Students locked out of the Hicks occupation organised today and began a second occupation at Sheffield University in the new Jessops West building at 4pm.
We are occupying with exactly the same demands, and have selected this building for its token status as the University's progress towards top-down management decisions. It has received wide praise for its innovative and environmental design, but at the same time received nothing but bad reviews from those academics and students who actually use the building. The open-plan offices, lack of teaching and storage space and lighting that causes migraines are all things that make the building unfit for anything other than administrative office space. Listening to what staff and students need seems to take second place to design awards and style. What's more it will not give management the excuse to move lectures.
An update from the group in Jessops will come soon once they've established themselves and sorted out issues with Security.
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Pathetic. What reason are you occupying for? Open plan offices and lack of teaching/storage space or Gaza? A protest for protests sake. If YOU listened to what staff and students wanted, you wouldn't be doing this.
ReplyDeleteditto
ReplyDeletegood idea, its a ridiculous building! not practical at all :) see you later x
ReplyDeleteIf you have such an issue with the University of Sheffield, why come? Every single occupier chose to study at this university. Maybe you should have invested your 1,000/3,000 pounds/yr tuition fees more carefully.
ReplyDeleteSheffield University UCU have registered numerous complaints at the lack of consultation with University workers with regards to the development of the new Jessop Wing building. It is now likely to be in for a costly refit as a result. This is part of a wider issue of lack of accountability, democracy and concern for working people displayed by university management. This is directly related to management's equivalent lack of concern for social justice issues like the plight of the people in the Occupied Territories. We don't live in a bubble. These issues are just as relevant to people in the university community as the BAE lab situated just a two minute walk away in the Mappin Building that supplies arms parts to the Israeli state.
ReplyDeleteBesides, least you can stop moaning about the fact that your lectures have been relocated now :P
'not practical at all'
ReplyDeleteThe University ran out of funding (becuase the IC was overbudget and because the arts tower needs a overhaul) to complete Jessops Edwardian, therefore lost half of it potential office and seminar space. Hence, Jessops West is now mostly office space rather than the seminar and office split originaly proposed, this is because departments can share seminar spaces (example I have seminar in Hicks and Jessops) but not office space. So actually I think you'll find its a practical solution to a problem. Also, the listening rooms are apparently very helpful for the language departments. And I've most the lecturers I've talked to like the offfices as they have more storage places than they're old ones.
Regaurdless, this 'occupation' has never been about the Universities facilities. So why dring them into it now?
oh how nice, a little smiley. i think a lot of people were not just 'moaning' about lectures being relocated, but about the way occupiers are using blackmail to see their demands met. they seem to constantly contradict themselves, are they for communism or democracy? as far as i can tell, they're not too sure themselves. and now they're fighting for the students and staff, who completely disagree with their actions, due to poorly designed buildings. it's a joke
ReplyDeleteIf you don't like the food the supermarket stocks, do you go elsewhere or do you occupy it?
ReplyDeleteYes, thought so.
If staff don't like the building, they're free to work somewhere else.
If students don't like the building, they're free to go and study somewhere else.
You're reasoning is pathetic.
Good on the University for seeking the eviction order. I hope they get another one now.
OK, if it's now about storage, how many Ikea wardrobes will it take for you to sod off for good?
ReplyDeleteIt is not for the building they are occupying for predominantly, it is for achievable goals for gaza, that we have seen be met all over the country by universities like ours. The occupiers needed another building, they moved, that is all. It seems like some of you check this every few minutes!
ReplyDeleteyeah we check it to laugh at you even more, little bits of joy brighten up the day
ReplyDeleteplus you have heard of rss feeds yeah? no? oh ok
you gonna go from building to building until you get thrown out or in jail?
"The occupiers needed another building"
ReplyDeleteNeeded?
Are you fucking joking?
jail?! i dont know about you yanks but over here we speak the queens english
ReplyDeleteIt's so laughable the amount of people here complaining about this, your learning space is hardly being distrupted at all, infact, the occupiers are happy to have lectures in the theatres, and still you are here moaning and moaning, clearly with little else to do, anonymous and bored.
ReplyDeleteNatasha.
Natasha - what the fuck would a woman know anyway?
ReplyDelete"sorted out issues with Security."
ReplyDeleteWhat issues? Are security trying to stop you?
Oh no! How dare they!
