Developing Story (Falmer) We have just learned that the students who had occupied the 3rd floorof Bramber House in the University of Sussex have been evicted last night. This is a great shame and we hope to bring you more news about this when it happens.
We have been told that this is a change of tact by the university who last year allowed a protest to go out peacefully. When our editor when to Bramber House today to interview the occupies he was told that they had been evicted last night and the door was locked.
Just in(Brighton) We had a chance to talk with Claire, one of the students who had been part of the occupation and she said that they had decided to leave Bramber House late on Tuesday and that the University did not evict them as Niger was told.
It seems a shame that they have decided to give up so sooner even though it was starting to get some movement going. This seems indicative of the student movement now, they start something but don’t want to see it out, in this case if could have something to do with the fact that it’s election week and Claire is running for one of the officerships.
There is a saying that there is nothing worse when good people do nothing (Edmund Burke) and that seems to be the case here. The issue of money being taken from our universities is a serious one and one that does affect the whole student body. But no one seems to really care, and they are not willing to put their neck on the line when an issue comes up that they are set against.
Small dribs and drabs or student protest seem to be the last reminder of a once powerful student body, once a group that could effectively change the system and make policy work for them. Now something that had some light in it, a student movement that had some potential left, has now fully died, there is now no hope left for the student cause.
I don’t want to sound like it’s all doom and gloom but I find it hard to think that even these people have had the wider interests of the student body at heart, if they did then they would have stuck this out for weeks and months to come. Only them would a very apathetic student body turn round and say yes WE support you. But when you close shop just a the wheels are about to turn then your left with a very apathetic student body going ‘I knew they wouldn’t keep it up’.
