As members of staff at the University of Cambridge and its Colleges, we send a message of solidarity to students at the University of Cambridge who have occupied a lecture block at the Sidgwick Site this week in support of the UCU strike and the demands of Unite and Unison.
Their student occupation commenced against the backdrop of the University voting in favour of devastating cuts to the USS pension, and during the fifth major UCU strike in the last four years. The students have stated their solidarity with staff members striking for a fair pension and against pay inequality, job insecurity and exploitative workloads. As well as the conditions and cuts faced by UCU members, members of Unite and Unison have seen attacks on their jobs and conditions through outsourcing, deterioration in their pay and rising workloads.
Rather than blaming staff for the disruption to their education, students have made clear that they have a common interest in standing with us to defend higher education from the relentless pressures of marketisation wreaking havoc across the sector. Staff working conditions are, by necessity, student learning conditions. We stand in solidarity with the occupation, just as students have stood together with us.
Cambridge students are not alone: The NUS has called for a national Strike for Education on March 2nd. Students across the country will stage a walkout.
We urge the University to respect students’ right to peaceful protest. We urge members of staff across the Collegiate University to sign this statement and to join the activities planned for March 2nd.
Signed:
University of Cambridge UCU, Executive Committee
Add your name to the statement here
Read more from the occupation via Cambridge Defend Education here
Plus individual signatories include:
| Anne | Alexander | Research Associate | CRASSH / CDH |
| Adam | Attaheri | Research Associate | Psychology |
| Robert | Britten | Teaching Associate, Director of Studies | MMLL (German) |
| Natalia | Buitron | Assistant Professor | Anthropology |
| Dylan | Carver | Special Supervisor, Newnham College | English |
| Hero | Chalmers | College Teaching Officer | English |
| Joe | Cotton | Communications Officer | Department of Sociology |
| Nicolò | Crisafi | Research and Teaching Fellow in Italian at Pembroke | MMLL Italian |
| Dan | Davison | PhD candidate and undergraduate supervisor | Department of Sociology |
| Lucy | Delap | Professor | History |
| Manali | Desai | UTO and DoS | Sociology |
| Eleanor | Drage | Research associate | Gender studies and LCFI |
| David | Ewing | PhD student | French |
| Iosifina | Foskolou | Research Associate | PDN |
| Christophe | Gagne | Teaching Officer | MMLL |
| Mariana | Galante | Research Fellow | |
| Priya | Gopal | Prof | English |
| Luke | Hawksbee | Visiting lecturer, supervisor | Sociology |
| Ronald | Haynes | University Senior Computer Officer | University Information Services |
| Tom | Hobson | Research Associate | CSER |
| David | Hoey | Graduate student | Plant Sciences/SLCU |
| Iza | Hussin | Associate Professor/Fellow | POLIS |
| Ruth | Lawlor | Junior Research Fellow, Queens’ College | History |
| Sian | Lazar | Professor | Social Anthropology |
| Hugo | Leal | Research Associate | CRASSH |
| Kerry Anne | Mackereth | Postdoctoral Researcher | POLIS |
| Amy | Mason | Research associate | |
| Peter | McMurray | Associate Professor | Music Faculty |
| Ella | McPherson | Associate Professor | Department of Sociology |
| Pedro | Mendes Loureiro | Lecturer | CLAS, POLIS, Fitzwilliam College |
| Jo | Miller | Affiliated Lecturer | POLIS |
| Surer | Mohamed | Research Fellow | Centre of African Studies |
| Monica | Moreno Figueroa | Associate Professor in Sociology | Sociology |
| Chana | Morgenstern | Associate Professor | English |
| Clement | Mouhot | Professor | Faculty of Mathematics |
| Tobias | Müller | Affiliated Lecturer | POLIS |
| Anjum | Nahar | Postgraduate President (Cambridge SU) | |
| Francis | Neary | Editor | Darwin Correspondence Project |
| Rune | Nyrup | Senior Research Associate | Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence |
| Holly | Porter | University | POLIS |
| Joeva | Rock | Assistant Professor | POLIS |
| Jason | Scott-Warren | Professor | Faculty of English |
| Ronak | Soni | Research Associate | DAMTP |
| Ted | Tregear | Research Fellow | English |