Tell them to stop repressing you at once!
most people are complaining about your blackmailing pathetic tactics. Obviously on a loosing spiral going to another building - yeah go you
ReplyDeleteYou obviously have little else to do either
Cheers for that women comment! lovely. but seriously, Natasha dear, read these posts. its not just the disturbance, it the childish attitude of the occupiers, spitting their dummies out to try and get their own way. what's laughable is the protestors, achieving nothing as far as I can see.
ReplyDeleteWONT SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN
ReplyDeletegits
@17:49
ReplyDelete"This is part of a wider issue of lack of accountability, democracy and concern for working people displayed by university management"
How many successful businesses are run on the basis of an employee vote on what kind of paperclips to buy?
It's a place of work, not a creche. Grow up.
changed your tactic to space now, please grow up - really, really really grow up
ReplyDelete"These issues are just as relevant to people in the university community as the BAE lab situated just a two minute walk away in the Mappin Building that supplies arms parts to the Israeli state."
ReplyDeleteBAE make our Typhoon fighter jets and helped R&D Our nuclear submarine fleet as well as developing a large range of our army's weapons. They help protect the nation. Go figure.
So you're saying the uni has arms capability and hasn't used it on the occupiers yet?
ReplyDeleteI must say I feel let down.
"The open-plan offices, lack of teaching and storage space and lighting that causes migraines are all things that make the building unfit for anything other than administrative office space"
ReplyDeleteYeah, fuck the admin staff. Go you.
Everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others. How apt.
I will laugh when the police come to arrest you!
ReplyDeleteThe moronic standard of commenting on this blog absolutely disgusts me.
ReplyDeleteHave any of you people actually met the occupiers before deciding they are childish, selfish, undemocratic undesirables?
Perhaps you should get the fuck down to the Jessop building and try and talk to them about it there.
why engage with cunts?
ReplyDeletehope they are getting these migraines they are protesting about
I commend your tactics. Brilliant!
ReplyDeleteThe VC is a disgrace to our uni. He needs to keep his word and sit down and discuss the reasonable issues raised by he occupation.
If they seek an eviction against jessop west...where next? Apparently there was a student protest in the 60s that took western bank. You stand in a long, proud, noble tradition of protest in sheffield!
In solidarity with the people of Palestine
I check this blog once a day to keep an eye on the progress of the occupation. I admire the objectives. Tactics im not 100% sure of but i still respect those undertaking the protests.
ReplyDeleteThe sad people (person?) on here that keep whinging about the protest probably need to get out and try get laid.
if he is a disgrace to 'your' uni, then leave and go elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite simple.
Also he doesn't have to do anything he doesnt want to and certainly doesnt have to be blackmailed by you.
He and the EB set the policy for the Uni, either live with it or leave (or carry on and get kicked out)
"The VC is a disgrace to our uni."
ReplyDeleteHe's a credit to the nation.
The second he kicks the lot of you out, he deserves a knighthood.
"Apparently there was a student protest in the 60s that took western bank. You stand in a long, proud, noble tradition of protest in sheffield!"
ReplyDeleteYeah, and once you've taken the western bank, why not head across to the Middle East and try to occupy the real west bank
Sheffield: honing the skills of kamikaze fuckwits since the 1960s
'live with it or leave'
ReplyDeletei would have thought it was obvious to you tory boys that they'll neither live with it or leave. They are staying, nay occupying, and are not leaving.
Bravo!
then they have what's coming to them - expulsion
ReplyDeleteLove the way the 'tory boys' :) get rattled by the occupiers inslting the new building. Would have thought they'd agree that its a shoddy building, not like wot they used to make!
ReplyDeleteAnd i think its the tory naysayers on this blog who are hooray henrying about things unrelated to the demands of the occupation.
Its quite clear to me, the occupation is about gaza. Not about jessop west. But they did justify why they chose jessop west as the latest target. But you public school boys cant even be thankful for being kept in the loop. How rude!
I'm not really sure where all the hatred is coming from for these posts. Perhaps it could be directed towards a better cause. Regardless of anything that is happening here, there are men, women and children being killed in a war that is inarguably being dominated by a stronger side. Of course, there are complex politics involved, but i doubt the families that are being wiped out appreciate our hesitations to try to understand them.
ReplyDeleteSurely if you personally have been moved to leave a negative comment against this occupation, you personally have formulated an idea for a better solution. Or should we all just agree that its too difficult to get involved in the israeli-palestinian conflict, and leave the sufferers to it?
