Striiiike Two
Having begrudgingly settled with rent strikers for over £500,000 last term, UCL Residences could have been forgiven for thinking it was finally safe to go back into the accountants’ office and count their piles of money. Alas, UCL Cut the Rent – invigorated by their surprise victory and the early return of prodigal Swede David Dahlborn from abroad – have upped the stakes, enlisting angry freshers from halls across the college estate in an indefinite rent strike (see last CG).
The campaigners, led by UCLU Halls representative Angus O’Brien, have en- joyed extensive media coverage. A hard cell of strikers did a stiff turn on BBC News, and their efforts were hailed by wistful London Student old boy Oscar Webb in a predictably fiery dispatch for VICE. The blaze of publicity seems to support the group’s claim that their “strike marks a turning point in the tac- tics of tenants struggling for affordable housing across London” – but despite the fanfare it isn’t quite the mass move- ment its planners envisioned. Insiders suggest many more might have joined the 150-strong awkward squad were it not for the flakiness of some of the cam- paign’s pledges.
Nonetheless, the group is withholding the contents of its £250,000 war chest until their nemesis, lugubriously-named halls chief Colin Plank, agrees to a 40 per cent cut in rent to make amends for the inflation-busting increases of 56 per cent since 2009. The rent hikes – which Cut the Rent claim have netted College an operating profit of 45 per cent on its lucrative property portfolio – have been branded “tuition fees by stealth” by strik- ers, who have pledged to fight an uncom- promising confrontational campaign.
Their no-nonsense approach makes the official College response to its fifth column of dissenters all the more re- markable – and shows just how far things have come for Cut the Rent since its modestly-attended sit-ins of last year. In a statement that clearly came straight from the back foot, UCL Residences made the faintly ludicrous claims that they “invariably spend more on residenc- es than we receive in rental income” and “keep rents as low as possible” (try telling that to freshers who pay 200 quid a week to live with rats and cockroaches) – but more significantly, admitted they would now “explore ways in which it might be possible to mitigate financial pressures on students resulting from housing costs in London”. Given recent revelations that College is pursuing further partnerships with private providers (see last CG), it seems unlikely that their efforts will satis- fy O’Brien: indeed, halls bosses maintain they won’t give in to the hefty forty per cent demand.
Going Through The Motions
In a year where College has been forced to think the unthinkable by tenacious campaigning, another unlikely victory for the underdog could be on the cards. Fos- sil Free’s occupation of the Quad might not have forced the Provost to instantly scrap UCL’s investment in environmen- tally unfriendly energy companies, but it looks like they could get one step closer to their goal – through the official chan- nels they’ve spent so much of their time disrupting.
The Cheese Grater has learned a mo- tion has been added to the agenda of this Wednesday’s (February 10th) meet- ing of Academic Board, through which academics advise and berate College management. At the vanguard of the fight is people’s champion Professor Jane Ren- dell, who has previous in taking stances unpopular with UCL bigwigs. In 2013 she resigned from her post as Vice Dean of Research in protest against the shady way in which UCL’s Institute for Sustain- able Resources accepted £6m in funding from mining company BHP Billiton. Although the Provost has made it known that he isn’t willing to divest from Fos- sil Fuels yet, sufficient pressure from the academic community could make his position untenable. Crucially, Rendell was voted onto UCL’s Ethical Investment Review Commit- tee when it was seen as an irrelevant body that only met infrequently. Now that investments are subject to closer scrutiny (see CG 50) and divestment demands are reaching so far up of- ficial channels however, Rendell’s seat on the committee could prove crucial in changing UCL’s position.