Despite the event occurring mid-exams, today's protest gathered around 150 students at the Faculty Building to deliver the message 'give us back our humanities' to Rector, Sir Roy Anderson.

Cries of 'Roy, Roy, you take our fees. Give us back our humanities!' echoed around College at lunchtime as over 150 students gathered on Queen's Lawn to begin the protest against course cuts in the Humanities and Languages Department. Protest Organisers, Ossain Hynes and Daniel Burrows, lead the vibrant 'mob' to the Faculty building to hand in the petition with over 900 names. The protest was organised in response to the announcment that a 60% cut is due to be made to the offering of the Humanities and Languages teaching, losing four languages and all lower level qualifications in the remaining four.

Security were out in force and the Faculty Building was immediately locked down with noone being allowed to enter or leave. ICU President, Jenny Morgan, infiltrated the building with her nifty swipe card access and persuaded the guards to allow Burrows to enter and hand over his petition. Morgan told Live!: 'I practically had to beg for him to be let in. They were worried we were going to throw eggs or something.' Live! is sure the most violent and competitive act carried out by this group was choosing Kadhim Shubber's chant from a list of proposed battle cries on the facebook group.

Burrows informed the crowds that he would keep them informed through the facebook group and later sent a message describing the event as a 'great success'. Professor Charmain Brinson, Programme Director for Languages, expressed her gratitude to the students who took part in the protest telling Live! that 'in a global university and a global society it is misguided to cut an international language like Japanese and Arabic completely. This seems an undue amount of cuts to be made onone small group.' However she remains hopeful that the protests will help towards finding a more positive outcome.

Neither Rector, Roy Anderson, nor any other member of staff from the Faculty building came out to speak to the protestors but there was plenty of interest from people staying behind the safety of the Blue Glass. A cheeky wave from Morgan to the fourth floor indicated that at least one person from the Rector's Suite had witnessed the protest and the crowds disbanded, feeling they had achieved as much as they could for today.

Add your comment:

Name:
Email:
Comment:
Do This:
Anti-spam:	If you can see this, something is broken (either with your browser, or with our system). Please leave the box below empty, or your comment will be considered to be spam.