Clearly there are things wrong with this occupation, as it has been received so negatively by many of those it intended to represent. But the question is; can you think of something better? (i would just like to point out here that it was in no way carried out on a whim, many attempts to enter into negotiations with the university have been previously ignored). If you can; submit your proposal and make a valid attempt to put it into practice.
Maybe the occupation itself is a bad strategy, but in what way is doing nothing a good strategy?
Judging from the comments left on this blog, the authors have not visited the occupation, The occupation itself has been run entirely democratically and anyone can come to a meeting and pose a suggestion or place a complaint. If more of the protesters do this, a better informed judgement and better directed outcomes can be made.
I am certainly not childish, and nor do i belong to any political party. I am simply an individual struggling to understand why we as a nation are happy sit back and relax as atrocities occur elsewhere. Please can we have positive suggestions from now on.
-Or at least criticisms that do not centre on the occupation having disturbed students, because it has been made quite clear already that no disruption to lectures has actually taken place.
The university would not dare expel so many of its students for protesting for a good cause. Think of the reaction from the wider student body and lecturers.
ReplyDeletethey would expel for illegally occupying the buildings - which is why they are going for the court order.
ReplyDeleteThose who are protesting in the right way, carry on - those protesting illegally - bye bye
Dont be so naive
The negative posters on here consist entirely of the Young Conservatives. All 4 of them.
ReplyDeletethink of something better hmm.
ReplyDeletehow about fundraising to raise awareness (and not animosity) and money to buy books and computers, how about these people go there for aid efforts, do some missionary work - make a real difference to peoples lives
Don't be a middle class toff who thinks they are making some sort of 'solidarity' act by sitting in a building making pathetic demands which make zero difference to peoples lives
You'd be amazed at how many lecturers respect your cause and good intentions. Many are just waiting to be invited to talk. Many are shy. Many are on temp contracts so cannot put their heads above the parapet just yet.
ReplyDeleteRespect!
and those who say everyone who disagrees is a young conservative - for one, i'm not young, two i don't vote conservative, so grow up.
ReplyDeletesome people actually have opinions on illegal occupations without being as politically biased as you are
"Don't be a middle class toff who thinks they are making some sort of 'solidarity' act by sitting in a building making pathetic demands which make zero difference to peoples lives"
ReplyDeleteHave you dare say that to one of the occupiers? hahaha thought not. Computer nerd troller tory!
Zero difference? Check out the many other occupations across the country and the material gains made. Check your facts squire.
If you're neither young nor poliically biased what exactly are you doing on a blog about a student occupation?
ReplyDeleteUnless of course you're a washed up cynical old 'mature' type?
ReplyDeleteIf democratic elections give us leaders who ignore the wishes of those who put them in power, over questions of war peace and the economy, then we all have a right to protest. Corporate bodies like the Unis are not elected, nor are they empowered to ignore those who work in them. So the occupation is a very healthy sign of a return to direct democracy. All power to your elbows. Sad to see so many potential recruits to the BNP raving moronically on the fringes. But that is the price of free speech.
ReplyDeleteyes im sure those palestininans lives are all superb now - no difference is there.
ReplyDeleteI'd quite happily tell them to their faces
and I'm commenting on the blog becuase I have an interest in it, quite simple really
you have a right to protest, you do not have a right to break the law.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah Unis aren't elected, but the students dont have to stay, leave if you dont like it
These students weren't elected either
"Zero difference? Check out the many other occupations across the country and the material gains made. Check your facts squire."
ReplyDeleteWhat difference is it making to SHEFFIELD I think was perhaps the point? This is not an argument about other cities, other universities, other occupations. SHEFFIELD. Has it made a difference? Are their material gains, has the uni caved to demands. One word answer please, plain and simple, YES OR NO?
"potential recruits to the BNP"
ReplyDeleteSolid argument you've got there. NAAAAAT. The cause is right, the action is wrong.
everyone who disagress is now either a young tory boy computer nerd or a BNP activist.
ReplyDeleteSo so blinkered
"don't be a middle class toff"
ReplyDeleteI'm unsure how you have managed to deduce anything about my background from that post? Please explain how you have come to that conclusion.
Your ideas sound great, have you tried to put any of them into action? You really should. If what comes out of this occupation is people deciding that they can do better and then feeling moved to do so, surely that is a brilliant outcome.
> 21:17
I'm 19 does that make me young? By law it doesn't make me childish. I'm a student who visited the student occupation. That's what i'm doing on a blog about it. What are you doing? Where's your positive suggestion? Was that sentence the only one you read from that post?
