University College Dublin and the future : a memorandum from a research group of Tuairim, Dublin branch, on the report of the Commission on Accommodation Needs of the constituent colleges of the National University of Ireland : with special reference to

6 U.C.D. and the Future

1. THE COMMISSION AND ITS REPORT

The Commission on Accommodation Needsof the Constituent Colleges of the National University of Ireland was appointed on 26th September, 1957. Its terms of reference were: 'To enquire into the accommodation needs of the constituent colleges of the National University of Ireland and to advise as to how in the present circumstances, these needs could best be met.'

The Report of the Commission was published on 2nd June, 1959. It consists of four chapters, the first of which, on the needs of U.C.D., had been presented to the Government as an interim report on 14th June, 1958; the second on U.C.C. was presented on 18th October, 1958; whilst the third on U.C.G. and the concluding chapter were presented on 1st May, 1959.

The first chapter and the concluding chapter give the Commission's view that the space requirements of U.C.D. cannot be met on or near its present site, and that the only solution is for the College to move to a site on the Stillorgan Road over a period of five to ten years. The Commission further recommends that the Government should make £6,700,000 available to the College over this period for building needs.

Narrow View of Terms of Reference

The Commission admits (Report p.3) that 'other solutions might present themselves if the terms of reference had invited views upon co-ordination within the University or over a wider field.'

We do not believe that the Government intended to fetter the Commission by limiting the possible solutions to the problem. Neither can we agree that its terms of reference compelled it to treat each College as if it existed in isolation and to exclude all examination of the possibility of co-ordination within the N.U.I. (leaving the 'wider field' aside for the moment).

It was not, for example, excluded by the terms of reference from considering the duplication of faculties (particularly the expensive medical and technological faculties) within the N.U.I. Can, or need, the N.U.I. adequately develop its three medical schools or its three engineering schools?

In fact, the Commission did insert one recommendation in this regard, when it says (Report p.77): 'The provision for the accommodation needs of the Faculty of Agriculture in University College, Dublin will require adjustment if a full Faculty of Agriculture is established in Cork.' But why the reference to agriculture only - what about medicine, engineering and the sciences.

Such questions were, we maintain, well within the terms of reference of the Commission and should have been considered by it particularly as it was required to consider the needs of the N.U.I. within the framework of present conditions. The financial considerations involved in duplication and triplication of faculties are of paramount importance.

The Minister for Education at the first meeting of the Commission (15th October, 1957) said that 'it would be their task to examine the problems objectively and to relate them to the national need.' This latter task the Commission failed to accomplish.

Dublin's University Area 7

Taking its narrow view of the terms of reference, the Commission has attempted to produce an answer to a purely artificial question: 'What would be the needs of each College of the N.U.I., if it existed in isolation, serving the community immediately surrounding it, and if no other institutions of higher learning or of medical, agricultural or technological education existed in the country?'

To this hypothetical question the Commission has provided one answer. But we are as far as ever from a realistic solution of the problems of university education in Ireland, or even of the problems of U.C.D. Indeed, we hold that the Commission's recommendations on U.C.D. have only bedevilled the matter.

Haste in Deliberation

The Commission may partly be excused for its narrow view of the terms of reference by the fact that it was under considerable pressure to complete its study rapidly owing to the urgency of the accommodation needs of the colleges and particularly of U.C.D. It is regrettable if the Commission allowed itself to be rushed by this. A temporary solution by limiting student numbers, or by providing temporary accommodation, would have been preferable to an incomplete examination of the problem.

This was the first public examination in many years of any part of the Irish university question and the very first examination of U.C.D.'s acquisition of the Stillorgan Road estates. It took place at a time critical to the development of the Irish universities and of higher education in general including, in particular, technological, medical and agricultural education. The times are critical also in the wider spheres of national economics and industrial development, spheres in which the universities will have to play an important role. After so many years of official inactivity in the matter of the University College, the fullest, unhurried consideration should have been given to all the factors involved.

