On Friday 3 Decem- ber occupants from UCL and the Slade School of Fine Art breathed a sigh of relief as it was announced that UCL man- agement’s court case against them had been adjourned un- til the following Tuesday. The previous day they had been is- sued with a Possession Order by UCL, summoning them to a court hearing to argue their case; had they lost, bailiffs may well have been called in.
While Provost Prof Malcolm Grant was away in India on 24 November, ap- proximately 150 students occupied the Jeremy Ben- tham Room (JBR) in protest against proposed govern- ment cuts to higher education.
In the subsequent ten days the UCL Occupation garnered international media coverage, built up over 3,400 Twitter followers and sparked campus-wide debate and di- vision for both its demands and the actions it has taken.
Media attention has been great, far greater than that of the 24 other student occupations which have occurred across the UK- for some of which UCL Occupation has now be- come a figurehead for. How- ever many UCL students them- selves are still to be convinced.
The Big Society
The protests have po- larised student opinion on campus, in particular in rela- tion to UCLU societies. Aside from UCL management, stu- dent groups also make use of the JBR and it was their rela- tionships with the UCL Oc- cupation that would provide the acid test of the occupa- tion’s ability to accommo- date the student population.
The first instance of this came when Musical Theatre Society required use of the JBR for the dress rehearsal of their Bloomsbury produc- tion ‘Anything Goes’. Despite a heated meeting arguing the various merits of allowing Mu- sical Theatre to use the room, discussions broke down when UCL Occupation was unable to accommodate an eight hour rehearsal on 28 November. While they were able to offer Musical Theatre an alterna- tive room in Soho in which to rehearse negotiations ul- timately broke down as this was felt to not adequately ca- ter for the needs of the society.
Chessum Dorma
The UCLU Orchestra rely on the JBR as it is the only room in UCL that can accommodate their 83 musi- cians with instruments and maintain any semblance of acoustics. When Music Soci- ety president Astrid Hjerting tried to negotiate use of the room she was told that usage was conditional on her sending a letter to UCL management supporting the Occupation.
Constitutionally unable to speak for the political views of students she was elected to rep- resent, Hjerting was temporar- ily left without a room until the orchestra was luckily able to negotiate a last minute booking in ULU. Two further JBR book- ings held by the Music Society are still in temporary limbo.
Dance, Debating and Economics and Finance Soci- ety have also had events can- celled. When the president of Dance Society went into the occupation to negotiate use of the JBR she was called a ‘stu- pid dance bitch’ and a ‘stuck up public school girl’ by oc- cupants. While these were the insults of one or two individu- als and not the occupation as a whole, the president of a ma- jor UCLU society left the JBR upset and feeling that its Open Space was not open to her.
When asked for comment UCL Occupation refused to take responsibility for inconve- niencing students and instead stated that ‘management are employing deliberately divisive strategies in an attempt to turn sections of the student body against us.’ This response seems unlikely when you consider that UCL possesses no other space capable of catering for certain specialised events; how- ever it does raise the issue of why UCL has failed to protect the interests of apolitical societ- ies. One UCLU Sabbatical Offi- cer compared UCL’s silence on the occupation to be like ‘the parents are away and the kids are just fucking up the house’.
A motion was passed in the JBR this Wednesday, agree- ing to accommodate clubs and societies wherever pos- sible. However this may be too little too late following a week of disruption to the day-to-day running of UCLU.
Everybody’s Chalking At Me
On the evening of 28 No- vember slogans were chalked by occupiers across the UCL cam- pus. While these caught the eye of many, the following morn- ing students were met with the sight of the very cleaners supported by the occupation’s demands scrubbing graffiti off the walls of Foster Court. Some students were particularly ap- palled by the fact that graffiti had been drawn on the Por- tico’s war memorial plaque.
Sources suggest however that graffiti was the action of a minority. Apparently one lead- ing figure wrote it up on an events board without having fully discussed it. This was fol- lowed by a rushed meeting to de- cide upon whether such action was necessary at 1am, minutes before the graffiti was drawn.
Chalk slogans still remain scrawled across the main quad, with management claiming that professional cleaning costs will be approximately £10,000. However some feel that this figure has been exaggerated by UCL in order to further split student opinion on campus. Certainly the university has been conspicuously slow to act upon the graffiti, choosing to let it remain there for the week. The vandalism has been report- ed to the Metropolitan Police. UCL Union had previ- ously threatened that it would clean the graffiti itself in time for the Christmas carol con- cert next week and would subsequently charge the oc- cupation for the cleaning. The occupation is yet to official- ly respond to this proposal.
