Sussex staff set terms for first round of industrial strike action

The University and College Union (UCU) at the University of Sussex announced last week following an Emergency General Meeting that they will go on strike this Thursday 18 March, and again in the summer term. It was also decided that there will be a lobby of the university senate meeting on Wednesday 17.

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Management back-tracks over student suspensions

Last Wednesday 10 March, six students formerly suspended from the University of Sussex had their penalisations modified so as to permit them to continue with their academic studies.

Around 600 students rallied outside Sussex House last Thursday 11 March to protest against management’s decision to suspend six students following the previous week’s occupation. Photo: Sam Waterman

The students, dubbed ‘The Sussex Six’, were initially suspended on Friday 5 March by Vice-Chancellor Michael Farthing. They each received a letter from the university stating they had been “positively identified” by the management as “leading participants” of the Stop the Cuts rally and occupation of Sussex House earlier that week. Read more

Gay-friendly Christian group will rate churches in Sussex

A newly established gay Christian group, Changing Attitude Sussex, is aiming to make churches in the local community more gay-friendly.

Changing Attitude claims they are: “Drawn by God’s love to work for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the Anglican Communion.”

Last month, over 70 people attended the group’s first meeting, held at the Chapel Royal on North Street, Brighton. The meeting was addressed by the National Director of Changing Attitude, The Rev’d Colin Coward, who urged attendees to “challenge the hostility gay people face in some churches.”

The organisation describes itself as “dedicated to telling the truth about Christian teaching on homosexuality and to working for the full inclusion of LGBT people in the church.”

The Sussex group is set to create a dossier entitled ‘Which Church?’ which will categorise churches in the area based on how gay-friendly they are. The brochure will divide local churches into categories ranging from ‘open and welcoming’ to ‘judgemental and rejecting’.

Provisional group convenor, Keith Sharpe, told the Badger: “Church leaders increasingly make overt homophobic statements which foster hatred and bigotry and demonise gay people. It is very damaging for gay people’s mental health to find themselves in a judgemental and rejecting church, and we hope that our ‘Which Church?’ dossier will give them the information they need to make an informed choice.”

The group has received hostile reviews from some church leaders, including the Bishop of Lewes, Wallace Benn.

Benn is the president of the Church of England Evangelical Council, a traditionalist group that is opposed to the ordination of gay bishops. In a recent letter, he wrote: “In classic Christian teaching, homosexual actions leave the actors facing God’s judgement without Christ’s mediating work. Teaching which encourages such behaviour is profoundly cruel, as it encourages people to sin.”

In 2008, Benn boycotted the Lambeth Conference in opposition to Archbishop Williams’ attempts to liberalise the church on sexual issues. However, in an online article he wrote: “Compassion and care are needed. Homosexual people should be warmly welcomed in our churches. God loves us, whatever our orientation”.

In 2003, Dr. Jeffrey John became the first openly gay man to be appointed a bishop. Dr. John, who was celibate at the time, later stood down so as not to divide the church.

The University of Sussex chaplain, The Rev’d Canon Dr. Gavin Ashenden, commented: “There are a large number of gay people as well as Christians in Brighton, and a good many know each other and like each other as people.

Several of the Brighton churches are enthusiastically welcoming and protective of the gay community, including St Nicholas, the Anglican Parish Church of Brighton, and of course, the Metropolitan Community Church, which is made up mainly of LGBT Christians.”

Brighton is named UK’s ‘ghost capital’

Brighton and Hove has been named the UK’s ‘ghost capital’, according to a recent report published by the Argus.

Ghostly spirits are said to be roaming the narrow, cobbled streets of Brighton, including murder victims and drowned sailors from years gone by.

Organisers of the first ever World Horror Convention said Brighton will be the only UK venue due to its “high number of restless living dead.”

Leaders of the conference claim that sailors from the ship ‘The Nicholas’, which sunk off the city’s coastline in the 12th Century, can be seen out at sea in the dead of night, while the old brewer from the Black Lion in Black Lion Street, who was burnt at the stake in 1555, is still hanging around in the pub’s cellar.

