Photos from the Hendon rally and occupation 27-28 May 2010

Posted on 30 May 2010 by aletheiaticverse

Following a rally attended by 200+ people on the afternoon of Thursday 27 May, members of the Save Middlesex Philosophy campaign occupied a third chunk of Middlesex University property. This time, after occupying first the Mansion and then the library at Trent Park, they got hold of the front lawn of the main building of the Hendon campus. They set up a dozen tents and a marquee. Some campaigners referred to it as a sort of temporary ‘camp for internally displaced students and academics’, i.e. people who belong to programmes that have been or will soon be shut down, but who haven’t yet been forced out of the university itself. Others said it announced their intention to lay siege to the university.

Just as last week’s library sit-in expanded the campaign from Philosophy to include other humanities subjects at Middlesex, this latest action was designed to expand out from Trent Park’s humanities programmes to programmes at other Middlesex campuses, and to include supporters from a broader range of other institutions. The rally included speakers from KCL, Sussex, ULU, LSE, UCL, Roehampton, Birkbeck, Right to Work and Plane Stupid, and among the campaigners who spent the night at Hendon on 27 May there were students from Sussex, SOAS, Glasgow, Goldsmiths, and GradCAM Dublin.

Middlesex managers ended the first occupation with a high court injunction. When the police visited the scene of the second occupation, they decided that this injunction didn’t apply, and implied that it had been inappropriately served in the first place. There were plenty of police and community support officers on hand to keep campaigners company during their third occupation, and this time the question of the injunction never came up at all.

Please watch this space for updates on future actions. On the evening of Thursday 3 June, Middlesex University will host the private view of its annual art show, at The Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane.

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Middlesex UCU moves into action

Posted on 29 May 2010 by bat020

We had some great news on Friday: an emergency meeting of Middlesex University’s UCU branch voted to condemn the disciplinary action against staff and students, demand the immediate reinstatement of postgraduate philosophy programmes and recruitment – and go into official dispute with the management if the staff suspensions are not lifted by 12 noon on Wednesday. The text of the motion reads as follows:

1. This Branch demands that the suspensions of Philosophy staff be immediately lifted as we consider them to be disproportionate, intimidatory and inimical to meaningful negotiations. Unless we have positive confirmation that they have been lifted by noon on Wednesday 2nd June, the Branch instructs the Branch executive to formally go into dispute with the University

2. This Branch calls on the University to immediately reopen provision of, and recruitment to, Philosophy postgraduate study including PhDs.

3. As noted in the EGM of 12th May, this Branch has no confidence in the rigour, appropriateness and consistency of the application of the University’s procedures to determine sustainability. We further believe that flaws in the process are having deleterious effects across the University and any decisions to close or restructure subject provision, programmes and centres made under this process will be unsafe. We therefore call for an immediate review of the decision on Philosophy and a review of the University’s decision-making processes for sustainability.

The meeting also passed an emergency motion for submission to The UCU Congress which is currently taking place in Manchester.

[UPDATE: Tuesday 1 June, 3pm – UCU Congress unanimously passed a motion condemning the Middlesex management decision to discipline students and staff. It also condemned wider attacks on philosophy across higher education, and resolved to urge UCU branches to send support to Middlesex UCU and lobby the vice-chancellor and governors.]

More details plus a report on Friday’s student disciplinaries to come. In the meantime, check out the BBC news story on our campaign and this photo of our solidarity delegation supporting the four victimised students (thanks to Jonathan Daniel for the photo):

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I Occupied Middlesex

Posted on 28 May 2010 by charlesquane

Since Middlesex management have been making their decisions to suspend students and lecturers based on our campaign pictures, we have decided to make the difficult work of their investigation a little easier.

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Rally report and Friday activities

Posted on 28 May 2010 by aletheiaticverse

Thanks to the 200 or so of you who came to our rally yesterday evening in support of the Save Middlesex Philosophy campaign and in solidarity with suspended students and staff.

We heard speakers from seven different London universities, as well as activists from the UCU lecturers’ union and students from Sussex University who have also been victimised for fighting cuts. We heard philosophers talking about the need for united action against bosses and trade union militants talking about how Socrates stood up for truth and justice.

The rally finished up with campaigners setting up a protest camp on the lawn outside Middlesex University’s Hendon campus. This is the third occupation of university space the Save Middlesex Philosophy campaign has undertaken in the past few weeks. We have set up a dozen tents and a large marquee, and more than twenty members of the campaign spent the night. Several artists (via Eric Alliez) have contributed posters for the event; photos will be posted shortly.

We aim to use this camp today (Friday 28 May) as a base to raise awareness of our campaign and build support among staff and students.

Meanwhile management have moved the hearings for the four suspended students that are to take place today from Hendon to Trent Park campus. Anyone wishing to join the solidarity delegation to show support for the students should meet outside the student union at Trent Park from 10am onwards.

We will be all be meeting up in Hendon again around 3pm, hopefully including staff attending the Middlesex UCU emergency meeting at Hendon that afternoon.

The rally was covered by BBC television and BBC online, and our campaign featured in yesterday’s London Evening Standard.

