Gordon Aikman occupation: Edi Uni says it’s ‘working with the students to provide for their basic needs’

The University of Edinburgh has responded to the student occupation of the Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre, saying: “We support the right of people to protest lawfully and peacefully and are working with the students to ensure their safety and provide for their basic needs.

“The University also has a duty to its entire community to keep any disruption to a minimum, and so we are working to relocate affected teaching and other activities to other areas”.

Members of the Edinburgh Staff-Student Solidarity Network, Edinburgh Youth Resistance and Edinburgh University Justice for Palestine Society took the Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre on Friday night, in support of the UCU strikes.

The Edinburgh Tab asked the occupiers whether they agreed that the university was working with them and providing support, to which they responded: “Absolutely not. They have done nothing except occasionally maintenance have been sent into the building to do repairs that were already needed before we moved in.

“We’re actually leaving the building in a better state than we found it.”

However, the occupiers did tell The Edinburgh Tab that: “Security have been pretty nice on the whole, they are outside the building to help if anything goes wrong.

“But we really don’t know what the university means by ‘provide for our basic needs’ as they’ve done nothing.”

However, the occupiers have received multiple acts of kindness throughout the past few days from other sources, with food donations from Wanderers Kneaded and the staff at the Covid testing site behind the lecture theatre.

One of the Gordon Aikman cleaners has also visited the students to offer his support, and even unlocked one of the cleaning cupboards for them to access more supplies.

In a statement released on the Staff-Student Solidarity Network Instagram, the group said: “This university is driven by capital. It has repeatedly proven that it is more concerned with capitalist expansion rather than education.

“We, the students, are being exploited by this university. We have decided to reclaim the Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre because this capitalist university is structurally incapable of taking a stance against climate change, colonialism, and exploitation”.

In response to these allegations, a University spokesperson said: “We are listening to concerns about pensions, workload and pay. Many of the issues raised are common across the higher education sector and are negotiated nationally. Where we can, we have implemented a number of initiatives to address aspects of employment conditions for our staff. We have been a Voluntary Living Wage employer since 2012 and we have not used zero-hour contracts since 2014.

“We have doubled investment in our annual staff reward scheme to recognise the contributions of more staff.  We are committed to a fair offering for staff and offer many generous staff benefits, including excellent flexible working and family friendly policies. We are not complacent and are committed to securing a long-term outcome to these ongoing negotiations – one that is fair and affordable for both individuals and employers.

“The University has committed to become zero carbon by 2040. Our Climate Strategy 2016 lays out a comprehensive whole institution approach to climate change mitigation and adaptation in order to achieve our ambitious targets. We have also set out a detailed Social and Civic Responsibility Plan 2020-2030. This includes a comprehensive mapping of the curriculum and on our research, based on the Sustainable Development Goals.

“Additionally, our Curriculum Transformation project is empowering our students to think of new and innovative ways to tackle the challenges we face today and in the future.”

Keep following The Edinburgh Tab for more updates as they come.

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• Gordon Aikman has been occupied by students in support of staff strikes

• There will be another week of strikes at Edinburgh Uni starting on 21 March

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