More than 300 horror enthusiasts will be meeting at the Albion Hotel in Old Steine from Thursday 25 March until Sunday 28. Guests attending the convention will participate in a number of ‘ghost walks’ and will also hear readings from star authors.

The sold out convention has attracted aficionados from across the globe. The event is themed ‘Brighton Shock! – A Celebration of the European Horror Tradition from Victorian Times to the Present Day.’

Man charged over Elm Grove stabbing

A 40-year-old man appeared in court last week charged by police with the murder of Brighton resident Gordon Stalker, a founder of the Lewes Road Community Garden.

Stalker, 51, was found bleeding in the hallway of his shared house in Elm Grove on the morning of Monday 15 February. Post mortem results found he died as a result of multiple stab wounds to his chest and side.

The accused, Stephen Dunne, of Chates Farm Court, Brighton, was remanded in custody until a preliminary hearing takes place at Lewes Crown Court.

It is understood that Dunne fled from the scene of the crime to Dover, but then headed to London where he gave himself up to the police. The motive for the crime is unclear.

Mr Stalker, who was well known in the local community, was described by Marina Pepper, a fellow organiser at the community garden, as a “community pillar.” A gathering was held at the garden on Sunday the 21 February to mourn Gordon’s passing.

The Lewes Road Community Garden was set up in May 2009 on a small patch of derelict land next to the Lewes Road Co-Operative Grocer. About 100 local residents participated in its initial establishment, but over the past year the garden has been widely used by the local community.

The garden recently came under threat from attempts by build a TESCO on the land, resulting in the “Say NO to TESCO on Lewes Road” campaign, which Gordon was also closely involved with.

Elm Grove, notorious for its steep hill, is a popular student area. Julia Welham, a third year English student at Brighton University who lives on Elm Grove, described the killing as “so strange.”

“The weirdest thing about it for me is that he was killed in broad daylight,” she said.

“I don’t really feel any less safe around Brighton because of it, though. I’m just desperately sad for the guy. The garden is really nice and he seemed like a lovely person who was really involved in the local community.”

UCU proceeds with ballot for strike action

The University and College Union (UCU) has formally initiated ballot proceedings to determine whether academic staff should strike in response to higher education funding cuts and looming job losses.

The outcome of the ballot will govern whether students’ lectures, seminars and workshops will be disrupted. The trade union for academic staff has 550 members at the University of Sussex.

The call to vote on strike action comes after UCU members voted in favour of industrial action at Leeds University earlier this month, where up to 700 members of staff face the risk of redundancy. Academic staff at Leeds are to hold three one-day strikes on the 25 February and the 2 and 4 March.

UCU Branch President at the University of Sussex, Paul Cecil, told the Badger that UCU “will continue in talks with the management in an effort to remove the current threat to jobs and avert any industrial action.

“We have to be clear though that the University plans threaten nearly 10% of academic posts plus many support posts, and we simply do not accept that the current excellent education that our colleagues provide can be sustained under such conditions. We note for instance that cuts in options for next year have already been notified to students in some at risk areas. Our plans address these key concerns of students, which is why it is so important that we reach agreement on an alternative to the draconian cuts that are currently proposed.”

The university has issued the following statement to the Badger: “The University has consulted, and is continuing to consult, with each of the three recognised trades unions – UCU, Unison and Unite – on the proposal for change, and that includes consultation with a view to reaching agreement on ways and means of avoiding the proposed redundancies, reducing their number and mitigating their impact.

“By making strategic changes, however difficult this may be, the University will be better placed to achieve a sustainable future in what are – and will continue to be for some time to come – very challenging times for higher education.”

Brighton binmen on strike

Unisex axed

The University of Sussex sexual advice service, Unisex, is to be closed down as part of the University’s scheme to save money.