II. DUBLIN'S UNIVERSITY AREA

Advantages as a University Site

Few, if any, capital cities in Europe have within their university areas as much open space as exists in Dublin in the area extending from Trinity College southwards to the Grand Canal. We, have, in turn, College Park, Merrion Square, Leinster Lawn, St. Stephen's Green, Iveagh Gardens and 'the Lawn.'

Further, the built-up areas between and around these open spaces have a very low density of building. Virtually all the existing buildings in the area were dwelling houses (though now converted, in most cases, to office use) having long back gardens and, frequently, extensive mews (vide - the area between Merrion Square South and Baggot Street, or between Lr. Earlsfort Terrace and Leeson Street, or between St. Stephen's Green East and Pembroke Street).

University College, Dublin, is not hampered in its desire for expansion, as were older universities in other capitals, by being surrounded by edifices of great historical, cultural or architectural value (as in Paris, Rome, Madrid, Vienna) or by extremely valuable commercial property of very high density (as in Stockholm, Copenhagen, London or in the British industrial cities).

8 U.C.D. and the Future

Indeed, quite close to the College, the whole area south of Harcourt Road stretching to the Canal and extending from Peter's Place to Charlemont Street is essentially an area in poor condition which will have to be cleared and the inhabitants rehoused either elsewhere or in flats on the same site.

Further, the shopping streets within this general area, Merrion Row, Lr. Leeson Street, Charlemont Street, are of relatively low value as compared with principal shopping streets in a capital city -- a consideration, if any such streets had to be acquired for university expansion.

It is not of course suggested that the public squares named above should be built on, but that buildings in their vicinity should gradually be acquired for university and other cultural and educational requirements.

Misleading Comparisons

In its Report (p.34) the Commission says -- 'in the English and Danish universities we visited we found that the authorities were dealing with problems similar to that of Dublin.' The universities visited were Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Reading, and in Denmark, Copenhagen and Aarhus. The commission also made use of information supplied by the universities in Wales, Edinburgh, Exeter, Liverpool, Sheffield and Southampton. We believe that it is misleading to assert that the problem in Dublin is similar to that in these cities. Only one capital city was visited -- Copenhagen -- where the old university was situated in the densely built-up old part of the city. In this case we are told also (Report p. 34) that 'details of the area of the sites of the University of Copenhagen are not yet available to the Commission.' Aarhus is a provincial University of 1800 students.

The conditions in the British industrial cities bear no comparison with those in Dublin. A description written about those very universities mentioned by the Commission -- 'buildings frequently dingy and cramped and sometimes sordid, set in an environment of smoke and slums' -- could never be applied to Dublin. Overcrowding of incompleted buildings we have -- and that can be relieved on the present sites -- but sordidness and smoke and slums we most decidedly have not in our general university area.

In none of the cities mentioned by the Commission is there a cultural and educational complex such as we have in the university area of Dublin. Those few British universities which are moving out to a campus site in the suburbs are in no case leaving an area which houses a second university with a worldfamous copyright library, a National Library, Gallery and Museum and the headquarters of so many professional institutes.

Dublin's great good fortune in the matter of its centrally situated university area has frequently been the subject of envious comment. We have quoted two such recent comments in our Appendix J.

Further, as the authorities of U.C.D. have frequently pointed out, the College may be regarded as the direct successor of Newman's Catholic University. The present site is associated both with Newman's effort and other Irish aspirations after university education.

Taking the above facts together, a university in any other capital Dublin|city would

Dublin's University Area 9

consider itself very fortunate in having such opportunities for development, nor would powers of compulsory purchase be denied to it, if required.

