There have been a number of recent developments regarding the Gaza student encampment that members should be aware of.  As many will know, students have established a tent encampment on the Green Heart to remind people of dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, to ask the university to divest from companies involved in supplying arms or dual use equipment that may be contributing to the conflict and to provide aid to students and academic colleagues from institutions in Gaza that have been destroyed.

There are several recent developments:

• The university has announced that it will be spending money generated by all of us, and contributed by students themselves through their fees, to pursue expensive legal action against students engaged in peaceful protest.
• The Vice-Chancellor has repeatedly refused to meet with students to discuss their concerns.
• A number of recent communications from Vice-Chancellor have linked the encampment to incidents of vandalism without any evidence that students were involved. An external group has claimed responsibility for these actions. 

• He has also claimed that students are harassing and intimidating staff in their place of work.  While there have been protest actions (e.g. seeking to deliver a letter to the VC’s office), these are not for the purpose of harassing and initimidating staff and we have seen no evidence, outside of legitimate protest, of events that fulfill this description. It bears mentioning that the campers have themselves been subjected to harassment and intimidation on numerous occasions and campus security has refused to intervene.
• These unfounded allegations have been repeated in the communications with the university community, in the Vice-Chancellor’s forum and in the hearing in front of the judge regarding the Gaza encampment.  It is deeply concerning that there is not a higher standard applied to university communications with tangible  effects on students. We reject the continued vilification of our students without regard to their position as part of the university community or relevant due process.
• The tone and manner of communications from the Vice-Chancellor attempt to set the university community against the students in the camp, but it is worth remembering that the students are seeking dialogue in the context of an on-going genocide and a letter from 300 staff supporting the students has been delivered to the Vice-Chancellor.  

Students are requesting a process of dialogue to discuss their legitimate concerns with the university.  In the recent hearing over the possession order the judge was particularly interested in the Vice-chancellor’s refusal to meet with students.  He also cited the university’s duty under the Education Act to allow students to assemble and communicate their views.

Students, for their part, have accommodated the request to meet other members of the university executive (specifically PVC Longworth) in order to begin a process of dialogue.  A meeting was set to go ahead yesterday morning (19 June).  At the last minute the university canceled the meeting, insisting on new conditions.  They had a list of other people who they insisted must be allowed to attend and they wanted students to attend without masks.

The students have agreed to set up meetings between university managers with particular responsibilities and people from the camp who have overlapping responsibilities (e.g. for well-being).  

The insistence that students attend unmasked is simply not a reasonable demand.  Given the recent experience of COVID it is not plausible to claim that communication is not possible in settings where people are wearing masks.  Masks are not generally prohibited in the university environment, and members of the community routinely have face coverings in place for health or religious reasons.

Students also have legitimate concerns about being identified, particularly in light of the university’s decision to pursue legal action against them.  The university could very easily guarantee the safety of students who openly negotiate with them and they haven’t done that.  The students, instead, have also established a process where the guild president would verify identities before any meeting to guarantee that all representatives of the encampment are members of the university community.

In other words, the students are ready and willing to meet and have taken concrete steps to facilitate dialogue.  The university, instead, has raised new conditions, cancelled meetings and is, to date, refusing to meet, continuing the pattern of interaction that was noted at the possession order hearing.  Setting this record straight for our members now is important because communications from the university have often given a different picture of events.

UCU Birmingham branch would like to encourage it’s members to write to the VC directly, asking him to respond to students’ concerns and begin a process of meaningful dialogue in good faith.