[ARENA] Fwd: Campaign update Tuesday 1 June

[miguel leal]

Begin forwarded message:

> Pour information: 18 000 signatures plus tard + nouvelle pétition  
> appelant au boycott de Middlesex University…, le syndicat UCU  
> (enseignant/étudiant) entre dans la danse…
> Amitiés,
> Eric
>
> Début du message réexpédié :
>
>> De : Save Middlesex Philosophy <no-reply  wordpress.com>
>> Date : 2 juin 2010 04:16:53 HAEC
>> À : eric.alliez  free.fr
>> Objet : [New post] Campaign update Tuesday 1 June
>>
>> 				 				
>> Campaign update Tuesday 1 June
>> aletheiaticverse | 1 June 2010 at 11:00 | Categories: statements |  
>> URL: http://wp.me/pU92s-kY
>> 1. This evening at least one other student has been suspended,  
>> 'because of [his] alleged part in the occupation of the Mansion  
>> earlier this month and, despite the terms of the injunction served,  
>> [and because he has] further disrupted University business by  
>> occupying the Library at Trent Park.'  His hearing is scheduled for  
>> Tuesday morning, 8 June. We should have more details about this  
>> soon, along with a report from the hearings last Friday.
>>
>> Several other students received emails from management this  
>> afternoon, requesting 'a written statement describing the events as  
>> you witnessed them leading up to and during the occupation [of the  
>> Mansion building at Trent Park]. We are particularly concerned  
>> about injuries suffered by staff and would ask if you witnessed  
>> this.'
>>
>> 2. The campaign will post a more detailed notice about these  
>> alleged 'injuries' shortly. Management has repeatedly evoked  
>> violent 'assaults on staff', and University spokespeople have  
>> referred to 'broken bones.' To the best of our knowledge they have  
>> yet to provide any significant evidence for these allegations, and  
>> campaigners who witnessed or were involved in the occupations  
>> firmly deny them. According to the University a police  
>> investigation is now under way.
>>
>> What's already clear is that investigation of these 'injuries'  
>> hasn't yet been much of a police priority. Management called police  
>> to Trent Park on three occasions: around mid-day on Tuesday 4 May,  
>> around 6:00pm on Wednesday 5 May, and around 8pm on Thursday 20  
>> May. On each occasion, management accused students of assault. On  
>> each occasion, the police who visited Trent Park declined to  
>> interview let alone detain any protestors in relation to these or  
>> any other accusations.
>>
>> Earlier today, several members of Middlesex staff wrote to Vice- 
>> Chancellor Michael Driscoll, asking management to publish the  
>> pertinent police and medical evidence it has presumably obtained in  
>> relation to these allegations. So far (as far as we know) there has  
>> been no response.
>>
>> 3. External examiners for several additional Middlesex programmes  
>> have now threatened to boycott next week's assessment meetings, if  
>> the suspensions are not lifted without further victimisation.
>>
>> 4. This afternoon, the UCU's national congress unanimously passed a  
>> motion condemning the closures and suspensions, which reads as  
>> follows:
>>
>> "Congress notes the decision by Middlesex University to close  
>> philosophy programmes and the related protest campaign and  
>> occupations.
>> Congress condemns the decision to suspend 3 members of philosophy  
>> staff and impose disciplinary sanctions on students.
>> Congress condemns the wider attacks on philosophy and humanities  
>> provision across the HE sector.
>> Congress resolves to:
>> Urge all UCU branches to write to the VC and governors calling for  
>> the suspensions to be lifted.
>> Urge all UCU branches to send messages of support to Middlesex UCU (ucu  mdx.ac.uk 
>> ) in its continuing efforts to achieve a framework for a negotiated  
>> settlement and to the Save Middlesex Philosophy  
>> Campaign." [endquote].
>>
>> The Middlesex UCU branch will hold its AGM tomorrow (Weds) at 2pm.  
>> At noon tomorrow, the deadline set at the branch EGM last Friday  
>> for the lifting of the suspensions will expire.
>>
>> 5. One of the suspended members of staff was intercepted by Hendon  
>> campus security when he broke the terms of his suspension by  
>> attending this union EGM on Friday – he was ordered to leave the  
>> campus but security apparently decided against a direct  
>> confrontation with a roomful of outraged UCU members, and did not  
>> interfere with the meeting. On Saturday the suspended staff member  
>> received a further letter from Human Resources, reminding him that  
>> his attendance at Thursday's rally and Friday's EGM violated the  
>> terms of his suspension and thus constitute a 'disciplinary offence'.
>>
>> 6. Thousands of people have now signed petitions or letters  
>> condemning the suspensions of Middlesex students and staff as an  
>> illegitimate and inappropriate abuse of managerial power. Letters  
>> of support continue to arrive from all over the world, including  
>> (to give some random examples) from Chungbuk National University  
>> (South Korea), the Croatian Society for Philosophy, the Department  
>> of Sociology at the University of Mimar Sinan Guzel Sanatlar  
>> Istanbul, the Union of Asian Philosophers, the French embassy in  
>> London, the Seminar of Aesthetics at the University of Oslo, the  
>> School of Geography at the University of Exeter, the Philosophy  
>> Faculty at the University of Cambridge, etc.
>>
>> The petition for an international academic boycott put together by  
>> John Protevi and Todd May has now garnered 1800 signatures, and the  
>> original petition in support of Philosophy at Middlesex has been  
>> signed by 18,000 people.
>>
>> 7. By contrast, at 5:20pm on Friday 28 May Middlesex Vice- 
>> Chancellor Michael Driscoll sent round a different sort of message  
>> to all university staff, confirming once again the definitive  
>> closure of the Philosophy programmes. He also confirmed that  
>> management would continue to try to coerce students into ending  
>> their participation in the campaign. The students will respond in  
>> due course.
>>
>> 8. Late last night, in an email to all university staff, the  
>> director of programmes for Philosophy, Stella Sandford, refuted  
>> Driscoll's highly misleading account of the process that led to his  
>> decision to close Philosophy. Professor Mine Dack, a colleague in  
>> Music, also circulated a strong challenge to Driscoll's contentious  
>> description of the suspensions as undertaken 'in accordance with  
>> the University's Staff disciplinary Procedure'.
>>
>> 9. On Thursday evening, 3 June, 6pm to 9pm, members of the campaign  
>> will protest outside the University's annual art show, at The Old  
>> Truman Brewery on Brick Lane in east London. All supporters of the  
>> campaign are warmly invited to attend!
>>
>> The campaign continues to expand in breadth and depth. What is at  
>> stake is now less the immediate fate of the Philosophy programmes  
>> and more the general fate of the humanities at Middlesex and at  
>> universities in a similar position to Middlesex; less the closure  
>> of Philosophy than the way the decision to close it was taken, and  
>> the way similar decisions may be taken in the future; less the  
>> specific punishments meted out to a few students and staff members,  
>> and more a direct confrontation between managerial coercion and  
>> collective resistance across the university as a whole.
>>
>> The longer this confrontation continues the more uneven it appears.
>>
>> The Campaign,
>> Tuesday evening, 1 June 2010.
>>
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>>
>>
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