"I'm not really sure where all the hatred is coming from for these posts. Perhaps it could be directed towards a better cause. Regardless of anything that is happening here, there are men, women and children being killed in a war that is inarguably being dominated by a stronger side. Of course, there are complex politics involved, but i doubt the families that are being wiped out appreciate our hesitations to try to understand them.
ReplyDeleteSurely if you personally have been moved to leave a negative comment against this occupation, you personally have formulated an idea for a better solution. Or should we all just agree that its too difficult to get involved in the israeli-palestinian conflict, and leave the sufferers to it?
Clearly there are things wrong with this occupation, as it has been received so negatively by many of those it intended to represent. But the question is; can you think of something better? (i would just like to point out here that it was in no way carried out on a whim, many attempts to enter into negotiations with the university have been previously ignored). If you can; submit your proposal and make a valid attempt to put it into practice.
Maybe the occupation itself is a bad strategy, but in what way is doing nothing a good strategy?
Judging from the comments left on this blog, the authors have not visited the occupation, The occupation itself has been run entirely democratically and anyone can come to a meeting and pose a suggestion or place a complaint. If more of the protesters do this, a better informed judgement and better directed outcomes can be made.
I am certainly not childish, and nor do i belong to any political party. I am simply an individual struggling to understand why we as a nation are happy sit back and relax as atrocities occur elsewhere. Please can we have positive suggestions from now on.
-Or at least criticisms that do not centre on the occupation having disturbed students, because it has been made quite clear already that no disruption to lectures has actually taken place."
At last somebody has the right idea.
-how about fundraising to raise awareness (and not animosity) and money to buy books and computers, how about these people go there for aid efforts, do some missionary work - make a real difference to peoples lives-
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you've been following what's been going on, but there's actually a bit of a dangerous war going on.
It's not possible to nip in and pop a few bandages on the palestinians wounded from israeli arms that we helped to supply.
Stopping arms funding now isn't going to make the Israeli weapons evaporate you know - they probably have a bit of a stockpile. As, to be fair, do some of the Palestinians.
ReplyDeleteoh right yeah. We should probably just keep going then. If you can't beat 'em join them. If they have arms anyway, we may as well give them more. That is definitely a valid point.
ReplyDeleteHow it jumped from Gaza to bad architecture i don't know but Jessop West is the biggest waste of money this uni has ever spent. Totally inadequate for students use.
ReplyDeleteYou have my support. Carry on.
Anon 21:06 and others: Let me register two complaints about the occupation:
ReplyDelete1. It's hypocritical. (I don't know if this has been rebutted elsewhere on this blog; I haven't read any posts to that effect but I haven't read all the comments.) According to Wikipedia ("Second Intifada"), Israel has killed 6,000 Palestinians. Meanwhile, in Darfur... 450-fucking-THOUSAND people have been killed by the Bashir regime. 450 THOUSAND!! I'm sorry, but where's the occupations against Darfur? (I could here post a comment to the effect that the difference in reaction is a result of implicit anti-Semitic structures in society or at least among the UK left. I won't do it, since I know some of the occupiers and I would never dream to accuse them of anti-Semitism, but someone has to explain to me why you stand silent in the face of a hundredfold worse atrocities in the Sudan.)
2. It's dictatorial. The Israel-Palestine conflict is CONTESTED. People will have different views about it. You want Uni to choose sides. In the long run, in fact, you want ALL British universities to choose sides. This means that University will only be for some people, namely those who share your political views. Other people, who are reasonable people of good will, will not be taken account of. At the end of the day, the question is: should a university, as such, be a political campaigning organisation? My answer is: yes, if that's what the people democratically decide that they want their universities to be. If that should ever come to pass, I won't remain in this country fr long. But don't take it upon yourselves to speak on behalf of the workers and farmers whose tax money you want to take and spend on your political agenda.
"oh right yeah. We should probably just keep going then. If you can't beat 'em join them. If they have arms anyway, we may as well give them more. That is definitely a valid point."
ReplyDeleteThe Israeli F-16's were manufactured by Lockheed Martin, go boycott them. They were modified by BAE systems and sold on, but wait, BAE systems make all of OUR weapons, so we are kind of f-ing ourselves in the a-- by attempting to boycott them.
They are a business, they sold to an established air-force, they don't have an obligation to be bleeding heart moralists on this.