Wipe The Slade Clean
The Slade School of Fine Art also occupied on 30 Novem- ber, with papers against them submitted by UCL on the af- ternoon of the following day. It has also been rumoured that the Modern Languages depart- ment have considered going into occupation themselves in a separate protest, following the merging of their separate departments earlier this year.
I Fought The Law
In a meeting with the oc- cupation on 26 November, Vice-Provost for Operations Rex Knight affirmed that legal pro- ceedings were not being taken. That no action had yet been tak- en was confirmed again as late as 9am on 1 December, when a statement was issued request- ing that students leave the JBR by 11am the same day. These claims have been undermined however by legal documents which show that initial submis- sions were made to the court by UCL as early as the morning of 26 November, only an hour after Knight met with the occupation.
The documents submit- ted by Eversheds LLP on behalf of UCL include much mate- rial lifted from the occupation’s website and Twitter feed, such as photos of the graffiti and the JBR. UCL lists in its court pa- pers that the cost of the occu- pation has been approximately £30,000, allowing for security costs, the cleaning of graffiti and the loss of catering revenue. This does not however include le- gal fees or room hire bookings, which are likely to be far more.
Dancing in the Moonshine
One of the weirdest ac- cusations from the document is that occupants have been pro- ducing their own ‘home brew’; this is based purely on UCL security finding three empty 30 litre containers near the JBR. Needless to say, the ac- cusation is completely untrue.
A court hearing was sched- uled for 3 December at 2pm, with one representative from each of the JBR and Slade occu- pations present; court has now been adjourned until 10:30am on the 7th. Representatives - should they lose and UCL de- cide to pursue charges – are personally liable to be fined in the region of £3-5,000. Fund- ing groups have been set up in an attempt to cover these costs.
So far the occupations have only been charged with a pos- session order. However a court injunction seems likely to follow if this is not enough, with UCL having suggested to The Cheese Grater that this was being sought.
OMG EGM FML
An Extraordinary General Meet- ing for UCLU to support the oc- cupation has been scheduled for Monday 6 December at 5pm, following a petition gaining the required 500 votes. If this is passed it would mandate the Union to publically voice sup- port for the occupation; an in- teresting prospect considering how damning some UCLU sab- batical officers have been of it.
Tensions on this issue con- tinue to run high as opinion on campus is markedly split, with many of those opposed to the Browne Report also now opposed to the UCL Occupa- tion. One particular article in the EGM motion, which claims that the occupation has ‘worked with students to minimise dis- ruption to education and soci- ety activities’, will no doubt be heavily refuted by societies such as Music and Musical Theatre.
The Story Continues
In terms of media coverage there is no denying the enormous im- pact that the UCL Occupation has brought about. Press cov- erage including The Guardian, BBC and New Statesman as well as public endorsements from public figures including Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Corbyn and Polly Toynbee are some of its most prominent achievements.
Any group which has pres- sured the NUS President to pub- lically apologise for ‘spineless dithering’ has clearly also mus- tered significant political clout on a national student level. It has also gained the widespread support of academic staff – with the UCL University and College Union voting to support it – and has organised a wide variety of talks and lectures in an attempt to draw more students into the JBR.
However the question still remains as to what the real effect of the occupation has been at a student level on campus. The is- sue of higher education cuts has received attention on an unprec- edented scale. But in terms of gaining greater student partici- pation the occupants themselves remain a minority, as they began. Certainly high ranking figures in UCLU and some societies have been alienated from the cause because of the extent to which they have been inconvenienced, an alienation which has been exacerbated by rash actions such as the chalking of campus.
Debating Society - in con- junction with the occupants - have arranged a debate for Mon- day on the rights and wrongs of UCL Occupation. Held in a neutral venue with speakers for and against, it will be perhaps the best indicator of what stu- dents think but also the best op- portunity for either side to win others over to their cause. As the Parliament vote approaches (Thursday 9 December) and UCL management moves to shut the occupation down, stu- dents continue to debate. One thing is clear: tensions and di- visions are no longer exclusively about cuts, they are now also focused on the occupation itself.