Protests against outsourcing campus services at Sussex University escalated yesterday, when around 100 more students forced their way right into a university conference room where a four-day long occupation is happening.
There are actually some 150 students contained in the top floor of Bramber House. They’re refusing to depart until the university management halts the bidding process for selling off services together with catering to personal companies.
The occupation has received much media attention, in addition to support from celebrities reminiscent of Noam Chomsky, journalist Tariq Ali and Acadamy award-wining actor Peter Capaldi, best known for his part as Malcolm Tucker in BBC sitcom The Thick of It.
But it was not until yesterday that the university’s vice-chancellor, Michael Farthing, responded to the protesters by asking them to depart the building in return for a gathering with the registrar, John Duffy.
Farthing’s eventual response to the occupation did little to entice students clear of their pitch. The occupiers replied by saying: “If dissolving this occupation is the sole condition upon which we will meet, then we won’t have a gathering.”
When asked why the university’s management had not acted more promptly, Duffy replied: “We have not had time to reply yet, it’s not a concern in the mean time.” The university did, however, find time to rent additional security guards over the weekend.
The occupation is not only a one-off event, it is the climax of an eight-month long campaign that has encompassed demonstrations, open talks and a web-based petition. All of it began in May 2012, when Sussex University management said it was to outsource 10% of the university’s workforce. This implies 235 staff – mostly catering and waste disposal workers – shall be transfered to external contracts. Many fear that such workers, who’re already on low wages, can have their terms and prerequisites undermined.
So far, the university management has did not explain its decision, says first-year student Kirsty Chan. “One main frustration is that we aren’t ready to access the university’s reasons for privatisation. Without the occupation many folks on campus would haven’t known concerning the university’s plans to outsource.”
What’s happening here at Sussex is an indication of broader changes in higher education, writes Michael Chessum, organiser for the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts. He writes that the government’s push towards privatisation is transforming universities “faraway from a conception of educational or critical community, and towards a model by which managerial governance, research and admissions are directly associated with private business models.”
Not all students are bothered by the changes at Sussex. As third-year undergraduate Noel Kanyama points out, they might not have a right away impact on students. “i admire to believe that the university would outsource to the fitting and best bidder; and that the services can be quality-controlled by the university.”
What is definite is that the Sussex University occupiers won’t leave and not using a fight. With spirits high and excitement within the air, they tell me they “want to continue into the foreseeable future.”
