Monday 01-03-2021 - 09:00

The following is the manifesto for the Group that is campaigning No in response to the referenda question: Do you have confidence in Lancaster University’s Vice-Chancellor and his Executive Team?

This group consists of students who have nominated themselves to lead the campaign, the lead student is Jude Rowley. Voting in this referenda will take place between 10am March 3rd and 12pm March 12th.

 

No Campaign Manifesto

Vote NO Confidence in the VC and senior management

 

If you are fed up with University management putting profit before our wellbeing and repeatedly refusing to listen to students, vote NO in the referendum to make your voice heard

We do not have confidence in the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Andy Schofield, and the entire Executive Team of Lancaster University, and call for their immediate resignation for the following reasons:

• Throughout the pandemic, they have demonstrated their unwillingness to prioritise student and staff welfare above the financial interests of the University.
• Despite the pandemic, they told students to come back to campus last term. We believe that this put the health of students and staff at risk, and led to the Lancaster University campus having the highest Covid-19 infection rate in all of Lancashire, despite the warnings of the UCU, Unite and Unison branches on campus.
• They continue to demand that some students pay rent for rooms they cannot access. They failed to make a reasonable rent reduction offer to all students in University-managed accommodation in response to the rent strike.
• They charged students £17.95 for emergency food supplies during the pandemic, forcing students to rely upon donations and volunteers to get food whilst they were self-isolating.
• In the midst of the pandemic, they decided to raise campus rents for the next academic year. This is on top of the above-inflation rent rises that have already been applied to University accommodation for years. For example, weekly rent for a townhouse room was £78.40 in 2009/10, but will be £132.93 in 2021/22 - an increase of 70%!
• The University (and by extension, students, though our tuition fees and rents) paid for £52,000 in “improvements” to the house the Vice-Chancellor rents. This is on top of his £300,000+ salary and emoluments.
• The number of senior Lancaster University management staff being paid excessive £100,000+ salaries has risen from 25 in 2013/14 to 65 in 2019/20.
• The University has been hit by a number of management bullying allegations, including the victimisation of a trade union official, which is due to be heard at an employment tribunal. At least 29 former Lancaster University staff have been made to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements since 2015.
• The University’s failure to address staff concerns about casualisation, pay equality and pensions forced UCU members to go on strike several times in recent years. Despite senior management’s massive salaries, junior academics are usually severely underpaid and employed on insecure precarious contracts. 
• Whilst some vice-chancellors have called on the government to scrap interest on student loans, there has been silence on this from Lancaster University management in the pandemic.
• The governance structures of the University have become increasingly undemocratic and unaccountable in recent years, with the abolition of bodies such as University Court. 
• Despite years of student campaigning, Lancaster University still doesn’t have an ethical investment policy, and continues to invest in arms manufacturers, the tobacco industry, and fossil fuel companies.
• Senior management pay, campus rents, and tuition fees have all risen astronomically over the last decade: the only thing going down is student satisfaction

 

Why Vote No Confidence?

If students vote NO, then the SU will be empowered to advocate for the removal of the VC from office and to lay the foundations for a new and democratic University. This will send a clear message to management who have previously refused to listen to students on the grounds that they consider the Student’s Union the only ‘official’ voice of the Lancaster student body: by declaring that the Student’s Union has no confidence in the VC or his team, we’ll be forcing them to listen. A NO vote will put pressure on management and show them that students have no confidence in a University management team that can spend £52,000 on renovating the Vice-Chancellor’s house or £12,910 on a portrait of its previous VC, but then claims it can’t afford to feed students in need, reduce already astronomical rents, or properly fund student mental health services.

The Vice-Chancellor and University management have mishandled the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, repeatedly put profit before student well-being, and refused to listen to student’s concerns: it’s time for them to go. Vote NO in the referendum to show management that students have had enough.