I’m Dying To See You
Last month, after UCL management cut off negotiations with Fossil Free UCL, the campaigners staged a ‘die in’ protest to disrupt a UCL Council Meeting. Around 50 protesters laid down on the ground outside the meeting, causing council mem- bers, including Provost Michael Arthur, to have to step over their bodies to get inside. The Provost seemed none too amused with the obstruction and, after a failed attempt to ask security to remove those in his way, declared haughtily “Well if I fall over this ruins the whole thing, doesn’t it?”.
In a press release by Fossil Free UCL, student Guin Carter said that “If UCL management choose not only to invest in climate-killing fossil fuels but refuse to negotiate with those demanding change, how else do they expect us to communi- cate with them?”
Minutes leaked from a meeting of UCL’s Ethical Investment Review Com- mittee in April of this year reveal that the committee declined to immediately re- view all all of their individual Fossil Fuel divestment requests. However, committee member Professor Jane Rendell favoured a policy of complete divestment from the fossil fuel industry, similar to the one UCL already holds for the tobacco industry.
Tired & Emotional (About Chemical Bonds)
Earlier this term, students attending a chemistry lecture were surprised by the strange conduct of their lecturer, which included him telling a totally silent room to “stop talking … only I get to talk for the next hour, then you can talk for as long as you want”, and long digressions from sub- ject, meaning that he didn’t get through his even half of his presentation. In reference to the LectureCast recording which was taking place, he said that “everything in these lectures will be re- corded, unless I’m standing in this side of the room [he then moves out of camera’s view] when I can say things like ‘bum’”. Speculation about his condition fol- lowed from confused students.
A Natural Sciences 2nd year told The Cheese Grater that “it was a Friday after- noon. If a guy wants to relax a bit, let him. I know I do most weeks”.
Since then, senior members of the Chemistry department have been in at- tendance of all of his lectures. Students who complained have since had meet- ings with HR, and a student who com- plained to the course organiser, upon asking if it was worth going to the rest of the lectures, was told “no, I don’t think you should”.
Paint The Town Pastel
In support of the marking boycott proposed by the UCL branch of the Uni- versities and Colleges Union (UCU), 4 student activists made their own mark by daubing slogans of solidarity onto the walls outside Bloomsbury Theatre using water soluble powder paint.
UCL, perhaps ignorant of the mean- ing of ‘water soluble’ (the slogans have since washed off in the rain), were devas- tated at the insult to their precious walls and threatened to hand the names of the activists to the Met Police unless UCLU disciplined those involved.
The two students involved were given warnings by the Union and two Union Sabbatical Officers, Democracy and Communications Officer (DCO) Han- nah Sketchley and another who wished not to be named, are awaiting internal disciplinaries. UCL management os- tensibly argued that the protestors were ‘defacing UCL property’ but it has been suggested that this is the latest in a string of attempts to censor student critics and stifle protest on campus (see CGs passim).
Indeed, the paint itself may have de- faced the activists themselves more than the walls. Hannah Sketchley bemoaned the fact that “more paint stuck to my jeans than it did to the building.” The proposed marking boycott, which was protesting cuts to the pension scheme for university staff, was eventually postponed.