A SET of snooker tables could form the battlefield for some interesting exchanges between students and administration in TCD if whispered plans for the student occupied Graduate Memorial Building come to fruition.
High level college officers have been considering turning part of the GMB into a graduate student centre, specifically the part of the GMB currently occupied by the splendid Edwardian snooker tables, worth around £20,000 apiece.
The mahogany tables, one of which may be the oldest in the country, have been in place since at least 1902 and are bigger than the doors of the room in which they currently reside. At a conservative estimate, they also weigh around a ton each and will be difficult to shift.
It's not clear where the college authorities intend to put the tables, even if they find some way of getting them out of the building without having to knock down a wall.
According to one college source, the only solution may be to install a crane on the adjoining college tennis courts and take them out through the roof.
Still, where there's a will there's a way, and the TCD college authorities certainly have the will.
They would be more than happy to see the graduate students and their students' union vacate the premises they currently occupy in Front Square. Effectively, this would reduce the amount of space currently being occupied by student activities, a stated aim of the college authorities, and allow it to be used for administrative offices.
The only problem (apart, of course, from the snooker tables and the inevitable opposition from the Phil and Hist to any possible move of this kind) is that the income from the snooker tables is being used to pay off the Phil and Hist's debt to TCD's Central Societies Committee, currently estimated at over £10,000. The CSC will reluctant to write off GMB debt so it remains to how the Battle of the Tables, if it occurs, will be resolved.
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