being developed at the university.

She said movement on such a large scale was not without precedent in Irish academic circles and there were areas which needed the critical mass of a full research team.

Prof Gibney, who is a fellow of Trinity College and was the college's dean of research from 2001 to 2004, has a global reputation in the area of metabolic and molecular nutrition, in public health nutrition and in probabilistic risk analysis.

He is co-ordinator of a major EU-funded research project on the metabolic syndrome which is the largest study of its kind in Europe.

© The Irish Times

Chakar

Yeah Dr Hugh Brady our President has really transformed UCD he's introduced semestersiation and modularisation.He's also drawn up the Gateway projects to modernise UCD put in a new science block, arts and social science block and to make the Stillorgan entrance, a more imposing entrance to the university to reflect the importance of UCD to the nation.There's also a transport plan to make the bus terminus more efficient and safe.All these plans with the research and development plans are going to put UCD neck high with debt.

xeduCat

And you'll have no alcohol to wash it down with:

http://www.tcd.ie/Treasurers_Office/FC%20Minutes/200506/FCM20060510.pdf

The Finance Committee recommends (following extensive discussion)

1. Approval of the closure of the Buttery Bar other than for pre-booked events.
2. Approval of proposed changes to the catering outlets as regards their trading style.
3. Approval to investigate possible additional outlets in the Arts Building in
consultation with the appropriate committees.
4. Approval of the widening of the client base in the “1592” restaurant in a
controlled manner.
5. Approval in principle of the Catering Department’s longterm plans as set out.
6. Authorisation of the necessary expenditure from the accumulated fund to
develop the Catering Department’s longterm plans.
7. Authorisation of the necessary expenditure to investigate the various options in relation to licencing matters.
8. Approval of the review of trading restrictions, as their impact is identified by the Catering Management Committee, with amending proposals to be forwarded to the appropriate College committees.
9. That the Catering Management Committee should consider how best to
coordinate catering services across College.
10. That any new catering service on the main College site should be operated by the Catering Department.
11. That the College review its alcohol policy at an early date arising from
experience since the introduction.
12. That the Catering Department be afforded pricing flexibility hand in hand with a process of monitoring pricing on an ongoing basis.

It is recommended that following approval by Board, the following related matters might be referred to Site and Facilities Committee:

A. Proposals for alterations for the Buttery Restaurant and Bar.
B. Proposals for additional outlets in the Arts Building
C. Proposal of development plans to refit the main kitchen and servery to the Dining Halls.
D. A request to Site and Facilities Committee that the Accommodation & Catering Service be involved at an early stage in the development of any new College buildings.

Mr. J. Mannion requested to be recorded as dissenting from recommendation 12.

These are approved minutes, and therefore presumably reflect the position of the SU without error.

Nietzschean

do you read like everything on the tcd web pages daithi?

Nietzschean

10. That any new catering service on the main College site should be operated by the Catering Department.

Seems a bit close minded, if someone else wants to come in and pay for space and run a nicer operation on campus why not let them? catering should have to fend for itself not have the college doing protectionism for it...

wheresthebeef

i'd gladly let college catering take over d'olier street. they couldnt be more expensive than west coast coffee. i say roll on the collegisation of college, down with external enterprise and capitalism.

europerson

Now I'll have to walk the whole way to the Pav for a drink. Boo-urns.

On the original topic, I was a bit shocked to read that. I didn't think the movement of whole teams of staff between colleges had precedent!

Awayindahils

Well there is some precedent, Micheal Lever. I couldn't mention the fact that i liked political science this year to a 3rd year without being told how much i was missing by never having had Lever lectur me. He took about half the department with him to NYU.

As for the departure of yet another eminent professor, I've found myself recollecting on the comments of another first year. He is a rather ambitious person and in explaining one possible version of his 5 year plan he said how he was worried that the pretige of a degree from Trinity would deminish exponentially in our life times, and so that when at 40 we are asked where we went to college Trinity will be scoffed at not becuase it is seen as being pretentious but rather becuase the college will be considered a Micky Mouse relic, living off the rpeutation of its former glory days, and the degree will not be worth the paper its printed on.

