"They say cut back, WE say fight back!"
Yesterday’s Save Our Subjects (SOS) protest saw a fantastic turnout of over 600 people, in what has been described as the 'biggest protest at the University of Liverpool for over eight years'.
The Save Our Subjects campaign was set up after it was revealed that the Vice-Chancellor, Howard Newby proposed the almost definite closure of up to eight departments, following the results of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). This has been considered a rather untimely decision as the university has recently been awarded an increase of more than 8% in research grant income from the Funding Council.
It would appear that Newby was not prepared to fight the repercussions of his suggested proposal as he snuck in to yesterday’s senate meeting through a back entrance in order to avoid the protest. This has furthered anger among campaigners, who are already furious at the complete lack of consultation on the matter. To date, students are still to receive any formal notification regarding the potential closures of departments.
The protest, which took place outside the Victoria Buildings, lasted for over four hours and has been deemed a successful step in the right direction: fighting against what one student described as “a move which typifies the corporatisation and privatisation of the educational system in this country”.
The success of the protest has contributed to the removal of the mandatory closure clause, which proposed definite closure of the Politics and Communications, Philosophy and Statistics departments. However, as Luke Smith, second year Politics student and one of the organisers of SOS explained: “this is only the start, we must continue working with the departments and staff, to ensure that viable proposals go forward, and that we can save our subjects”. Indeed, as Paul Athans, who has been fronting the campaign has reflected “we may have won the battle, but we haven’t won the war”.
Daniel Hill, Philosophy lecturer and teaching fellow at the university yesterday commented: “I am delighted so many people turned out to support the protest and I sincerely hope that the Vice Chancellor will listen to the unmistakable voice”.
The protest has also stimulated many controversial debates around the university’s growing favouritism towards the sciences. Third year English and Communications student Laura Mallaber commented that “you don’t need to see the figures; you just need to use your eyes to see where the money at this university is being spent”. Conversely, other students have expressed their opposing views and many conflicting arguments have arisen surrounding the campaign. Regardless of the various viewpoints, it is encouraging to see that so many people have become engaged with this campaign, in one way or another.
Certainly, as Communications lecturer Adrian Quinn observed: “the mobilising of students is proof of the solidarity of students and opposes the suggested indifference in young people today”. He added that yesterdays protest will show that “destructive decisions cannot be taken with impunity”.
It is clear that many felt empowered by the success of the protest and as one student has reflected “I feel proud to be a student at the University of Liverpool today”. Indeed, this echoes the general consensus of many of the university’s student population, as well as lecturers and researchers alike: hopefully the chant which was heard so loudly across campus will continue to echo throughout the university- “they say cut back, WE say fight back”.
Rachel Stonehouse
© 2008-2010. LSMEDIA is written, designed and produced independently by the students of the University of Liverpool.
Comments
it's an 8% increase in the university's overall budget (including teaching) the increase to research budget was 20% (about £6.5m extra)
All statistics that have been used have been drawn directly from an email sent by Sir Howard Newby to university staff.
Love it, great article.
thats very interesting indeed, perhaps trying to playdown the budget increase so his closure plans looked less ridiculous
"Yesterday’s Save Our Subjects (SOS) protest saw a fantastic turnout of over 600 people, in what has been described as the 'biggest protest at the University of Liverpool for over eight years'."
I wondered when the last time something like this had happened. Feels a bit historic now!
i heard alot of older lecturers talking about it there, and indeed was told in my philosophy lecture, that the university hadn't had protests like that since the 80s - ie since thatcher
Great article Rach! Lets keep up the momentum!!
someone told me that there was an article in the Echo that described Sir Newby as being "assaulted" which is why he had to take the back entrance. I haven't found the article myself so I don't know if that's specifically how they described it but if they have that's very interesting because as far as I could tell he didn't even turn up, as you've written here, let alone be assaulted!
Your writing's great Rachel!
Still so shocked there's been no formal communication with students. All they're getting is information from the media, us included, and the campaign. If the university want to balance and put accross their explainations they should do so fast!
My favourite chant at that protest was "VC out!". That caught on quite a few times. Don't know who those imaginative, handsome guys who started that one were. And as for the people with the "Fuck The VC" sign... awesome.
Everyone - you MUST follow this link to get a handle on exactly what Newby's up to based on what he did at the UWE. This really is history repeating itself. The guy is CORRUPT.
http://ecologics.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/howard-newby-at-liverpool-univ...
VC out!
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