And by the way QinetiQ and Rolls-Royce, the other two "arms dealers" (wait a sec R&R make engines?) that a student lobby are trying to make the uni boycott are both British companies supporting our own military, not selling AK's to child soldiers in the congo or whatever they tell you in socialist school.
Fuck the tory wankers who never get off their toff arses for the murdered palestinians, for the sheffield workers, for fucking anyone! Solidarity!
ReplyDeleteYeah fuck all the facts!! Solidarity!!!
ReplyDeleteSolidarity in the face of fact!!!
if I keep fucking swearing maybe someone will fucking listen and not be able to see how cunting stupid i am!!!
and by the way it's a labour government supporting the arms-industry at the mo, not "tory"
While I'd like to think I support many of the aims of the occupation, I can't help finding fault with your argument for occupy the Jessop Building. Admittedly the occupation needed to move somewhere else, but your reasoning seems flawed. If the Jessop Building is as you say predominantely admin, doesn't this mean your protest will receive less attention as it becomes less visible to the student body?
ReplyDeleteI would equally object to the claim that the occupation represents "an alternative model - one of a university run from the bottom up by students and staff in the interests of education, social justice and global solidarity" as claimed in your facebook message. I thought the occupation was about Gaza rather than overhauling 'the system'. If you allow the issue of Palestine to be hijacked by seemingly unrelated extreme left politics surely you run the risk of alienating mass support from more moderate (or dare I say it, right wing) students?
well said
ReplyDeleteJoe, strange that nobody listens to the palestinians unless the occupiers shout. So you want more palestinian children killed then? Wanker.
ReplyDelete1. I agree the jessop west is a poorly designed building, but that isnt what this protest is about. Are you already running out of ideas that you need to try and gain a little more respect by moaning about it?
ReplyDelete2. How can you assume anyone who doesn't support you is a 'tory boy' or a potential BNP recruit? Haven't you stopped to think that you are acting like a bunch of stereotypical middle class socialist students? University isnt the be all and end all, I dont think a few more uni places are going to help the people of palestine
3. Why dont you actually occupy a government building or somewhere that has some relevance to the situation? The university is place of learning and should be devoid of argumnent that detracts from that
4. Why dont you go to gaza or do some fund-raising? Surely you are intelligent enough to realise you are not going to get your demands
5. As a bunch of activists you seem to be missing out on protesting a much more important issue TO STUDENTS at the moment - the plan to double fees?!
6. The uni recieves money from these 'arms companies' that allows it to do the good work that it does do. They have had these links before you came to uni so why didnt you factor that into your decision making??
7. What about the many many other issues that people keep rightly referring to like Darfur? Or is gaza the in thing with activists these days?
Does somebody from the occupation actually want to answer these questions ever??
And how do you get locked out of an occupation anyway??
well no I don't want ANY children killed, but you have to accept that BAE is a business, as well as the university, and it's flawed reasoning just to abandon all companies that have anything to do with the military (as we need a military ourselves.)
ReplyDeleteI realise that occupiers have to shout but it would help everyone involved if they shouted the right things, instead of generalised left leaning statements:
"an alternative model - one of a university run from the bottom up by students and staff in the interests of education, social justice and global solidarity"
what does that even mean? social justice? global solidarity?
1. The 'moan' about the Jessop West Building was merely a justification of why the occupation has spread to that particular building. We have not, as many seem to believe, become preoccupied with architecture. And you are quite right this isn't what the protest is about at all.
ReplyDeleteWhy are you suggesting more things to protest about?
ReplyDeleteAbsolute disgrace, they should all be expelled from the University. Democracy… did they ballot every student before representing 'our' views? Think not… what a shame the porters don’t carry tazers.
ReplyDelete"pre-occupied with architecture" Is it not true that we spread most of our time in buildings designed to meet our needs. Architecture is not a solution to social problems but a key influence in it. For many years Architects have fought to design buildings that meet the clients brief while battling with a budget. Fair enough the Jessops building had to make some compromises due to funding. But what it offers is high spec compared to some Universities. The building sparks a conversation between people, which to me is good advertisement for the university. Don’t forget the more students drawn in will inevitable increase funding for further development. Don't forget we’re not all the same; so of course there’s going to be a difference of opinion towards the building. After all isn't that what life is like; taking what you have, and making it work for you?
ReplyDeleteAnyone fancy a pro-Israeli sit in at bar one? I feel they are strongly under represented...
ReplyDelete