Unisex, which currently costs the University around £40,000 a year, offers a number of services to students, including free contraception, advice on how to deal with problems such as unwanted pregnancy, and Chlamydia testing.
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Cyclists in Brighton face fines

Students bicycling to and from Sussex campus should be aware that police in Brighton are now taking a hard line on correct visibility.

In collaboration with the City Council, the police are now involved in the ‘Brighten Up Brighton and Hove Campaign’, which aims to remind cyclists of bike laws, encouraging them to purchase lights and reflectors.
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Over one-hundred jobs cut

The University of Sussex is slashing 115 staff jobs and making severe cuts to both academic and support services in a desperate attempt to save cash.

In a message to all students at Sussex on Wednesday 25 November, the Vice-Chancellor, Michael Farthing, wrote that “by taking this action we will be able to reduce costs by around £5m in 2010-11 out of a total budget of £160m.” Job losses will affect both academic staff and support staff.

University cut backs will see redundancies in the Schools of Engineering and Design; Informatics; Life Sciences; the Centre for Continuing Education, and English and History. Some of these will be compulsory.

Decisions about redundancies will be made in March 2010 and will begin to take effect in July of the same year.

Life Sciences will be one of the hardest hit areas, with the University planning to “reduce the number of staff across Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Biology and Environmental Science.” This will total 24 job cuts.

In their press release to the Argus last week the University pledged: “We need to continue investing in our strengths and developing our research in new areas, such as climate change…” It is unclear how reductions in Environmental Sciences will contribute to this research.

Potential research areas in Life Sciences; Engineering and Design, and Informatics will be severely reduced. The University are aiming to focus research “around areas with clear potential for growth.” Engineering and Design will see the loss of five jobs.
Further cost reductions will be made in Life Sciences’ technical services, although detailed proposals will not be developed until later in the year.

Informatics will be another area experiencing severe cuts. However, the redundancies of 13 members of staff will at least “create a more sustainable staff-student ratio”, the University commented. The University is also seeking to reduce the number of IT support staff within the School.
Despite these redundancies, the University will reinvest money into boosting Informatics’ “senior leadership”, which was, reportedly, “an issue identified in the recent external review.”

Meanwhile, research in Informatics will “align itself with the major research priorities of funding bodies” in what is an example of the wider trend at Sussex of attempting to profit from commercial endorsement.

The Centre for Community engagement, which operates part time courses for people returning to education, will see a further seven redundancies due to the accelerated implementation of its “recovery plan.”

The University vows that there will be no immediate cost reductions in the main Social Science Schools. These include Business; Management and Economics; Education and Social Work; Global Studies; and Law, Politics and Sociology. However, the warning signs for future cuts are there. The University have stated: “The cost-base in… Life Sciences is not sustainable at current levels of income.”

There will be “a major investment plan designed to significantly increase full fee international student income” both in Business; Management and Economics, and Global Studies.

The University’s restructuring and reduction plans within the Arts and Humanities Schools are somewhat unclear, and sometimes completely contradictory. History is one example of this. In its ‘General Proposals for Change’ report, the University states that “the overall change proposed [for History, Art History and Philosophy] in Part 2 is designed to make the History taught offering [sic] more attractive to students and improve the quality and number of applications to its programmes.”

However, in the Part 2 document, which has been obtained by The Badger, plans for History seem somewhat more dire. It explains that within the History department the University is proposing to withdraw from all research and research led teaching in English Social History pre-1700, leading to the possibility of one at least one redundancy, and to withdraw from all research and research led teaching in the social, economic and political history of Continental Europe pre-1900, creating two likely redundancies.

The University aims to establish full integration between History and the American History component of American studies and is considering creating an ‘academic leadership post’ in Digital Humanities.

Within English the University proposes “withdrawal from parts of the curriculum to give a sharper focus to the premium nature of the Sussex English undergraduate programme.” At the same time as removing programmes the University is explicit in its intention to increase fees, stating that it will be “seeking higher level fees [in English] if and when the government lifts the variable fee cap.” There will be a total of five redundancies in English.

