#occupysoas

15 October 2015

On Thursday the 8th of October 2015, two days after the occupation of the Brunei Suite, the General Assembly of the SOAS Student Union voted unanimously for a resolution of no confidence in the school's senior management.

The resolution has been a long time coming. Over the years, students and academic and support staff have been in conflict with management over a range of issues – over and over again. As diverse as we all are (always disagreeing and debating about almost everything), there is one thing that we can all agree on: SOAS' management needs to change.

Whether it is their bureaucratic intransigence preventing us from switching courses and choosing our tutorials, or the more serious matters of outsourcing and course cuts, SOAS management consistently ignores the needs and wishes of students and the exploitation of its staff. They make decisions without us and impose them on us as if our viewpoints do not matter.

* When we passed a referendum with an overwhelming majority (73%) in support of the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign last year, management ignored us.

* When we opposed the outsourcing of cleaners, security and other workers, management ignored us.

* When the Fractionals went on strike for a fair pay, management ignored them.

* The 14% gender pay gap remains ignored and institutional racism thrives.

The Executive Board wants to make 6.5 million pounds of cuts. Why do they insist on redundancies? Why won't they start with cutting their own inflated salaries?

What the occupation has realised is that no matter how many resolutions we pass as students and academic and support staff, the management will continue to ignore us. The SOAS Student Union is great and always very supportive of the students. Yet the undemocratic structures of governance at the university mean that the SU gets very little say (2 votes in a body of 22 people) over the big decisions such as those about fees, courses and worker rights.

As students, we are sick and tired of being treated as walking ATM machines who are only as good as the money we bring into the university.

The people that run this institution will only listen when they are forced to do so. The occupation is therefore the first step in challenging the management's autocratic authority. The occupation will not rest until students and all the staff are no longer subjects, but active participants in the running of this university.

It is time that SOAS democratises.

The current governing situation under the Executive Board and Board of Trustees must be restructured. In its place, students, academic staff and support staff should have authority over the running of our university.

The first step in achieving this, as occupiers, is to open up the Brunei Gallery to courses, discussions and lectures by students, lecturers, and workers in SOAS as well as many supporters from outside the university. This space will be a pedagogical space where we all learn together outside the confines of corporatism. Through this action of creating our own free university, the occupation will show that students and staff are capable of driving our own education and that there is no need for senior management to design our curriculum for us.

Anyone who would like to hold an event at the SOAS Student Occupation can email us at [email protected] or find us on Facebook.  

(See the Statement of Occupation here: http://soasanticuts.tumblr.com/post/131222762935/statementofoccupation)

In response to the news that the Director of SOAS wants to make 6.5 million pounds in cuts, the occupation holds that the following six demands are non-negotiable:

1. No job losses (including Fractionals) in the ‘necessary’ savings plan

* The alleged ‘necessary’ savings should start with the wages of top management.

* Written assurance that there will be no job losses for all staff.

* Management must issue a written assurance that no compulsory redundancies will be made.

* An end to exploitative contracts. All demands of Fractionals For Fair Play must be met immediately.

2. No course cuts

* There should be a departmental bottom-up review of courses with the administration barred from 'hand-picking' reps. Departments should elect their own reps with a commitment to improving courses instead of cutting them.

* Departments should convene open forums to discuss and plan the process of the curriculum review (including the decolonisation of the curriculum).

* There should be an apology from the entire executive with no scapegoating of individuals (such as the Pro-Director for Learning & Teaching).

* Management must publish a detailed and transparent explanation of how and why their recent email document on the implementation of 184 course cuts was created. Management must be accountable and take responsibility for the process.

3. In-sourcing now! All outsourced staff must be brought in-house.

* The administration must cancel all planned tender processes.

* No union reps and other campaigners should be victimised in any way, shape or form.

* Management must apologise to mistreated workers for using private companies with a history of human rights abuses. Unacceptable companies include Mitie (which runs immigration detention centres) ISS (which deports workers), Ocean, Serco, etc.

4. Democratisation of Governance

* The university must publish its finances and yearly budget in full. This must include detailed accounting of its alleged financial debt and pay-scale transparency for each management position.

* The management should devolve powers to academic departments and decentralise the decision-making at the university.

* The Academic Board must be re-constituted as a democratic structure with an equal number of elected HODs and elected non-executive academic staff and non-academic staff. Specifically, there should be at least 3-4 elected student representatives, 3-4 non-academic staff representatives, and an elected non-executive academic chair. This Board should be empowered to receive reports, vote on proposals, and communicate directly with the SOAS Board of Trustees.

* The Executive Board must be reconstituted as a democratic structure with majority student and academic staff and support staff representation. Proposals affecting academic research, teaching, and student welfare should be put to vote by the Academic Board as a matter of routine (rather than when the Executive deems it is necessary).

* A SOAS Senate must be created with universal academic-staff membership. The Senate will be empowered to meet at least once each term with the power to vote on proposals put forward by the School’s new Academic and/or Executive Boards.

* A SOAS Community Forum must be established which will include all students, non-academic and academic staff. They will meet once each term to provide all members of SOAS with a venue to discuss issues of mutual concern.

* Governing Body meetings should be entirely constituted by students and staff and should exist to hold management structures to account.

* SOAS Community Forum and/or university-wide referendum shall hold veto rights over all Governing Body decisions.

5.   Implement the Academic Boycott (BDS)

* The university must immediately implement the Academic Boycott of Israel (BDS). In a landslide referendum last year, students and staff overwhelmingly voted in favour with a yes vote of 73%.

6.   Stop PREVENT and the CTSA bill

* The university must stop the implementation of the PREVENT strategy immediately

* Management must send an apology to all student and staff acknowledging the effects these decisions have had on Muslim students and staff within SOAS.