Universities should support protest, not suppress it

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/19/universities-support-protest-suppress

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For too long, students and staff at our universities have stood by while these public institutions have been turned into privately controlled factories churning out graduates without futures. Now the government's agenda is being called into question by protests on campuses across the country, but those who get involved risk devastating consequences.

When the University of Sussex took out an injunction against all forms of protest on their campus last year, alarm bells rang. Those at the top were neutering an institution with a proud history of radicalism; under this injunction, protest meant police and possibly prison.

Last week, speaking at a conference, a Cambridge academic told me how during a recent visit from universities minister David Willetts, she received numerous emails and messages from the police demanding that she contact them about a planned protest with which she had no involvement. On the eve of a student demo in London this year, I watched as the Metropolitan police inundated student union officers with calls demanding information on their political activity.

It is now emerging that some activists at Cambridge University are abandoning their political activities because of alleged police intimidation. Stories of police following individuals and attempting to bribe activists for information paint a picture of a wider culture of intimidation towards student activists both on and off campus.

In London, police arrested 36 students at a campus protest this year; in Birmingham, students say they were arrested for refusing to provide the police on their campus with personal details simply for being part of a demonstration. Some have reported being strip-searched and held for 30 hours, only to be released without charge. West Midlands police imposed bail conditions, including restrictions on entering any university or college premises, and the three students charged face possible conviction for violent disorder – a charge also used in the student protests of 2010 and 2011.

During a national demonstration at Sussex last year, police were kettled by students who refused to accept their presence. These were students from all walks of life and with a range of political outlooks – but all could see that having police on campus was at odds with what the institution stands for.

University administrations have practised intimidation and exclusion too. Having been suspended from the University of Sussex for my campaigning work on campus, I and four other students have been dragged through a four-month process that has cost the university well in excess of £100,000, which after a series of farcical attempts at expulsion eventually resulted in our receiving a caution and a slap on the wrist, which we will appeal. Students in Birmingham are in a similar situation.

There is of course a personal cost incurred each time injustice is experienced, whether physical, mental or emotional. While we regroup, dust ourselves off, and more often than not take legal advice, the best relief – for myself at least – is found in seeing the campaigns evolve and grow.

Often the struggle in higher education is seen as having less priority than the devastating impact of austerity nationally. With food poverty increasing, the NHS under attack and cuts to so many public services, this is understandable. And yet, if our universities are no longer able to challenge policy decisions, educate, and offer alternatives, then the outlook is bleak.

Students are fighting back, but staff and faculty on campus need to join us. The transient nature of the student body ensures that our time to make a stand is short, and with much of our focus dedicated to defence campaigns for students, progress is slow.

The academics that make up the fabric of our institutions have been slow off the mark to follow suit, but with the University and College Union holding a marking boycott, the tide may finally be changing.

I was told on my first day as an undergraduate that a university education wasn't necessarily about what you're taught in lecture halls. One lesson I have had to learn quickly is that standing up for what you believe in comes at a hefty price.