News

Occupation of the Registry

The Save UEA Music occupation of the Registry on campus at UEA ended at 12.01am today. Earlier yesterday afternoon, the University sent this letter to occupiers from their lawyers Mills & Reeve. The occupiers left the building at 12.01am, asserting that the decision is "symbolic in that we refuse to be intimidated by the Universities attempt to criminalise peaceful protest".

The occupiers could have stayed until an injunction was presented without breaking the law, which could have taken as long as two weeks. However, the University's management decided to refuse the protesters access to the toilets in the Registry, and the police informed protesters that they would be arrested should they urinate publicly. Protesters were also refused the right to a small pop-up tent for privacy, and were even refused adult nappies. The decision facing the protesters was to either leave the protest or fight off nature; they were incredibly strong to stay until after midnight as a symbolic gesture.

There have been several accusations that the protesters became violent. This is not the case, and as we understand it video evidence has been shown to the police which satisfied them that any violence was neither instigated nor exacerbated by any protesters. Moreover, there were also claims that criminal damage had been caused; again, simply not the case, as signified by the absence of any arrests.

The police and campus security staff out-numbered the protesters, who from the very beginning until the very end asserted their peaceful and legal intentions. The Union fully supports the occupiers, and will continue to do so should the University decide to take disciplinary action against them.

We feel that the University could have been more constructive in their handling of the occupation, choosing to openly discuss the issues at hand rather than trying to force students to leave. The University displayed a reluctance to approach the issue of a struggling School constructively earlier this week, by refusing to consider an offer from the Royal Musical Association to regenerate the School of Music for free, and declining to investigate any alternative to closing the School.

We want our UEA to be constructive, imaginative, positive and resourceful. We want UEA to love its students and its academic staff; we are what defines this institution as a University, and it should be ours. In the last month, UEA has shown itself to be dismissive of the opinions of 10,000 people, and there have even been accusations of incompetency surrounding the closure of the School and the handling of this occupation.

With a serious student-led campaign against the actions of the University, and a strike from academic staff today, it is clear that many students and academic staff currently feel the exact opposite of loved. With the University declining to engage in conversations with campaigners, it is understandable that there are students and academic staff who feel little sense of ownership in the institution.

www.saveueamusic.org for more info about the Save UEA Music campaign.

Contact Matthew Myles with any questions, Communications Officer for the Union of UEA Students, on union.communications@uea.ac.uk