February 14, 2009

What's happening at Goldsmiths?

I heard that there was a motion to the Goldsmiths branch of the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) proposing the twinning of the student bodies of Al Quds University and Goldsmiths College in London. Also, that there was a call for the management to support the student's occupation of an admin building and that Dr Hirsh, the big cheese at Engage, the anti-boycott website, had opposed the motion. This was all on Thursday just gone.

Well a little bit of googling told me what I thought already and that is that Al Quds and Goldsmiths have been twinned for some years now but there is some kind of occupation going on at Goldsmiths:
Students of Goldsmiths University have, as of this afternoon, occupied a campus building. At noon today students stormed Deptford town hall, which is known amongst students as the administration hub of the college.

In accordance with the recent wave of student occupations, the Goldsmiths students are acting in solidarity with the people of Palestine, following the atrocities that have taken place in Gaza.

The Goldsmiths students have just one specific aim: Two MA Scholarships Programs for students of the Palestinian Al Quds Open University, the Palestinian University which the college is linked.
So Al Quds and Goldsmiths are twinned and there are students trying to get scholarships for two students from Gaza. So what's to oppose here if you support academic freedom?

I'm so confused about this whole thing about the UCU resolution any clarification, even from Engage would be welcome.

UPDATE - this is isn't really an update because I haven't even posted the post yet but it seems that the students won their demands according to this insider blog.

But re the resolution on Thursday, what was it exactly and what was it that Dr Hirsh opposed?

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