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A Letter from the Students to Ed Esche & the Board of Governors

Posted on 27 May 2010 by suicideally

Dear Professor Esche,

Thank you for your letter. However, we feel that it does not adequately address the issues we have collectively raised. Beyond the alleged facts governing your reasons for closure, which we have reason to dispute, we are concerned at your lack of engagement with the issues raised by this campaign: the incongruity between your decision and the world-class status of the centre, and its contribution not only to the reputation of the University but to the intellectual and academic arena at large; the status and aim of University education beyond issues of revenue; and most importantly, the irreversibly damaging effects that your decisions are indubitably having on the reputation of the University, and on the staff and students who continue to work there.

As we do not accept the justifications you have provided for the closure of the philosophy department, and have good reason to believe that not one of them would hold up to scrutiny, we remain undeterred in our demand for a reversal of the closure. We furthermore vehemently oppose the targeted suspension of members of the department, staff and students, who have taken proportionate and legitimate actions to protest the decision, and we demand their immediate reinstatement.

The allegations of illegality that you have made against those taking part in the occupation are serious enough in themselves without the added damage caused by your recent suspension of staff and students- an action that has only served to fuel the support of the campaign. More devastatingly, these suspensions have also sparked an international petition to boycott the University – a movement that our external examiners have already joined – and which will result in the greylisting of the University. We believe that greylisting is a justified response to your unjustified and disproportionate decision to suspend students and staff. However, the consequences of these developments- particularly for the current MA and PhD students who rely on this particular component of external supervision, but also for the entire student body in terms of the compromised standing of a qualification from the University- will be disastrous, and will explicitly contradict your insistence on our continued study (a contradiction that has already been effected by your imposition of measures to monitor the communication our supervisors have with us). We therefore strongly demand that you immediately withdraw all suspensions.

With respect to the background you have given for your decision, we are concerned at the lack of proportion between the facts and figures Management have presented, and their decision to terminate the entire department- a disproportion that signals a total rejection of Management’s supposed intention to negotiate workable solutions with the staff.  On this level, your failure to mention in your letter the proposed reconsideration of recruitment of part-time MA students- a reconsideration you offered at a meeting with students only two weeks ago- seems particularly symptomatic. In addition, your criticism of Philosophy’s failure to attract “a broader range of funding sources” beyond its central measure of excellence, the RAE, highlights a serious misrecognition of the very profile of the Centre, within which sources such as “continuing professional development, consultancy and other areas of knowledge transfer”, simply have no place. Finally, some of your particular allegations, including that of serious assault to staff during the occupation, remain entirely unsubstantiated and indicate to us nothing other than desperate misrepresentations aimed at stifling a legitimate form of protest.

The oversights and inaccuracies present in your letter testify to a disposition that seems to us adverse to any form of negotiation, and merely reinforces our collective dissatisfaction and our demands. We will therefore continue to protest your decision to close the department, to suspend tutors and to victimise students, until you rectify this regrettable situation. Your failure to do so will result- and is already resulting- in serious damaging consequences to the reputation of Middlesex University. If your ongoing mismanagement continues, the only honourable thing for you to do will be to tender your resignation.

Yours sincerely,

The Students

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Letter in the Guardian

Posted on 27 May 2010 by suicideally

From the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/27/middlesex-university-philosophy-department-closure

“The decision to close the Middlesex University philosophy department has roused the indignation of the academic community across the world (Reason for being, Education, 18 May). Rated the highest of all Middlesex’s departments in the Research Assessment Exercise, it is recognised internationally as a beacon of philosophical study.

As publishers we have benefited in many ways from the skills of those teaching at the department, and from the lively atmosphere of debate engendered across the disciplines by its work. Consequently, we feel bound to speak up in its defence. The closing of this department would be disastrous for the academic and intellectual life of this country, and we urge that the decision to do so be reconsidered.

Further, we wish to express grave concern at the suspension, on 21 May, of Professor Peter Hallward, Professor Peter Osborne and a number of Middlesex University students. We believe this to be an unwarranted and unjustifiable act of intimidation by the administration and board of governors of the university, and we call for the immediate reinstatement of suspended students and staff.”

Pete Ayrton Serpent’s Tail, Julian Baggini Philosophy Press/The Philosophers’ Magazine, Anne Beech Pluto Press, Nick Bellorini Earthscan, Ashley Biles Saqi Books, Tony Bruce Routledge, Michael Dwyer C Hurst & Co, Matthew Frost Manchester University Press, Tariq Goddard Zer0 Books, Emma Hutchinson Polity Books, Jessica Kingsley Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Michael Leaman Reaktion Books, Wendy Lochner Columbia University Press, Carol McDonald Edinburgh University Press, Tristan Palmer Acumen, Jenna Steventon IB Tauris, Rowan Wilson Verso, Caroline Wintersgill Bloomsbury Academic

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Campaign update Wednesday 26 May 2010

Posted on 26 May 2010 by aletheiaticverse

1. John Protevi and Todd May have posted a petition calling for an international academic boycott of Middlesex University, http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/academic-boycott-of-middlesex-university.html.   Several hundred well-placed people have already signed it, in the space of a few hours.  Please spread the word about this, far & wide.

