‘It is like a festival – you wander into your sleeping bag at whatever time’

Published: 2 December, 2010
by SIMON WROE

The first sign of revolution at University College is a classical statue in the main quad off Gower Street. It has been given a bra and a “Unite and Fight” placard. 

IN case anyone mistakes this for a youthful prank, a banner declaring “Occupation” is taped to the portico. Part of UCL is under student control.

Follow the takeaway boxes and hand-made signs along the South Cloisters and there it is: the Jeremy Bentham Room, ordinarily used for corporate functions, now filled with students, laptops and sleeping bags.

In the centre of the room is a microphone, used by columnist Polly Toynbee, comedian Mark Thomas, singer Billy Bragg and many other artists, musicians, writers and lecturers to pledge their support. 

To the left is the Media Centre, a table of MacBooks where the occupation’s Twitter, Facebook, blogs and email accounts are being constantly updated. A list of the movement’s demands hangs by the toilets.

Off to the sides are “quiet rooms”, where more than 100 students have been sleeping since the occupation began at midnight last Wednesday, and a kitchen, where some teabags are stewing in a bowl of salad.

“Most people here believe we are fighting for the very concept of higher education,” says Matthew Hall, 30, a media and political theory MA student. 

“But everyone is aware of the big picture too, that all walks of life are going to suffer. I think students are just the ones who are more able at the moment to take action about what is happening.” 

Mr Hall was one of a group of students who were up until 5am the night before drafting messages calling on Aaron Porter, head of the NUS, to support the occupation. Like many of the movement’s success stories, Mr Porter was eventually won over by social networking. 

But the protest can’t survive on tweets alone, adds Guy, a 23-year-old post-grad. “At the moment it’s inconvenient [for UCL], but we’re hoping to become more disruptive to management, to expand and escalate the operation so it becomes felt beyond this room,” he says. 

“We want to start taking protests onto the high street. I think it would be interesting if the student movements could link up with people protesting against tax dodgers. The trade unions too. I think they’ve been galvanised by the students.”

No one person is in charge at UCL’s occupation – “Philosophies don’t wait for leaders,” says Mr Hall – and all motions are passed on consensus, a show of hands, rather than a formal vote. 

Drugs and smoking indoors are strictly forbidden, though drinking is allowed “once the work is done”. One night they ‘Skyped’ the Oxford occupation and had a dance-off.

“It is like a festival – you wander into your sleeping bag at whatever time,” says Nadia Corbett, 18, a first-year English student. “But it’s a really important cause. There’s that idea that you can do something about it. I’m normally not political, but this is a good place to start.”

Mr Hall agrees. “We do have a few beers and a singalong of an evening,” he says. “But we actually take what we are doing and the cause exceptionally seriously. I think between now and Christmas this will turn out to be the biggest student movement there has ever been.”