As the number of professors leaving increases and word of there replacements is scarce I find myself starting to agree with him. I met another student who says shes looking forward to being away next year because the academic Trinity which she is now faced with is not the one with which she fell in love with. Not so much the whole being away thing as a new expierence but becuase Trinity is being torn apart both internally and externally.

And as for the Buttery that's been on the cards for years hasn't it? Pity it had to come now, but I supposed DUCAC will do even better now out of the Pav.

xeduCat

'Poaching' is starting to happen in Irish academia - not sure it's necessarily a good thing, it seems to lean towards a cult of personality based on a small number of senior academics, which isn't entirely healthy. That said, when it seems as if Trinity is the turkey and the others are the poachers (with the impotent HEA as the gamekeepers!), it's quite depressing, especially as someone set on an academic career...

Ian, yes I read everything. I can't rely on the college newspapers or on weekly SU emails to keep me up to date! (Although thankfully Dónal helps me from going college-admin cold turkey)

Buttery - never a huge fan, but still sad to see it go, if it does. It has great potential (and the licence is in the name of all of us), but not especially lucrative from a financial POV - it does lose money quite easily!

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

poaching can only be a good thing for academics IMHO. the more demand, the greater we will be taken care of.

Tricity Bendix

Awayindahils wrote:

As for the departure of yet another eminent professor, I've found myself recollecting on the comments of another first year. He is a rather ambitious person and in explaining one possible version of his 5 year plan he said how he was worried that the pretige of a degree from Trinity would deminish exponentially in our life times, and so that when at 40 we are asked where we went to college Trinity will be scoffed at not becuase it is seen as being pretentious but rather becuase the college will be considered a Micky Mouse relic, living off the rpeutation of its former glory days, and the degree will not be worth the paper its printed on.

I'm in complete agreement with your friend. UCD has tonnes of potential still to be tapped. Trinity seems to happy enough that its getting the high CAO scorers. Trinity's complacency is reminiscent of the twilight of the British Empire...


As for the Buttery, its no great loss. Its decor was only appealing to those who wanted to wallow in their own self-pity and self-loathing. So I got to know it well:D
Apparently it was only ever popular because it was very easy to light up a spliff without the staff caring. Its lost that aspect since the smoking ban.

Barry Aldwell

b.ie curious wrote:

Trinity's complacency is reminiscent of the twilight of the British Empire...

Wait about 50 years, we shall have our Falklands........

Crash

I quite like the buttery. its perfect for a quiet drink with friends on campus, which is impossible in the pav.

Moorsy

Francis Ruane is leaving as well, not to go to another college, but to the ESRI I think. I do hope Trinity isn't depreciating in value its a great recourse for Ireland but many people now do cite UCD as the leading college in Ireland.
Still Trinities reputation worldwide is still substantial and I don’t think Trinity will ever fall into the murk of a ' micky mouse college'. Many famous and wealthy people have attended Trinity who I'm sure would gladly make donations to preserve the up-keep of the college. No?

Andrew 83

Awayindahils wrote:

Well there is some precedent, Micheal Lever. I couldn't mention the fact that i liked political science this year to a 3rd year without being told how much i was missing by never having had Lever lectur me. He took about half the department with him to NYU.

Who did Laver take with him? I didn't notice that. I did a four year degree in politics and never had him by the way so there's no guarantee you'd have had him if he was still here.

As for the buttery - disappointed if it happens. Always much preferred it to the Pav. On one level the quiet drink point already made. Also and maybe more importantly though the Pav comes nowhere near for soccer coverage. They never show a lot of matches (esp. if there's rugby on) and no crowd for it on not so good screens. Big screen in the buttery is much better.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

Andrew 83 wrote:

I did a four year degree in politics and never had him by the way

eeemmmm .... hate to have to tell you this, seeing as you should know, but you didn't do a degree in politics!

i am right, amn't i? wasn't it social studies something? no, i must be wrong. ignore this!

Andrew 83

Roundtower2 wrote:

eeemmmm .... hate to have to tell you this, seeing as you should know, but you didn't do a degree in politics!

i am right, amn't i? wasn't it social studies something? no, i must be wrong. ignore this!

Well in name Economic and Social Studies but in fact Sociology and Political Science.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

good, well at least i wasn't fully wrong!