WhatsApp News Feed Posts – 2024

Post 47 – 21/01/24 – Time For Direct Action

But first a quick recap…

When we met Prof. Tracy Bhamra in the summer, we raised the issues relating to the proliferation of HMOs, student ASB and Parking. 

We were encouraged to receive a reply confirming that the University was committed to working with all local partners to mitigate as far as possible any negative impact on the community. She continued by saying that she would be working with the Student Life team over the summer to identify what some of those mitigations could be. 

After some chasing we received an email from her in October with the mitigations. We were disappointed to learn that those mitigations were little more than a rehash of the material in the university’s ‘Be a good neighbour’ guide.  

We wrote back to Tracy expressing our disappointment explaining that we did not think that the University’s mitigations were adequate nor were they taking the matter seriously. 

To date we have not had a reply. A copy of the emails can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTBtnn4rOgAiM5CyONQTfFdwXIZ9xDUj3oO1HHz4tjhg_PEd-JCQg58CWdmtIiPZkouN0GQkvrzqX-a/pub

A couple of us met last week to discuss the next step. It was agreed that direct action is now required. It was also agreed that the most effective action would probably be to target a RHUL Open Day.

Highlighting to prospective students how the lack of action taken by RHUL has led to unprecedented animosity towards the college and its people whilst at the same time possibly disrupting their future revenues may lead to Tracy and the senior management team taking the matter more seriously. 

Please note the direct action we are thinking about is of the family friendly variety – we are not on for a storming of the Founder’s Building nor are we thinking there should be any need for chains, bike locks or indeed glue.

Currently there are no dates being advertised on RHUL’s website for future Open Days. We know that they normally have a couple in the autumn though. 

We know many want to express their dissatisfaction sooner than later and autumn is a long way off. But targeting an autumn Open Day could be a benefit as it allows us some time to prepare. And of course we want this inaugural action to be as effective as it can be – fail to prepare, prepare to fail and all that. 

If we are ready sooner, and an opportunity presents itself, say a spring Open Day then we will let you know. 

So we want to start planning for this event now. If you would like to join us please follow the link below. We have some ideas on how to make the event a success but the more heads the better – we would very much welcome your input. 

https://chat.whatsapp.com/GPUFEQn6pmk7S7K3eH2MXr

When you request to join this ‘Taking Part’ group we will make contact with you shortly afterwards. We will then arrange a time to meet up to get the ball rolling.

Best wishes,

We Need To Take Direct Action Against Royal Holloway