A UCL undergraduate has challenged Provost Mal- colm Grant’s Campaign for UCL – and the rebranding and restructuring of College now in progress – by launching an ‘Al- ternative Campaign for UCL’.
Graham Kirby said he was launching the campaign because he disagreed profound- ly with the direction of UCL’s future and he wanted to give students the power to help de- termine it. “As top-up fees are being introduced, students are being seen increasingly as stake- holders. All our reputations lie on the successful prestige of UCL. However, while we have the most to lose, we are given no say in UCL’s future”.
Kirby is particularly un- happy about the new UCL logo – already mocked by the AUT and London Student - and the Provost’s lack of accountabili- ty. Explaining his aims, he said: “At the core of the campaign is asking the Provost to reconsid- er his decision to rebrand the College; asking him to meet students and present his ideas, and put them forward for dem- ocratic discussion”. He object- ed to the “corporate manage- ment spirit” of the new logo, concerns also reflected in our article on the subject in this is- sue.
Kirby, 27, a third-year politics student at SSEES, ap- pears to have a small follow- ing at the moment, but his plans are big: he wants to ask the Provost to reconsider his deci- sion to rebrand College; ask him to meet students and present their ideas, including a new logo (bottle of Bollinger champagne for the winner); and put them forward for democrat- ic discussion – taking power away from the Provost.
Kirby did not shy away from the last point: “Scottish universities have elected fig- ures, elected by the students and graduates, who have an influ- ential role in decisions, and I’m calling on UCL to adopt the same role”. Challenged that he didn’t know what he was talk- ing about, he admitted: “OK, the Provost does know more about higher education; how- ever, what I’m asking is for the Provost to treat us like adults, with all the facts before us.”
Kirby insisted that stu- dents would be encouraged to participate in the campaign since their careers were at stake. “Every one of us will have ‘UCL’ next to our names for the rest of their lives. That can ei- ther be a millstone – if we’re apathetic – or a blessing.” He was anxious to present himself as a friend to the Provost and praised the Campaign for UCL for its ambition, but finished with an appeal: “One can’t make decisions from an ivory tower. If the Provost has confi- dence in his ideas, let him come forward and debate them.”