The Cultural and Educational Complex

The existence of the many institutions in this area must be taken into account:

1. The principal museums, galleries, and the National Library. 2. Trinity College, Dublin. 3. Various other cultural, professional and educational bodies (e.g. Institute for Advanced Studies, Catholic Central Library, Royal Irish Academy, Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of Surgeons, Royal Institute of Architects, Royal Society of Antiquries). 4. Several university hostels, under Catholic ecclesiastical control (see Appendix D for a list). 5. A great deal of other property under esslesiastical and/or educational control. Much of this consists of schools inadequately housed in converted dwelling houses and falling below modern standards and requirements for such schools (See Appendix D.) 6. The Houses of the Oireachtas, which are inadequately provided for, and Government offices which are expanding.

This whole complex of Government, university, cultural and educational establishments should be considered as a whole and no one aspect of it (such as the needs of U.C.D.) can be properly studied without taking into consideration all the factors involved in the planning of this area. One can, however, say straight away that to dismember this complex, by removing U.C.D. from it, is the least happy of solutions.

If the removal of U.C.D. from the area presented a final solution to the other conflicting problems that exist within it, then there would be that much extra to recommend the move. But it does not present such a solution. Now is the time to ask what is the final solution to be aimed at in providing adequately for the needs of:

The Houses of the Oireachtas The Government departments The National Museums and Gallery The National Library The National College of Art The Institute for Advanced Studies The many schools in the area Trinity College

Government Offices

One possible solution to many of these problems would be a Government decision to remove the Houses of the Oireachtas and at least some of the Government offices to another site. Kilmainham has often been mentioned, and the site there is large enough to provide for a single solution. The difficulty

10 U.C.D. and the Future

in such a proposal is the capital cost involved (but see Section III D below). However, it costs nothing to take a decision and to make a plan which could be gradually implemented enabling other interests to formulate long-term plans.

One might consider in turn various possibilities for U.C.D. if any one of the following Government offices were to be moved:

(a) External Affairs from St. Stephen's Green, South (b) The Office of Public Works from St. Stephen's Green, East, and Earlsfort Terrace. (c) The Department of Agriculture from Upper Merrion Street. (d) The Land Commission and adjacent offices from Upper Merrion Street.

(a) External Affairs: These buildings adjoin property already held by the College on St. Stephen's Green and might become the administrative centre for the College. Iveagh House might provide an official residence for the President of U.C.D.

(b) Office of Public Works: Nos. 50 & 51 St. Stephen's Green (once the home of the College of Science, before the Merrion Street block was built) might form a fine administrative centre for the College and act as a link between Merrion Street and Earlsfort Terrace. The houses occupied by the Office of Public Works in Earlsfort Terrace would prove a welcome addition to the College property, presenting a frontage of 220' along Hatch Street.

(c) Department of Agriculture: The removal of certain Government offices from the main Merrion Street block would go a long way to providing for all needs of the science departments already housed there. The removal of all Government offices and the transfer of the Engineering faculty to a new site would provide more than enough space for all the needs of Chemistry, Botany, Zoology and Geology at present located in that building.

(d) The Land Commission and Adjacent Offices: The Land Commission and the offices of the Comptroller and Auditor General occupy a number of Georgian houses in Upper Merrion Street. On the west side they have a total frontage of 450', the depth ranging from 85' through 140' to 300'. The evacuation of these houses would also help the College. The existing Government and Science buildings on the west side of Merrion Street were built on the site of a similar Georgian terrace acquired for the purpose by compulsion about 1903.

We understand that the work of the Land Commission is gradually decreasing. Could not these houses be made available to the College as the Land Commission staff gradually shrinks?

Further there are grounds for believing that many of the Georgian houses are drawing towards the end of their useful lives. Some are so far gone as to be in need of extensive repair amounting to complete reconstruction, or replacement - witness the fact that two Georgian houses occupied by Government offices in Kildare Place had to be pulled down in recent years because of their dangerous condition. Much of Georgian Dublin in this general area must, sooner or later, be completely reconstructed or replaced, irrespective of any plans for U.C.D.

