The total amount of expenses claimed by the college President Andrew Deeks, and his vice presidents over 2014 and 2015 totalled to €7,669.
President Deeks himself claimed €1,012 in expenses for 2014, and €945 in 2015. The figures for the amount paid out to the top tier of the University management were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the College Tribune.
The highest amount of expenses claimed by one person in a single year was in 2014 when the vice president for development Aine Gibbons was paid out €2,041. The vice presidents are a number of offices that sit below President Andrew Deeks in the organisational structure of UCD’s administration. The allocation and designation of a vice presidents office to a certain area signals the college is prioritising that particularly area for growth.
The President, several VPs and representatives for HR and finance make up the core of the University Management Team. The UMT is the key decision making body in UCD, it consolidated power under the current President Deeks who restructured the UCD administration.
The current vice presidents are Michael Monaghan for campus development, Orla Feely for research and innovation, Dolores O’Riordan for global engagement, Des Fitzgerald for health affairs, and Mark Rodgers the vice president for academic affairs.
Two new VP roles were created in 2015, the vice president for campus development and the vice president for health affairs. That same year the VP for campus development Michael Monaghan claimed €709 in expenses, and the VP for health affairs Des Fitzgerald claimed €682.
In 2015 the VP for staff role was abolished, this followed on from 2013 when the VP for students role was discontinued. The absence of the two long standing vice president roles for both staff and students is a recent development in the restructuring of the UCD administration.
Representatives from IFUT (Irish Federation of University Teachers) trade union in UCD however said the discontinuing of the VP for staff role was not a move that lessened the power of staff in the university. The change was simply a restructuring said one source Joe Brady, a senior lecturer in the School of Geography and a IFUT rep in UCD. Brady said “in no sense [have] the interests of staff have been reduced or diminished in any way.”
In a second FOI (Freedom of Information) document obtained by the College Tribune we can reveal the exact breakdown of staff figures employed in each office. The figures display a stark contrast between the VP roles for students and for development. In 2010 five people worked in the VP for students office, compared to 32 in the VP for development office in the same year. The year the VP for students role was shut down, 2014, a total of 47 staff were employed in the VP for development office.
Some members of the university’s top tier of management claimed little to no expenses in fulfilling their roles, the Academic Registrar (the role second to the President) Mark Rogers was paid out just €252 in expenses for 2014, and claimed no expenses last year
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Jack Power | Editor
