Hey guys,
Firstly a big thank you to everyone who showed their support at Davies St. today. It was so impressive to see everyones commitment to the cause, even if it meant the threat of arrest! Awesome.
So after occupying Nigel Carrington's office for about 6 hours today, we finally managed to initiate talks between Oppose, SU, UCU and senior management. Granted it wasn't Nigel himself, but it was the deputy rector, Elizabeth Rouse.
The meeting took over an hour long and although there was some progress not enough was made.
The senior management still refuse to acknowledge Oppose as representative of the student body and thus continue to ignore our demands. It is at this point that I would like to point out one small issue (I mean in no way to undermine the authority of the SU at this point); however I would like to suggest that Oppose have a greater number of UAL students supporting us than amount of students that voted in the last SU elections. Thus being more representative than the SU. Just a suggestion.
We tried to raise as many points as possible that you guys mentioned to us, although it was more of a general meeting than this. All issues of dissertation supervision were raised, including unspecialised tutors and lack of communication on senior management's behalf. We also tried to bring up, as much as we could, the problems associated with 1st and 2nd years; we let them know that a lot of you are considering leaving the university. The letter from PR students has been passed on to the deputy rector, whether she'll read it or not remains to be seen.
There were some points I think all parties agreed on, in particular the poor communication from senior management to students. It is not acceptable. There is, however, some dispute as to nearly all other points.
There has been another meeting scheduled for, provisionally, 2 weeks time.
We will keep fighting, keep protesting and keep building our strength. This is not over!
A big thank you to all staff who have discreetly sent messages of support, no names.
Also HUGE thanks to Jonathan Leader, from all of us, we are so impressed with the way you reacted to the manhandling of students. Also, good letter.
Watch out for an upcoming protest and further action. A new issue of The Opposer out next week, all contributions are welcome.
Louis @ Oppose.
Photo by Charles Fox
did anyone mention the money being wasted on external security/bouncers? or the blocking of students from entering the uni? might be a good thing to mention at the next meeting because it illustrates starkly how management are the ones disrupting our education not oppose.
ReplyDeletealso agreed, su, with the exception of kit friend, is being quite nonchalant about this. wake up!
Still nothing on the SU website about any of this, them ignoring what is happening is just as ridiculous as what management is doing.
ReplyDeleteGreat work today, to all involved.
ReplyDeleteThis is an education money cant buy, and you are all getting straight A's
Now we just need to get you the education you did buy! Keep it up stay, strong and keep smiling.
its not gonna make much impact really...... sit ins are just annoying for student aswell as uni big wigs
ReplyDeleteactually the sit in didn't affect students in the slightest, they were only sitting quietly ini the back of the mlt and still allowing lectures to continue as normal. it was management deciding to drag in hired security guards to block the uni entrance that caused the chaos. (in the case of lcc anyway).
ReplyDeleteand if everyone was as defeatist as you seem to be, nothing would get done. look at the press they're getting. the fact that s. kemp had to send out an all staff email with her spin on events means they've already had an impact.
I really admire this, I mean it really looks interesting! I'm actually glad to see all this stuff,Thanks for convey this.
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