The student occupation in Staff House has definitely been noticed and there has been a certain amount of success. A large number of students have noticed it and provided their support. Certain university staff have made some form of contribution too – from good luck messages, to spreading the word, to copying leaflets. The general message is that every little helps and that seems to be true. The student union have noticed it, but at the time of typing, they do not officially support the action. However, it’s worth noting that individual members of the executive have unofficially supported what has been done.
Photo taken by David Morris (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike)
So, what has happened since my last blog post?
Petition
As I have mentioned, the student union do not presently support the action that HSAFC has taken. However, if a petition is signed by enough full members of the union, an EGM call be called and supporting the action can be discussed once again and it will go to a vote (providing 160 people attend to make the meeting quorate).
HSAFC have a paper-based petition and an online version and, as you can tell from this image, they have got a substantial amount of signatures. They have roughly 300, which is more than enough to call an EGM. In fact, one has been arranged for 16/12/10 and it will start at 6pm. Unfortunately, only full members of the union can attend, but I will attempt to get details as soon as possible.
There is one problem though. Some people will have signed the petition to say that they support the action, but they may not want to do much more. Judging by what I have seen in the occupied room, there aren’t that many people willing to get fully involved. There’s also Union Council. Only 24 people attended who were eligible to vote when the motion was originally being discussed. That shows that some supporters aren’t willing to give up part of their evening to go to a meeting. There’s also the recent demonstration outside the student union that I blogged about. There was more advertising for that and the attendance was underwhleming (although the weather conditions were more severe and the event was outside). Expecting roughly half of the signatories (and others) to attend might prove to be difficult.
As I have talked to some of the occupiers, I have noticed that some criticise the union for the lack of official support. This demonstrates a misunderstanding of the democratic process though. They were merely going with the decision at Union Council – which is what should be done. If they ignore the decision, they would be guilty of something more serious. Only 10 voted to support the occupation, which means over 50% didn’t. The voters in Union Council are students, not the Union Executive Committee. They have done nothing wrong.
However, it’s clear that the issue has got more attention and now that more students are aware of the situation, it’s clear that the issue of support must be discussed further. If HUU gives their support, they will be in the same situation as many other student unions across the country.
VC statement
Photo taken by David Morris (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike)
HSAFC had a number of the demands and one was for the VC (Professor Calie Pistorius) to issue a statement “condemning the attacks on education”. Rather surprisingly, a lengthy statement was issued today. I felt that some of the points made in it would have been discussed over a longer period of time by senior members of staff. Anyway, the full statement can be found here on HSAFC’s blog.
Some of the more interesting parts include:
“The University of Hull therefore opposes the deep cuts that have been made in public support for the universities. We are mindful of the national fiscal difficulties and national debt, and understand that as a result of this public sector spending needs to be cut. The government has chosen the option of raising tuition fees as a way of solving higher education’s share of reducing the national deficit. Recent legislation was passed to this effect and a White Paper will follow in the first quarter of 2011 which will be enacted in new legislation. This will herald a broader transformation in the higher education system. As a part of the reforms, significant components of public funding for universities will be withdrawn. It is the government’s intention that these will be replaced by the tuition fees.”
In this section, the Vice-Chancellor states that the University opposes the public sector cuts to university funding. This is understandable – a university doesn’t run on thin air. It requires some form of income for research, learning and teaching and improving the overall experience for students (amongst other things). However, despite opposing the cuts, he goes on to state that he accepts that cuts have to be made. He notes the decision to approve the increase in tuition fees, but he doesn’t state the university’s opinion on that.
Two of HFASC’s demands were that the VC issues a statement condeming attacks on education and for the uni to not increase tuition fees. Whilst you could argue that the former has been met, the latter clearly hasn’t. The VC must be clearly realise that the money has to come from somewhere.
“Whilst acknowledging the principle of public and private benefit and funding for higher eduation, the University regrets the additional burden that the increased fees will place on graduates. As a public university, the University of Hull does not have any option but to align its tuition fees with the government’s policy”
The above quote is worth noting. This implies that the university will increase tuition fees for (at least) some of the subjects.
If you look through the rest of the statement, you’ll also find no mention of the third demand (condemning the cuts of the Liberal Democrat Council). So, only one of the three demands have been met.
There is also absolutely no mention of the student occupation, HSAFC or any individuals involved in the action.
Many members of HSAFC consider this statement to be weak. Their full response will be issued soon.
Summary & Conclusion
The person involved with HSAFC who did the post which featured the VC’s response notes that the statement is “a victory”. To a certain extent, it is. A statement has been issued and the university opposes the cuts. However, it doesn’t say anything about ruling out increases to tuition fees and doesn’t cover all the demands. I would consider it a failure, or ‘minor progress’ at best.
It will be interesting to see the full response from HSAFC and the outcome of the EGM.
So, what do you think?