Dublin's University Area 11

A Comprehensive Plan Needed

We urge that serious consideration be given to the idea that any reconstruction or replacement in the area should take place in the interests of higher education, and of the universities in particular, in the furtherance of a plan to preserve the general area for cultural and educational purposes.

The question of U.C.D. requirements, whether they are to be fulfilled by expansion from the present site or by complete removal to ouside the central city area cannot be considered in isolation. The question involves essentially a problem of town planning in a most important area of the capital.

An overall detailed development plan for the area should be prepared without delay by a suitable planning authority, armed with the necessary powers to see that the plan is implemented as circumstances and the degree of national prosperity permit.

As a minimum there should be retained in this area the universities, the Institute for Advanced Studies, the College of Art, the National Library, and the National Museum, or at least its Division of Irish Antiquities and the botanical, zoological and geological collections. To remove any one of these collections from the area to, say, Kilmainham, whilst transferring U.C.D. to the Stillorgan Road, would be unjustifiable.

The alternative to a long-term plan is the gradual disintegration of the area. The conflicting pressures within it will lead in time to many of the institutions concerned leaving the district one by one. If the ideal of the planners of this complex of cultural and educational buildings is to be preserved, action now is imperative.

Mr. de Valera's Views

We are happy to note that His Ecellency, President de Valera, speaking as Chancellor of the National University, on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations a year ago and some six months after the Commission had presented its first interim Report (which contained their recommendations in respect of U.C.D.) expressed himself in the following terms (we quote from the "Irish Press," 4th December, 1958);

"Once he had had the idea that the portion of the city running from Hatch Street and Earlsfort Terrace down to Pearse Street, including Kildare Street and Merrion Street, might become the cultural centre of the city.

They had there the great libraries -- the National Library; the library in Kildare Street of the Academy, and the National Gallery of Art, and the National Museum.

As a temporary measure the Parliament was brought into that area. It was intended to be temporary at the time, and he had the hope that with the College of Science at hand they might be able to use that area to meet some of the pressing needs of U.C.D., so that the whole area, including Trinity College, with its magnificent library, would become the cultural centre of the city. Financial and other difficulties arose and that had become an impossible dream.

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Mr. de Valera said that the accommodation needs of the colleges were such now that he was afraid that to think of reviving any such project would mean further delay. His view had been that if they took the Parliament buildings to another site, they could make room there for the necessary extension of the cultural institiutions.

'In fifty years time,' he added, 'I hope the National University will have a suitable home in Leinster House.'"

We do not agree that the dream is impossible. Given that the Government is willing to spend sums of the order of those recommended by the Commission and that, if these, some millions are in fact to be spent on acquiring new premises for Government use, we submit that the general reshuffling of buildings and sites that is to take place in any event can be made in such a way as to keep U.C.D. in the central area. We note that despite Mr. de Valera's doubts about the possibilities in the immediate future, he nonetheless feels that within fifty years (and that is the foreseeable future for the younger generation) the House of the Oireachtas may have to depart from Merrion Street. And if they must depart, so will many of the Government departments. There will be little point in then handing over the Merrion Street area to the N.U.I. for purely administrative and ceremonial functions.

We maintain that incalculable damage will be done by not reviving the scheme now. We cannot believe that U.C.D., or any group, would be so shortsighted as to hinder the development of the logical plan - which would ultimately redound to the lasting benefit not only of the College, but of our whole cultural and educational future.

The consideration of such a long-term plan need not at all delay the relief of the overcrowded conditions under which the College labours. As we indicate later in Sections IV- VI, the sites at present held by the College are sufficient for all the present needs as estimated by the Commission and in addition we believe that adjacent sites could also be acquired, and that these would be sufficient for the estimated future 20% expansion.

It is not yet too late for the great ideal as expressed in Mr. de Valera's speech to be realised. But it is the eleventh hour. Once large-scale building operations for U.C.D. are commenced on the Stillorgan site, the opportunity may be gone forever.

