‘Meet our demands’: London Metropolitan University finance chief’s office is occuppied

Published: 10th December, 2010
by TERRY MESSENGER

PROTESTING students occupying the office of London Metropolitan University’s finance director are refusing to let her back in until the institution’s management agrees to 11 wide-ranging demands.

Thirty demonstrators have taken over corri­dors and staircases leading to the univer­sity’s finance and human resources department, in protest at government cuts in education spending and higher tuition fees.

The action at the London Met building in Holloway Road follows a wave of similar protests at universities across the country sparked by a Coalition decision to treble tuition fees to a maximum of £9,000.

A spokeswoman for the protest said: “We are just trying to draw attention to the financial problems the cuts are going to bring.”

She said finance director Pam Nelson was allowed in to retrieve papers from her office on Friday morning and could  visit again “at the occupiers’ discretion”.

The students moved into the finance and human resources build­ing last Thursday evening. 

“Sentries” sit behind upturned tables placed across corridors and staircases to control access to offices, which are mostly locked and deserted.

The protesters are refusing to move until a long list of demands is met by Vice-Chancellor Malcolm Gillies, the board of governors and senior management.

They insist that university chiefs:

• Condemn education spending cuts and tuition fee rises “both verbally and in writing” and release the statement directly “to the national media and the Prime Minister”.
• Issue an “explicit” statement of support for “all student protests across the country”.
• “Open the books” to reveal the university finances in detail to ­students and staff.
• Lift a threat to axe the university’s learning development unit, which helps students acquire study skills.
• Withdraw a threat to make 44 staff redundant.
• Pay the London living wage of £7.85p an hour to all staff, both in-house and contract.

Other demands relate to non-victimisation of occupiers.

The protesters are barring Ms Nelson and her assistant finance directors, Daniel Hannibal and Chris Coker, from their offices, along with the human resources department.

The students’ spokeswoman said: “Government cuts are going to be destroying lots of people’s lives, not only staff and students but also future students at the university.

“People can come through freely at the occupiers’ discretion.  We have decided that all students and disabled persons will have free access at any time. We’ll leave as soon as our demands are met. They are all very important to us and our university.”

Another protester said: “We’re not allowing anyone in from the finance department. We don’t really want security in here either.”

The demonstrators describe themselves as “an autonomous, democratically organised, united group of students”, who are separate from the official student union.

One explained:  “We don’t want to establish an organisation or call ourselves any kind of organisation because we don’t want it turning bureaucratic.    

“We don’t want to imitate the organisations we are fighting so we want to keep it non-hierarchical, democratic, flexible, moving. It’s working very well.”

The university is taking a softly, softly approach – relocating affected staff to other accommodation.

A spokeswoman said: “London Metropolitan University fully recog­nises the democratic right of our students to protest, providing such protest is free from violence. We realise this is an exceptional period for the higher education sector. It is not appropriate for us to comment on individual demands but we are working closely with our students, and their voices are being heard. As yet we have not taken any steps to evict the students.”