Various areas of Student and Academic Services (SAS) will be either restructured or removed. The University is proposing a central ‘Student Life Team’, into which the majority of the university’s support services will be merged.

This restructuring will see the loss of 11 of 15 student advisers and, most likely, a drastic decrease in the one-to-one support available for students. In his email to all Sussex students last Wednesday, Michael Farthing announced this as “rethinking the way that we deliver information and advice to students.”

Other services will be cut completely. These include UNISEX, which has for years been a pioneering project involving Brighton and Sussex Universities and the NHS, providing sexual and drug related support and advice for students. This will result in three redundancies.

InQbate, the University’s state of the art digital gallery space, will also be closed to all users outside the immediate academic department, ceasing to facilitate student events. The University makes clear that “the current layer of higher methodological and facilitation skills [for InQbate] will no longer be required and the staff in question will be redundant.” This will see the loss of four members of staff.

Cut backs for the library include shortening the working hours of front-line staff; reducing porters’ working hours and reducing the two current service points into one new Information Hub. However, despite these compromises, the University has admitted that there will be at least one redundancy, adding: “It is not proposed to make further redundancies at this time, providing that the proposed changes to working patterns are successfully implemented.”

IT Services is another area that will be hit hard by the University’s proposals. Approximately nine members of staff will lose their jobs in this area, including one managerial position.

The Badger has also learned that seven members of staff will be cut from catering. This is part of the University’s wider restructuring plan in catering, which aims to increase food quality and service hours, as well as providing “a greater sense of community and cross school/division working.” Seemingly, this will be done with a smaller catering team than at present.

Lastly, the University are also planning six redundancies in Security. Further details about these positions are currently unavailable.

The University are also looking to save money by increasing various costs for students and staff. The university crèche will be increasing its prices to cover its full economic cost and attempting to find alternative childcare off-campus. However, the message is stark: “If these options cannot meet the overall financial objective, the University will have no alternative but to close the childcare facilities.”

Car parking costs are also set to rise in order to cover the full cost of parking provisions. The University provides the justification that “the current level of subsidy is an unfair indirect burden on the large number of staff and students who do not park on campus.” This is likely to be an unpopular cost increase since, as previously reported in The Badger, many students and staff are already parking off campus in areas such as Stanmer Park, in order to avoid the costs and congestion of parking on campus.

Just four academic Schools within the University are showing signs of growth. These are Business, Management and Economics; Global Studies; Law, Politics and Sociology, and Media, Film and Music. These areas will see an injection of money in order to fund their requirements for more staffing.

The University are aiming for an increase of 1170 students in these subjects by 2012/13, with an injection of cash to cover the increased staffing costs.  The University’s general emphasis with all academic cuts has been that individual Schools, and even departments, need to be self-supporting. It seems unlikely, therefore, that any profit made from these courses will be re-distributed to help less ‘financially viable’ courses, irrespective of their academic worth.

Over 200 students gathered outside Bramber House on Thursday 26 November to protest against the University’s proposed cuts. Of this support, President of the University College Union at Sussex, Paul Cecil, commented: “On behalf of all the staff at Sussex I want to thank all our students who attended the rally against the cuts outside Council today.

“This is only the first stage of an intense period of negotiation between the campus trade unions and management. It is heartening to know just how much Sussex students share our dismay at the ill-conceived cuts and the threat that they pose to the quality of education provided by staff across the University. We are facing a difficult time, but knowing we have your support really does help.”

The USSU have passionately condemned the University’s plans, stating: “These short-sighted proposals will hit students hard, taking away services students rely on in times of need, closing many important courses and undermining the quality of those that remain.

“Access to money, welfare and academic advice will be severely restricted, and students and staff will no longer have subsidised access to childcare. It is hard to imagine cuts that would have a more devastating impact on students’ welfare and on standards of teaching and research at Sussex.”