January 27, 2004

Oxford sit-in

Posted by Micah

I just received an email from a student at Oxford with this announcement from the University’s administration:

IMPORTANT NOTICE FROM THE PROCTORS

The University regrets that it is unable, on health and safety
grounds, to make the Examination Schools available for lectures
and classes today (Tuesday 27 January) because there is a
student occupation of the building.

Students and staff should consult the Examination Schools page of
the University web-site for information about arrangements for
Schools lectures and classes from tomorrow onwards.

There were a couple well publicized cases of fee resistance when I was at Oxford a few years ago, but nothing this substantial. The Guardian has more on the student protests, which are still fairly small, here.

Posted on January 27, 2004 06:04 PM UTC
Comments

Waste of time really; I think they should get on with their normal studies and divert their energies towards more fruitful areas. but then I tend to be a bit jaded about this kind of action these days.

Posted by Conrad Barwa · January 27, 2004 06:48 PM

Very similar occupation of the Sheldonian in ?2000 or thereabouts in the previous round of fees. Not that big a deal, really.

Posted by Nasi Lemak · January 27, 2004 07:43 PM

I don’t remember the occupation of the Sheldonian, and I was definitely around then. The real surprise this time around, I think, is that the number of protestors is so small. You’d think that the leaders of a student protest could organize in higher numbers.

Posted by micah · January 27, 2004 07:56 PM

May have been elsewhere in the Bod:

http://www.oxfordstudent.com/2001-04-19/news/3

There was also an occupation of schools in MT98, but can’t find reference to that publicly online.

Posted by Nasi Lemak · January 27, 2004 08:48 PM

No, it was HT 99 (I only remember because I was there - and there were definitely closer to 140 of us than 60). Here’s a link.

There was a more hardcore 3-day occupation of the University offices in Wellington Square later in 1999, which I didn’t go on because I’d decided by then that fees were probably right…

Posted by john b · January 28, 2004 12:06 PM

I can think of an effective 1980s remedy: send in Hugh Lloyd Jones to lecture to them on Aeschylus. He’d also reprimand them for not wearing gowns in Schools…

Posted by Iain Murray · January 28, 2004 02:59 PM

Ah, Hugh Lloyd Jones! They don’t make them like that anymore …
I didn’t see the occupation of the Schools Building here. But today, when I went to the mail room in Balliol to check my pidgeon hole, I did see a copy of the notice Micah quotes up on the door. On it someone had written, in blue ink (very good handwriting, too): ‘Lectures should not be cancelled’ (or words to that effect); and, right below this (same hand): ‘Support the fight against top-up fees!’ The combination of the two demands/assertions seemed to me, if not quite contradictory, at least a bit unreasonable. But maybe the author really wanted, on some level, to be chastised by a Lloyd Jonesian figure?

Posted by Josh · January 29, 2004 12:17 AM

I believe the students involved in the occupation claim that they wished lectures to proceed as normal meanwhile, and are upset that the university cancelled the lectures for the day. So the anonymous writer is merely following the party line.

Posted by Nasi Lemak · January 29, 2004 12:16 PM

This is correct, I believe. The occupiers invited all the tutors to come and give their lectures in any case. I don’t think many actually did, but the thought was certainly there.
At one stage there were 150 odd people, but many went to London to lobby the following day.
there was also an occupation of the Bodlian in 2000. Check out the newly up dated www.oxfordstudent.com for more details.

Posted by edd · January 29, 2004 03:29 PM
Followups

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.