III. PROBLEM INVOLVED IN THE PROPOSED MOVE OF U.C.D.

A. THE EFFECTS ON THE VARIOUS FACULTIES

It is obvious that the proposed move of U.C.D. to the Stillorgan Road site will present problems, some of them serious to both staff and students. Even if, and when, halls of residence are built there to house all the students from outside Dublin, 37% (the 1953 - 54 figure) of the students will have their homes in Dublin. Unless these students happen to live in the immediate vicinity, or near the Bray Road, attendance at the College would usually involve travelling to near the city centre and then out again if they rely on public transport. The same problems of inconvenience and waste of time will also face even the whole-time staff of the College to at least some extent.

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When detailed consideration is given to the effect of the move on the various faculties, particularly those which are essentially engaged in professional training, it will be seen that the problems are far greater than those outlined above.

Medicine

The effects of removal on students and the weakening of ties with the teaching hospitals and other medical schools, etc., will be dealt with in Section III B of this Memorandum. But the effects on the teaching staff which in many departments of the faculty is largely, if not entirely, parttime, and is also engaged in the professional practice of medicine, must be considered.

Apart from the staffs of the preclinical departments a high proportion of the professors and virtually all of the lecturers are part-time. Even some professors who are full-time are allowed a limited amount of private professional practice. The 'Clinical Tutors' are also full-time, but confine their activities to the hospitals and have no duties on the College premises.

The College Calendar lists a large number of these part-time teachers, the great majority of whom are clinical teachers at the recognised hospitals and do not attend at the College buildings. Approximately forty of them, however, do teach on the College premises and it will certainly prove inconvenient for these busy practitioners, who have both hospital duties and private consulting rooms in the city, often close to Earlsfort Terrace, to have to travel in and out to Stillorgan Road to give their one-hour lectures or demonstrations.

Architecture

All but one of the College staff in this faculty are part-time and engaged in professional practice. The students take a considerable part of their course in the first, second and fourth years at the College of Art in Kildare Street. Both students and staff make considerable use of the excellent library of the R.I.A.I. in Merrion Square, and will want to make frequent use of the Building Centre in Baggott Street. All of these important activities would be disrupted by a move to Stillorgan Road. Our views on architectural teaching in the city are outlined in Section III E of this Memorandum.

Law, Commerce, Economics

Here again the College has to rely almost entirely on part-time teachers from the professions. Barristers, bankers, accountants and similar part-time teachers from the professional and commercial world with heavy demands on their time obviously would find it more convenient to lecture at Earlsfort Terrace than at Stillorgan Road. Law students are compelled by the regulations of their profession to attend at the King's Inns or the Four Courts or the offices to which they are apprenticed, for lectures or other duties in addition to their attendance at the College. At present there is considerable difficulty in arranging suitable lecture hours for these students. Removal to Stillorgan Road would seem to necessitate the employment of full-time university teachers in these

14 U.C.D. and the Future

faculties and comprehensive changes in the regulations now governing the training of barristers and solicitors.

Science and Engineering

In these faculties the staff is mainly whole-time but, in the engineering subjects in particular, College staff engage in consultative work, and senior members of both faculties give valuable service to State and semi-State bodies, e.g., Bord na Mona, Institute of Industrial Research and Standards, special commissions, etc.

Arts, Philosophy and Celtic Studies

Only in the cases of the faculties of Arts, Philosophy and Celtic Studies could it possibly be said that the faculties are self-contained. It is just these 'self-contained' faculties, however, which will at staff and advanced student level feel grievously their removal from their proximity to the National Library, T.C.D. Library, the Institute for Advanced Studies, the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Irish Academy.

General Considerations

The Faculties of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine are special cases and separate arrangements are being made for them. Wheras the Commission devoted considerable attention to the question of reuniting the third and fourth year agricultural students with College, no consideration was given in this or in any other respect to the veterinary students.

