Student noise protest disrupts Vice Chancellor’s speech

On Friday (18/03), a group of around 20 students gathered outside Clare College Chapel to stage a noise protest. The activists were from student group Cambridge Defend Education (CDE), who have been coordinating rallies and breakfast runs in recent rounds of strikes, and staged the Sidgwick Site occupation last month.

They were protesting the University’s continued refusal to recognise UCU, the union for academic, academic-related, and research staff at the University. Recognition would allow UCU to undertake collective bargaining with the University over wages, contracts and more on behalf of staff.

Cambridge University is currently the only public university in the UK that does not recognise UCU. This situation has been branded “outrageous” by CDE, who claimed that the decision was “forcing workers to go on strike for the third time this academic year.”

Vice Chancellor Stephen Toope, who will be stepping down in September, was giving a speech ahead of Clare College’s annual Benefactor’s Dinner. 

But as he began speaking, students started their noise protest. As well as banging drums, they started chants including “Stephen Toope, shame on you, recognise UCU!” and “Stephen Toope, you’re no good, treat your workers like you should!” 

A student inside the chapel claimed that Toope “didn’t really acknowledge the protest” but that as the speech progressed “no one was listening to [Toope’s] speech at all.”

Later, as guests left the service, activists handed them flyers explaining that UCU had told the University that Friday (18/03) was their final chance to recognise UCU and prevent further strikes. 

The University has not changed its position, and as a result, further strikes will start today (21/03). 

CDE told The Tab that “whilst Toope and other senior management enjoy fancy dinners and six-figure paychecks, the workers that actually provide our education face increasing precarity, huge gender and racial pay gaps and massive pension cuts. When the University denies workers a real seat at the table by refusing to recognise UCU, students won’t allow UCU’s demands go unheard.”

The University Press Office has been contacted for comment.

Featured image credits: Cambridge Defend Education