Papers of James Meenan – Move of UCD to Belfield

24 U.C.D. and the Future

Notes (i) Figures in column B are taken from the accounts of U.C.D. (excluding the faculty of General Agriculture) for the year ending 30th June, 1956, as published by the Government Publications Office.

(ii) With regard to item No. 2 above, departmental salaries, the figure given includes salaries of professors and lecturers (£109,455) and those of assistants and demonstrators (£88,092). Difficulty was experienced in trying to assess what factor should be used to give an approximation for the salaries of the teaching staff after expansion, as neither in the statistics published from the Central Statistics Office, nor in the Annual Reports of the President, are the salaries of professors quoted independently of the salaries of lecturers, nor do we know what proportion of the total sum goes to full-time and what to part-time teachers. In order to achieve the total number of full-time teaching staff (c.380) needed, the overall factor for number would be 2.4 (based on staff and student numbers in 1952-53). However the expansion in the number of professors would need to be of the order of say 10% only, while the expansion in the numbers of lecturers would be of the order of 240% and in assistants and demonstrators at least 300%. Some of us hold that it is in the case of the full-time lecturers that the greatest % increase would be required, the increase for assistants and demonstrators being correspondingly reduced. Without knowing the average 1956 salary of each group it is impossible to arrive at a correct overall factor for estimated increase due to salaries. The factor of 2 used in the table is probably conservative. In Britain the salaries and superannuation of teaching staff now run at 45% of the total annual recurrent expenditure of the universities.

(iii) Item three above, departmental wages, has been multiplied by a factor of 3 which again is probably conservative. The wages under the heading are paid largely to technicians and typists and the ratio of these increasingly important workers to teaching staff in U.C.D. and in other universities here, and abroad until recently, is too low to enable the academic staff to work to their capacity. In technical research departments, it has been shown that it is necessary to employ at least two skilled technicians to each graduate member of staff in order that the graduate member may fully employ his talents. A similar situation exists in the humanities where a shortage of typists, indexing, abstracting, and library assistants decreases enormously the efficient operation of academic staff. To allow a factor of 3 for this body of staff, where the factor for academic staff is 2.4, is again conservative.

(iv) Item 4, departmental materials, largely those used in teaching and research in the medical and technological departments. Here again the factor 3 is probably conservative. The proposed expansion will allow students to work in much small groups than at present and hence the amount of materials used in practical classes will be increased. Further, the purchase of apparatus for student use will increase several-fold. The amount of research done in these subjects should likewise increase enormously with the increase in teaching and technical staffs — for example in Engineering the Commission's Report points out that research has been hitherto virtually non-existent due to lack of space and of staff.

Problems in the Proposed Move 25

(v) The factor for library expansion (item 5) allows for an increase of only 20%. It is hope that the centralisation of library facilities might reduce the need for an immediate increase in staff under this heading. The increasing importance of books and journals in all branches of learning, together with constantly increasing costs, make the suggested increase very conservative.

(vi) The items summarised under No. 12 above include in the figures for the year 1955-56, £5,286 in salaries and wages for upkeep of the athletic grounds at Belfield. Doubtless the upkeep of Iveagh Gardens is included in item No. 6. It is impossible to estimate at present what sum would be required for the upkeep of the whole of the College estate at Stillorgan Road (252 acres). The Architectural Advisory Board envisages large-scale landscaping of the site, tree-planting, etc., as well as the provision of extra playing fields, and swimming pools. Any provision for upkeep under this heading is further complicated by the fact that no informaton is available as to whether or not halls of residence will in fact be built on the estate, and whether or not the upkeep of their grounds would be a charge on the College.

An important consideration under this heading and that of Item No. 6 is the fact that the cleaning and maintenance of all roadways, car parks, foot-paths, and their lighting after dark, on the College campus would be a charge on the College if it is built on its own private grounds, whereas expansion in the city makes use of the public roadways and other amenities.

Taking all in all, it will be seen that once again a factor of 3 may be so conservative as to be misleading in the case of Item No. 12 as may be the factor 2 in the case of Item No. 6.

(vii) No account is taken in the above estimates of any expenses in connection with the faculties of General Agriculture or of Veterinary Medicine. The Commission is anxious to see the Agricultural students of the 3rd and 4th years reunited with the general student body on the same campus. However, the whole future of the relationship between the College and the faculty of Agriculture, and the question of the provision for it of a new 600 acre farm, is so undecided as to make futile any guess as to future expenses to be borne by the College in this regard.

(viii) All the calculations are based on the year 1955-56. There have been in the interval substantial increases in salaries and other expenses, and doubtless by the time a new College could be completed (up to 12 or more years hence) the running costs of the present College would have increased still further. Hence the annual expenditure of £1,000,000 represents the very lowest estimate that would apply if salaries and commodity prices remained fixed at the 1956 levels.

(ix) The above calculations are based on a full-time student body of 3,046 (the 1953-54 level). The College envisaged by the Commission would serve approximately 5,000 full-time students and consequently certain items in the above would appreciably increase.