In concluding this section we wish to point out that U.C.D. depends to a far greater extent than do other universities on professors and lecturers who are part-time either in name or in fact. These part-time teachers hold appointments outside the College in the medical, legal and commercial world. We assert that a university college which depends on such a system for a substantial part of its teaching programme must do everything in its power to facilitate the attendance of its part-time teachers, and that a move to Stillorgan Road will aggravate the position in this respect. We foresee that there may be a reluctance on the part of professional people to accept part-time appointments at U.C.D., if it moves out, because of the deleterious effect their academic duties would have on their professional practice.

In such a situation the College might have to appoint many more full-time staff in the professional faculties, a very expensive undertaking.

All faculties without exception would suffer by removal from their present fortunate position in the city centre. We believe that the Commission has not given sufficient weight to the points outlined here and that it has dismissed the objection to the removal on these grounds far too lightly.

The College authorities appear to hope that by going to the Stillorgan Road site the students will be induced to spend more of their free time within the College precincts, and that the 'nine-to-five' attitude held by some of the students will be broken down. There is, however, a distinct possibility that the move would in fact intensify this attitude for the majority of students. Even if some halls of residence are eventually built on the site, they will cater for only

Problems in the Proposed Move 15

a small minority -- such halls cost from £1,500 to £2,000 per student place. The tendency might well be for the average student to get back 'home' or into town as quickly as possible and once there he would be unlikely to travel out again for the evening meeting, hop, or other leisure time activity.

B. THE PROBLEM OF THE MEDICAL SCHOOL

A signal failure of the Commission's Report is that it makes no attempt at producing any solution to the problem of the U.C.D. Medical School. It accepts the space requirements proposed by the College for medical buildings (which do not include provision for clinical teaching) viz. 112,150 sq. ft. nett (say 150,000 sq. ft. gross) to cost an estimated £1,075,000 at 1952 values, or allowing for a 15% increase in cost, a sum of £1,236,250 at to-day's prices. This does not include the vaguely mentioned 'Clinical Institute' of which no details are given, although it does appear on the site plan. There is no information given as to its nature, function, relation to the College or to medical education, or to its source of finance.

With regard to the clinical teaching of medicine the following quotation from p.27 of the Report indicates the Commission's position on this vital question (comments and italics are ours): 'In this branch of the University teaching of medicine there is an accommodation problem which requires attention. Its extent is not a matter that we can now determine.' We believe it was their business, to do so, even within their own restricted view of their terms of reference. 'Involved in the problem is the question how much and what part of medicine can be more satisfactorily taught in hospital lecture theatres or laboratories than in the College. But we think that we have seen enough of each of these affiliated hospitals (the Mater and St. Vincent's) to say that the minimum requirements for clinical teaching are lacking. We are not in a position to indicate whose duty it is to see that these requirements should be provided. If for lack of co-ordination among the several authorities nothing is to be done the results for the clinical teaching must be serious. Accommodation for the teaching if clinical medicine is not less important than accommodation for the teaching of other branches of the subject.' This of course is merely to reiterate one of the things that the General Medical Council inspectors and the various official American inspectors to our schools have long been saying.

The College's Architectural Advisory Board spent some time in ascertaining how long it would take a student, by various routes and various means of transport, to travel from the proposed university medical buildings to the site of the proposed Elm Park Hospital and the Commission provides a table of the results (See Appendix II to Appendix Iv of Chapter I of the Report). But in regard to the other teaching hospitals used by U.C.D., all the report has to say is that 'a new College at Stillorgan Road will add to the distance students have to travel to and from the teaching hospitals, and for the general body of students Stillorgan Road is not as easy to reach as Earlsfort Terrace. But these inconveniences are not great.'

Some vitally important points are however ignored by the Commission in this assessment of the situation. At the moment U.C.D. has signed agreements with three 'affiliated' general teaching hospitals, viz. St. Vincent's Hospital (c. 190 beds), the Mater Misericordiae Hospital (c. 435 beds) and, subsequent