Pages 50 & 51 - VI. Suggestions Towards a Solution on Present Adjacent Sites

50 U.C.D. and the Future

graduates—so a large increase in student numbers seems improbable. If this
space should be required, however, it should not be provided in U. C. D. which
is already too large. It could be provided by improving and expanding the
Colleges in Cork and Galway, and perhaps by founding new Colleges in other
centres such as Limerick.

Of one thing we are certain: U.C.D. should not be allowed to grow into
a colossus to the impoverishment of our other university colleges.

For all these reasons then, we submit that there is no need to provide for
an expansion of the U.C.D. full-time student body beyond 5,000 and that
space for such expansion should never be required or acquired.

(2) Faculty Expansion

It is true that the frontiers of knowledge will continue to expand. It is
also true that the contribution that our population and our economy, even
when more fully developed, can make to such expansion is limited. We grant
that new university departments not yet in existence may be required for
U.C.D. and hope that they will, in time, be created. Amongst departments
that might be set up or expanded we may include the following: various
branches of sociology, public and business administration, managerial training,
psychology. A computer laboratory might be established. To the scientific and
technological faculties there might be added departments of astronomy (in
association with Dunsink Observatory), electronics, radiation chemistry, bio-
physics and medical physics, anthropology, genetics and other biological
specialisations.

In any such schemes for expansion, however, the University would naturally
have to be guided by what was economically feasible and by, we would like to
hope, what facilities were available elsewhere in the city. Any new department
that might be established would be such as could be housed in conventional
buildings and laboratories in, if necessary, multi-storeyed blocks. The British
universities, which the Commission visited and whose large site areas impressed
them so greatly, will be concerned with established and expanding great
technological and other departments which are closely linked with the British
industrial economy. We will not need great atom-smashing machines for
nuclear research (a field already beyond the capacity of any single British
university and for which the countries of Western Europe have had to co-
operate in such international projects as Euratom or C.E.R.N.), nor need we
provide for departments concerned with rocket flight or space exploration.

It is, of course, to be expected that the expansion of the economy and
particularly of industry will require increased facilities for advanced technology.
Most such facilities could likewise be housed in city blocks. Where this is
impossible, the corresponding advanced teaching and reseach could be sited
at a distance from the College since they have little to do with undergraduate
teaching. Alternatively it could find its expression in the foundation or expan-
sion of institutions other than U.C.D. Even those who disagree with us, and
consider that this solution is not ideal, must surely agree that it would be
preferable to site a very few now unforseen, highly specialised units some
distance from U.C.D. than to remove the whole of the College from the
cultural and educational complex to which it belongs. We submit that there

Suggestions Towards a Solution 51

is no need to acquire a campus which would attempt to provide in advance
for every possible contingency.

We submit that the Commission was not justified in comparing the areas
devoted to British universities with that available to U.C.D. if it remained
within the city. It is to be noted that two differently constituted Architectural
Advisory Boards, given extensive estates at Stillorgan, prepared two different
site plans for a new College, which in each case was confined to some 36
acres and included very large quadrangles. The central open area of the
Belgrove plan is about two-thirds the size of St. Stephen's Green.

In general the direct comparison of universities in different centres is
seldom justifiable. Each institution is unique in its site, its history, development
and local affiliations. A great diversity is to be seen amongst them in buildings,
administrative structures, systems of finance, range of faculties, provision for
research, and in racial, cultural or other associations. U.C.D. must be viewed
in its own particular context. Academic groves and expansive lawns are not
really necessary. Some of the world's greatest universities, Paris and Vienna
to name but two, flourish in city centres, without such amenities, nor have
they attempted to move out in search of them. Their great blocks stand in
built-up area and the bustling life of the great cities flows close around their
quadrangles.

We submit that, as the whole of the College's accommodation needs,
including provision for expansion of student numbers to 5,000, can be more
than met on 23 acres and that such expansion as may take place in the more
distant future will be confined to subjects that can be housed in conventional
buildings which could be acquired or erected from time to time on such sites
as become available in the general university area, the College should be
required to proceed forthwith with the development of its own sites and the
acquisition and development of adjacent sites and should abandon altogether
any thoughts of moving the College to the Stillorgan Road area. The move
is unnecessary.

VI. SUGGESTIONS TOWARDS A SOLUTION ON PRESENT AND
ADJACENT SITES

These suggestions fall in broad outline under four headings, under which
progress could be made simultaneously—
I Plan
II Retain and regroup
III Purchase
IV Build

We do not intend putting forward any specimen site plans. An expert com-
mittee might consider many alternative schemes for the development of the whole
area in the vicinity of Earlsfort Terrace. However, we will put forward one
scheme as an example of what might be done.

A SAMPLE SCHEME
The sample scheme which we outline here assumes that no co-operation
or co-ordination is forthcoming, i.e. it provides for U.C.D.'s maximum needs.