University of Sussex sit-in reaches seventh day (From The Argus)
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University of Sussex sit-in reaches seventh day
1:02pm Wednesday 17th March 2010 in
Sussex University students were today spending a seventh day in a "sit-in" in a lecture theatre in protest over proposed job cuts.
A total of around 300 students are thought to have been taking part in the occupation at the University of Sussex's main Falmer campus since last Thursday.
They are protesting at plans to cut 115 jobs and create 20 new posts at the university, with the final decision due to be made next week.
They also want the university to reinstate six of their fellow students who were suspended following another protest earlier this month.
One student tweeting about the protest as Tabitha called on people to: "Save Sussex from fools who want to waste the uni's dwindling funds on pointless restructuring. It serves no purpose - please stop!"
She added: "Staff at Sussex Uni have great ideas for reducing/eliminating job losses. Will management actually listen now?"
A university spokeswoman said it has had 15 consultation meetings with each of the three campus trade unions and has received a number of counter-proposals which have been properly considered and reviewed.
She added: "The university has made strategic proposals to respond to the challenging financial climate for higher education, to ensure that we remain a leading research-led university.
"Our Proposal for Change was presented to staff and students in November 2009. It would involve the loss of 115 jobs, and the creation of 20 - out of total staffing of 2,500."
The university does not propose to close any of its departments.
She said the previous sit-in which led to the suspension of six students involved "a break-in, theft, intimidation of staff and significant disruption to the university's work" and the students are due to be subject to a disciplinary process.
Staff who are members of the University and College Union (UCU) at the Brighton-based university are to take part in strike action tomorrow in protest at the cuts.
University of Sussex UCU representative, Paul Cecil, said: "We understand the financial pressures facing both the university here and the whole higher education sector.
"However, we do not believe that making excellent staff redundant is either necessary or the right thing for the University of Sussex."
Comments(13)
MarcoPolo
says...
1:48pm Wed 17 Mar 10
brightonboy1968
says...
2:00pm Wed 17 Mar 10
MarcoPolo wrote:So I suppose that whilst these idiots are in the lecture theatre having a 'sit-in', students who might actually want to attend lectures and do some work are prevented from doing so due to the lecture theatre being unavailable?
300 students in a lecture theatre - good job it wasn't an actual lecture - then it'd be a lot emptier. Seriously, these job cuts are minor and the £3 million deficit run up in the Life Sciences department and obscene overun in the creche £350,000 or £5600 per child needs to be addressed.
notaconspiracy
says...
2:08pm Wed 17 Mar 10
Leave them be, bless, they're doing no harm (or good, eh).
Granny
says...
2:23pm Wed 17 Mar 10
Spanners
says...
4:51pm Wed 17 Mar 10
HF 05
says...
6:29pm Wed 17 Mar 10
allie_cabab
says...
6:31pm Wed 17 Mar 10
I haven't heard about the figures the guy at the top is making - they're making £3million of cuts for the whole university this year then £5 million next year.
All lectures were rearranged to other buildings by the occupiers as the management is too incompetent to think of it.
Most people accept that the university is not in a good financial state and cuts will have to be made, because the first thing this government have cut is higher education.
However the management proposals are terrible, they didn't talk to staff members about it before they made it.
One example of how badly researched they are is that they called for 8 redundancies in the main physics lab - there aren't 8 staff working in the main physics lab!
Ellie Hristova
says...
7:49pm Wed 17 Mar 10
2. "The university has made strategic proposals to respond to the challenging financial climate for higher education, to ensure that we remain a leading research-led university." - how exactly are we supposed to remain a leading reserach-led university when because of the proposed cuts the remaining staff would have to teach more classes and students, and consequently have no time to research?
3. The occupied lecture theatre still holds lectures, including one by a Yale academic; it has also become a an open forum where staff and students can openly and safely discuss the financial state of the university and present and argue on proposed cuts, as well as the state of the education system in the current economic climate.
4. All the above commenters (except the one before me) rather than making ignorant remarks and snide somments should educate themselves on the Stop the Cuts campaign at Sussex and other UK universitites and understand that cuts at Sussex would have an effect even on them. In fact maybe you should come to the A2 lecture theatre and listen to a few lectures!
5. Follow the campaign on http://defendsussex.
wordpress.com/
MarcoPolo
says...
9:14pm Wed 17 Mar 10
Ellie Hristova wrote:Get this in perspective. The proposed job cuts (95 staff) are a relatively small percentage of staff. The idea that the rest will be overwhelmed and have their ability to do research curtailed is laughable.
1. "a break-in, theft, intimidation of staff and significant disruption to the university's work" - this is hearsay used as propaganda to discredit the students
2. "The university has made strategic proposals to respond to the challenging financial climate for higher education, to ensure that we remain a leading research-led university." - how exactly are we supposed to remain a leading reserach-led university when because of the proposed cuts the remaining staff would have to teach more classes and students, and consequently have no time to research?
3. The occupied lecture theatre still holds lectures, including one by a Yale academic; it has also become a an open forum where staff and students can openly and safely discuss the financial state of the university and present and argue on proposed cuts, as well as the state of the education system in the current economic climate.
4. All the above commenters (except the one before me) rather than making ignorant remarks and snide somments should educate themselves on the Stop the Cuts campaign at Sussex and other UK universitites and understand that cuts at Sussex would have an effect even on them. In fact maybe you should come to the A2 lecture theatre and listen to a few lectures!
5. Follow the campaign on http://defendsussex.
wordpress.com/
What effect would these cuts have on others? The reason the creche is having its wings clipped is that it was hopelessly mismanaged and ran £350,000 over its budget. Why should these kids receive a huge public subsidy, when other much poorer children get less or none at all?
jay316
says...
2:19am Thu 18 Mar 10
If the mindless few didn't break into building (and by all accounts most protested peacefully) they would have probably not have had to have security on the Back and Front Doors of Sussex House.. It was like Fort Knox today... The building was on lock-down.
Who does this help, students who need access to facilities I fear not.
I guess they were lucky that rent a mob were busy in Brighton town centre, at an alleged smashEDO protest.
Lewesman
says...
9:29am Thu 18 Mar 10
Labour have just made it even worse.
1. Cut the number of Universities.
2. Raise entry qualifications to pre 1985 levels (A-levels were truly much harder then).
3. Cut the number of places in general. Only the most academically gifted allowed to attend higher education.
Britain needs the best Engineers, Doctors and Scientists.
dentalplan
says...
11:46am Thu 18 Mar 10
But hey, close the creche! Britain can only benefit from making it harder for parents to obtain a university degree. Having university educated parents does not correlate with increased achievement by the children, after all. And I'm sure it's cheaper to ignore the promotion of social mobility and keep on writing welfare cheques.
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southwicker says...
1:34pm Wed 17 Mar 10