THIS WEDNESDAY!

On National Day of Action before Thursday’s parliamentary vote on raising tuition fees, Warwick SU will be marching through Campus to show solidarity with the thousands undertaking similar actions around the country and to show our anger at the proposals for extortionate tuition fees and savage cuts to Higher Education.

11.30 Meet on the Piazza.
They’ll be music, hot chocolate, stalls where you can register to come to London the next day for the tuition fees vote, and other activities to get a carnival atmosphere going.

11.55
We’ll be forming a giant 9000 figure using people stood on the Piazza to represent the ridiculous figure fees may rise to at Warwick.

12.00
We’ll be marching down the road ending up at Library Square where they’ll be speeches from students, academics and even some local sixth Formers who will be most affected by the fee rise.

NUS and UCU call for national action around the tuition fees debate in parliament

The raising (or lifting completely) the cap on tuition fees will be debated in parliament on Thurday 9th Dec.

The NUS and UCU have called for joint staff and student actions the day before the debate and on the day itself:

Wed 8th: Local actions at universities, colleges and schools around the country.

Thurs 9th: Massive demo in Westminster, followed by candlelight vigil in the evening if the fee cap is lifted.

Stand up and be counted.

UCU Meeting Wednesday 8th Dec

Wednesday 8^th December, 12.00-13.00 Room R1.13, Ramphal Building

80% cuts in the teaching grant!

22,000 HE jobs at risk, including 10,000 in academic and related grades!

UK faces the largest class sizes in the G8!

WARWICKUCU IS HOLDING AGENERAL  MEETING

Members are invited to submit motions on the subject of The Cuts.  Motions must be sent by email to administrator@warwickucu.org.uk and submitted no later than midday on Wednesday 1^st December.

Come along and have your say – Together let’s fight the cuts

Demonstration outside Chris White MP’s Office Thursday 2 December

Join Warwick Against the Cuts to demonstrate against education cuts outside Chris White MP’s Leamington office this Thursday 2 December.

Map: http://tinyurl.com/whereschriswhite

Chris White stated in an interview earlier this year that:

“It’s a lot of money for people to have to pay, and students coming out of university with phenomenal debts is a big worry. We’ve got make sure that what you pay is worthwhile. We’ve got to make sure it’s not stopping the less advantaged getting to university.”

(http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2010/11/18/leamington-mp-chris-white-backs-student-tuition-fees-plans-92746-27673473/#ixzz16nJTd8Kg)

Let’s ask Chris to support the less advantaged, and vote against government proposals to raise tuition fees and slash education funding.

We’ll be staying outside his office as long as possible: turn up as early as you can, bring placards, banners and a sense of humour! And, of course, invite everyone you know…

See you on Thursday!

Warwick Against the Cuts

Teach-in Tuesday 30th November

Hey guys,

As most of you probably know, the upcoming Tuesday 30 November is the second day of action in the national campaign against fees & cuts. At an open meeting on Friday, we decided to seize this opportunity to show the government and Warwick University that higher education does not have to cost £9,000 per year.

We are therefore organising a teach-in at Copper Rooms 2 between 10am and 4pm this Tuesday.

Here’s a provisional course of events:

Economic Rationality 10:00 – 12:10

10:00 – 10:45
Thinking in Stupid Institutions Notes
K. Hoskin & A-C. Frandsen (Warwick Business School)

11:00 – 11:30
Analysis of the Spending Cuts
G. Bhambra (Sociology)

11:40 – 12:10
TBC

Social Movements – Warwick and beyond 12:20 – 15:00

12:20 – 12:50
Social Movements: 1968
G-R. Horn (History)

13:00 – 13:30
The university as an institutionalised movement
S. Fuller (Sociology)

13:40 – 14:10
TBC

14:20 – 15:00
Workshop: How activists can use theatre
M. Hetzer (German)

16:00 onwards
Discussion – What’s next?
Come and join us as we demonstrate what free education could look like.

For more information, check out our Facebook event.

Education is a right, not a privilege.
Warwick Against the Cuts

Statement following this occupation

This morning, the remaining students occupying the ACCR made a collective decision to leave the lecture theatre.

We stayed overnight, despite being denied free and complete access to toilets since the beginning of the occupation, and with heavy security continuing to block access to the room. Despite our desire for lectures to go ahead as usual, the University had rescheduled all lectures.
We decided to end this occupation; not because students didn’t want to join us or because we didn’t want to stay, but because it had become physically impossible for us to create the space of free education that we had envisioned. We know that many students and lecturers tried to join us but were blocked from doing so by the University authorities and police. We want to create a space on campus for free and democratic education, for people not for profit. We have not been able to do that in this room.
We see this occupation as a great success: the amount of solidarity and support from students, staff, lecturers and others at Warwick and beyond has been incredible, and the considerable media coverage has successfully carried our message.

We therefore leave here on our own terms, with the knowledge that this is just the beginning. We see a real momentum building and our demands to the Vice Chancellor and University authorities are still outstanding.
We are having an open meeting tonight at 5pm in the Students Union to reflect on the actions of the past 24 hours and discuss the next step in our movement. Everyone is welcome to come and participate.

Statement to lecturers regarding tomorrow’s lectures

Here is the content of the email that we have sent to individual lecturers who are scheduled to teach in the ACCR tomorrow.

“We understand that your lecture in the ACCR tomorrow has been rescheduled by the university due to our occupation of the lecture theatre. We would like to make very clear that we do not intend to cause any disruption and that this action was not sanctioned by us; we want this to remain a space for education. As such we strongly support lectures going ahead as usual and whilst we will maintain a non-intrusive symbolic presence we would not disrupt the lecture.

We hope you will consider holding your lecture in here as normal.

Yours sincerely,

Students of Warwick University (currently in occupation)”

We couldn’t contact the Business School lecturers because we couldn’t find their addresses, so if anyone has a lecture in here tomorrow with the Business school please draw their attention to the fact that we want lectures to go ahead.

We are now streaming live

You can watch the occupation on ustream here.

A Collaborative Education Space

We believe in free access to education. As such, we will be holding workshops on a variety of academic subjects, and inviting in guest speakers and facilitators.

We invite you to join us in the Arts Centre Conference Room.

In particular, we will be holding a workshop on the impact of education cuts tonight at 6:30pm. Please join us then!

The University has suggested that we are disrupting the education of our fellow students, but it is in fact the University who are doing so by hinting that lectures cannot go ahead within this space. We would like to clarify that we support the continuation of lectures in the conference room, and we will ensure that lectures are not disrupted by occupation participants for the duration of our protest.

Warwick security continue to block access to the Arts Centre Conference Room, but hopefully we can work together to create a collaborative learning space.

See you at 6:30!

Response to the Vice Chancellor of Warwick Uni

The VC has expressed that he would like to meet with a representative from within the occupation. We feel that it would be more beneficial if he were to come and speak with the group within the occupation. This is because we feel that a single person is not adequately or fairly equipped to represent the views of all who are currently in occupation.

 

We would also ask that in keeping with the open nature of this meeting that any student  or staff member (ie. including those who are not currently in the occuapation space) be allowed to come in and participate in this discussion. This is not a request, this is a necessary condition.

 

We stress our non-violent nature and our genuine desire to take part in a peaceful and democratic negotiation with the Vice-Chancellor.