We are into our third day of occupation and since we first entered Lower and Upper College Halls, 120 additional students and lecturers have signed the petition.
The University, following the decision of the Executive of the Student Representative Committee to support the continuation of negotiations, has arranged a committee style meeting on Monday which will include representatives from the Student’s Association, one of the students in occupation, university officials, and members of the University Teaching and Research Ethics Committee.
Whilst we are pleased to, hopefully, be able to present our arguments to a wider audience of university officials, we are disappointed that we were not consulted about the make-up or agenda of this meeting.
This morning, a group of student occupiers staged a peaceful protest outside of a scheduled meeting of the University Court to protest the halting of negotiations and to demand a meeting with the Principal, a request that had been denied in negotiations.
The University court meeting is currently ongoing, but our request for a short statement to be read, or at least distributed, to the members of the Court has been denied.
We have been informed by the Principal that she would be open to a meeting during her office hours. However, a call placed to her secretary has revealed that the first available meeting time is in April.
Prior to taking the decision to occupy we tried to secure a meeting with the Principal during her office. We feel that this is an issue important enough to warrant a special meeting and we look forward to securing such a meeting with Dr Richardson on Monday.
As of 2 o’clock Dundee University’s Chaplin attended the occupation to show his support.
