This open letter was written by students at the University of Liverpool to their Vice-Chancellor, and President of Universities UK, Professor Janet Beer. It has been sent to the Marxist Student Federation, as well as other media outlets, and we are publishing it in its entirety as it shows the real feelings that exist on campus during the time of the UCU Strike action.

The letter has been endorsed by the UCU branch at the University of Liverpool.

If you are a student at the University of Liverpool and would like to add your name to this open letter, please get in touch via contact@marxiststudent.com or our Facebook page and let us know.

—– —– —– —– —– —– —–

Dear Janet Beer,

We are writing to you in your roles of Vice Chancellor of the University of Liverpool and as President of Universities UK.

Each of the undersigned are students at the University of Liverpool and we felt it is our duty to draw your attention to the genuine feelings which exist on campus, in relation to the strike by lecturers and other non-teaching staff, and to make you aware of some of our experiences of management whilst on the picket lines.

We would like to start by openly stating that we are on the side of the lecturers and other staff in this dispute. We support the striking staff and have been doing what we can to spread solidarity for the action amongst our peers. We will continue to do this in the coming weeks and for as long as it takes to bring UUK back to the negotiating table and to end its attack on pensions. As part of this support we have gone down to the picket lines and stood side by side with our staff during strike days.

It was whilst on the picket lines that we had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Carol Costello, HR Executive at the University of Liverpool, and Patrick Hackett, your Deputy Vice Chancellor. This is the first time we have met or seen either since studying at the university.

On Thursday, day one of the strike, Carol Costello came down to the picket line at the Foundation Building and was incredibly aggressive and seemed to be trying to intimidate the staff and students who were there. She was far from pleasant to have dealt with and we were incredibly surprised to see a representative of the university speaking with students in such a way.

Sadly, this was not the only time we’ve had such experience of upper management at the university.

On Friday, the second day of the strike action, we were blessed with a visit from Patrick Hackett who was doing the rounds speaking to pickets. At around 8am on the picket line at the entrance to the carpark by Crowne Place, Patrick was asked whether he was surprised by the support that has been shown for the strike. In response he made comments which I think are quite indicative of the attitude that management have towards the lecturers, staff and students at the university. In answer to this question, Patrick started by dismissing the support that lecturers and staff at the university were showing for the strike. He then went on to say that he was surprised at the support which students had shown to the staff. He said this was specially the case since students are “unable to really understand the complicated issue of pensions”. He then went on to imply that the only reason that support was being shown by students was due to the naivety of their youth.

The actions and comments of Patrick Hackett and Carol Costello are insulting and dismissive and they are woefully ignorant of the facts. Students and young people are as capable as any other in looking at the details of the pension dispute. It is our having done so which has brought many of us out on to the picket lines in support of our staff.

The fact that Vice-Chancellors, on six figure salaries with homes provided by the universities, are willing to gamble way the pensions and futures of our lecturers, who have dedicated their lives to teaching, is a damning indictment of the vision that UUK have of education. Whilst lecturers are under attack we, as students, have our own difficulties that we are facing. We are being wracked with massive debts and being forced to live on a pittance whilst we study. We are paying obscene prices to live in university accommodation and many of us have had to take on paid work alongside our studies simply to survive. The amount of stress and anxiety this causes is difficult to quantify at times. And why do we do this to ourselves? We are in education, just like our lecturers and other staff, because we see value in self-development and consider education to be a social good. It is not a commodity which can simply be bought and sold. Lecturers and staff are not just passive cogs in a machine which can be exploited to get more and more profit out of them for the university management.

The future that is being left to us, as a generation, is one of low wages, terrible terms and conditions, massive debts and poor housing options. At the same time as facing these difficulties we are not without hope. The struggle and support of our lecturers and staff inspires us to fight on and to go forward to build a future that we deserve. The strike against attacks on pensions is a symptom of a wider crisis in education and in society. The money exists to settle this dispute, as is evidenced by inflated Vice-Chancellor salaries and the vast quantities of money which exist in the economy which are hoarded by big business and the banking sector. The fight for free education and for a system which is suited to meet the needs of the many is a fight to reclaim this wealth and put to social use.

Standing side by side with our lecturers and other staff in this strike action we do so with all of this in mind and with a view to continue this struggle afterwards so that we can change society for the better.

As students of the University of Liverpool, we, the undersigned, demand the following:

  • A public apology from Patrick Hackett, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, for the insulting comments he made towards students on the picket lines on Friday 23 February.
  • UUK, of which you are president, should return to the negotiating table with the UCU and earnestly seek to put an end to this dispute. You should reverse the proposed attacks on the USS pension scheme.

The reason we have put these points to you in the form of an open letter is in the hope that our concerns and views are not going to be dismissed as they have been in the past. A number of students at the university have contacted you directly about the dispute, but they are, as of yet, still awaiting any form of response.

We look forward to your reply and to getting back to lectures once you and Universities UK have returned to the negotiating table and have stopped attacking our staff.

Yours Sincerely,

Gilly Singh
John Gillespie
Daniel Harris
Casey Burgess
Heather Macdonald
Charlie Hall
Beatrice Lee
Stephanie McDonagh
Amber Smith
Keir Nicholas-Haizelden
Abi O’Connor
Rebecca Humphrey
Daniel Hauer
Jodie Sylvester
Thomas Richards
Aidan Robinson
Jack Robinson
Elvis Rodrigues
Sam Smith
Jessica McComb
Rebecca Catley
Shivani Anendarajah
Pav Mahal
Anjolee Daudia
Ben Webster
Amy Jarrell
Fiona de Borde
Anagha Jose
Heydi Puertas A.
Eimear McAteer
Benjamin Percival
Yasemin Ahmed
George Wood
Robin Young
Alice Churm
Ceara Thacher
Harry Young
Jenny Goldman
Alice Newnes
Lucy Pilling
Bruce Hodell
Benjamin Warren
Amber Davis
Melissa Spinks
Gethin Watkins
Natalie Harold
Charlotte Price
Lauren Bond
Alice Armstein
Rebecca Brabbins
Jennifer Brown
Vivek Harkini
Will McGowan
Helen Collins
Aaron Furman
Connor Jones
David Naylor
Cormac O’Neill
Roisin Quigley
Alex Forster
Hannah Nguyen
Danny Walask
Jack Gee
Martin Angelou
Ahmed Ali
Jessica Fleming
Daniel Williams
Elliot Croft
Joseph Usher
Matthew Riley
Oliver Johnson
Theo Barwood
Angela Da Silva
Madeline Render
Thomas Atkinson
Oscar Pyrgies
Michael Earnshaw
Aneurin Greenfield
Dominic Owens
George Bradley
Moti Alder
Amy Thomas
Lucy Nord-Harper
Maddalen Wiseman
Oliver Presser
Molly Moe
Eve Seymour
Trishna Matharu
Caitlin Smith
Hannah Russell
Oliver Morris
Tom Hancox
Mashaqeem Khan
Louise Johnston
Ciara O’Sullivan
Jack Hardy
Niamh Sharkey Milum

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