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Glasgow Student Occupation

(originally published by The Student)

THE REMOVAL of students from one of Glasgow University's buildings has been called “disproportionate and heavy handed” by the university's Student Representative Council.
     The protest, which disputed the University's plans to convert the building into offices, saw a group of around 15 students occupy the Hetherington Research club for seven weeks, until police forces removed them from the building. Following nearly two months of occupation, the protests on 22nd March grew during the course of the day to over 150 students outside the building. Strathclyde Police increased their presence to include over 80 officers, 18 vehicles and a helicopter.
     Tommy Gore, president of Glasgow's Student Representative Council (SRC), insisted that the protest should have been “an internal University matter” and should not have required a police presence on University property.
     A spokesman from Glasgow University told the BBC that the continuing student presence in the building was “putting at risk plans the university has to refurbish the accommodation and develop it for academic use.”
     The protest aimed primarily to move against benefit cuts in Scotland, and also to “liberate” the unused Hetherington Building, which was previously a club favoured by post-grads. The Glasgow Anarchists say that the building was donated to the students of Glasgow in 1956 and that the University closed the club last year without due process. During the seven-week occupation the group scheduled “a plethora of events” including guest speakers, weekly film screenings and lectures in the renamed “Free Hetherington”.
     The SRC does not share the views of the Anarchist group, and claims instead to support the University's development of the building. Gore stated in a press release that the police presence on campus was unnecessary and the reason why the protest escalated. He said that students need political parties to “promise a fair and publicly funded solution to the £300 million funding gap that Scottish Universities currently face. We're sure students would much rather spend their time being educated than having to protest at the problems that the currently underfunded system has created.”
     When asked to leave by Strathclyde officers the protesters left peacefully, though one female student was arrested for obstructing inquiries.
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