What happens on the 9th of March 2020 at the Royal College of Art.
Another unhappy email,
| mar. 10 mars 09:15 |
This is a small account of what happened yesterday for those who were/weren't there. It began with an email thread where students across status' (Home/EU/International), campuses and courses came out to say they were unhappy. They all decided to meet yesterday at the Battersea picket line to stand with the unhappy tutors who are currently striking against a terrible working environment.
The students then moved into the Glassmill, to get an appointment to meet the VC. We were quite a few young, angry, frustrated students - but we were organized and we had an agenda. All we wanted was a meeting to hand over the emails and make an appointment for a longer meeting. We were delivering this message through the SU co-president and five representatives. This was all sorted very quickly.
YET, this didn't happen. Long story short, occupying the Gassmill from 11am till 5.15pm in the evening - we met many other people who we didn't want to meet. Without getting into the details of those things we were informed midway that the VC will only meet the SU and one student representative at 5pm. However, even this did not happen. Words like 'not appropriate', 'busy' were used to indicate that a 5 minute meeting by the students was a very big ask.
What did happen was a meeting with the VC, Deputy VC and the SU co-president in a closed room with all of the others watching from outside. We were not addressed, spoken to, or asked why we were there. We were told 'Only Gaby is paid to be in the meeting'. Well, that is the point Gaby is paid and so this was a meeting between the employer and the employee. Not students and their VC.
WHY?
We are all aware of the official routes of communication and how they work, what makes anyone think we haven't tried those? If so many students are occupying your office and asking for your time and we are supposedly your biggest priority then why not meet them? If I divide the home/international fees by the number of days we actually come to study at the RCA and multiply it by the number of students in that room yesterday - we would have easily surpassed what 5 Visiting Lecturers (who come once a week) must earn at the RCA in a month. The stakes for time have become so high that it almost works in favor of those who want things to go on as they are going.
Students want to know they matter, they want to be reminded that they are not just bank accounts. They want to feel like they still exist in an educational institution and NOT a business corporation. Education is not a business, let's not make that our no.1 priority, excuse, understanding at the RCA.
Hope you are all having a better morning,
Siddhi Gxxxx