2. The poet Michael Rosen renounced his visiting professor at Middlesex today. He explained that “On account of the action of Middlesex University over the Philosophy Department, I would like to inform Professor Ahmad that I would like to renounce my visiting professorship. I do not wish to be a visiting professor at Middlesex University. Best wishes, Michael Rosen.”

3. This morning, professors Osborne and Hallward were denied permission to attend an emergency meeting of their union, the UCU, scheduled for Friday 28 May. They were also denied permission to attend the UCU annual general meeting scheduled for next Wednesday, and a meeting of the University’s independent Professors Group.

4. Collective pressure to greylist i.e. boycott Middlesex University is growing rapidly. The external examiners for the Middlesex Philosophy department have already announced their refusal to collaborate with next month’s assessment boards, and colleagues in other departments may soon follow suit. A boycott by external examiners would have a significant and immediate impact on the University.

5. Last Friday Middlesex management told the four suspended students that their hearings would take place this Friday 28 May at the Hendon campus. Fiona Fall, who will preside over the hearings, suddenly decided this morning that it would be ‘better for the students’ to hold the meeting at Trent Park instead, since it is their ‘home campus.’ The four students explained that they would nonetheless prefer for the hearing to go ahead at Hendon as originally planned. But Fiona Fall has made up her mind. ‘As my understanding is that a rally of support is being organised at Hendon,’ she told one of the students, ‘I have decided that Trent Park continues to be the best most calm place to hold the hearings for both students and the panel.’

6. Confirmed speakers for the rally at Hendon on Thursday 27 May from 4pm include Alex Callinicos (KCL), Richard George (Campaign for Better Transport; Plane Stupid), Paul Gilroy (LSE), Nina Power (Roehampton), Jim Wolfreys (UCU), among others. Please circulate the rally announcement and flyer (https://savemdxphil.com/) to everyone who might be sympathetic.

The Campaign, 26 May 2010.

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Support from UCU at Sussex

Posted on 26 May 2010 by suicideally

From http://savesussexeducation.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/support-for-middlesex/

The following motion was passed unanimously by the Branch at yesterday’s General Meeting:

This branch condemns without reservation the suspension of a number of students and of Professors Peter Hallward and Peter Osborne [and Dr Christian Kerslake] by the management of Middlesex University, following their participation in a peaceful protest and teach-in against the closure of the Middlesex Philosophy Department. This action represents a fundamental attack on the rights of students and staff and Higher Education Institutions to engage in such peaceful protests. We call on the management of Middlesex University to reinstate these students and staff immediately.We also urge the management of Sussex University to join us in this call.

Note: Dr Kerslake was added after the meeting when his suspension became known.

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Rally in solidarity with suspended staff and students

Posted on 26 May 2010 by bat020

The students involved in the Save Middlesex Philosophy campaign have called a rally in protest at Middlesex University’s disgraceful decision to suspend philosophy staff and students for the ‘crime’ of campaigning to save their own jobs and courses:

Thursday 27 May, 4pm onwards
at Middlesex University’s Hendon campus

Please come along and spread the word. We are also appealing for people to come to the Hendon campus on Friday 28 May from 10am onwards in solidarity with suspended students who have a hearing with management that day.

Here’s a leaflet advertising the demo for you to use.

Confirmed speakers include:

Alex Callinicos, KCL
Costas Douzinas, Birkbeck
Matt Fuller, Goldsmiths UCU
Richard George (Campaign for Better Transport and a founder of Plane Stupid)
Paul Gilroy, LSE
Jane Hardy, UCU National Executive, UCU Left
Nina Power, Roehampton
Jim Wolfreys, KCL
Jonathan Wolff, UCL
Paul Brandon, bus worker and chair of Right To Work campaign
Clare Solomon, University of London Union president elect
Simon Englert, from the Defend Sussex campaign

Stay tuned for more updates!

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Williams letter

Posted on 26 May 2010 by phallward

24 May 2010

Dear Board Member

I write to protest against the suspension of students and staff involved in recent protests against the cuts in philosophy programmes at Middlesex University. It is clear that all the actions taken by the students and staff have been thoughtful and non-violent responses about a matter they care greatly about. They have used detailed arguments and measured acts to draw attention to this matter. The balanced coverage in the press and overwhelming worldwide support is testimony to the value of those arguments and to the importance of the moves designed to bring them successfully to a wider public. It is shameful to use brutal punitive tactics such as suspension in response to these arguments. To suspend students and staff seeking to defend their education and subject is a vengeful and immoral move designed to cause deep personal harm and fear. A university should first and foremost be a place for debate about its own decisions, since otherwise it will have no wider legitimacy. To have sought to curtail this debate in such a manner brings your university into disrepute and is bound to bring about an academic boycott.

Please return your university to a reasonable stance and reinstate the students and staff involved in the dispute.

Kind regards

Professor James Williams
Philosophy
University of Dundee

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