Housing activists spoil Pat's dinner

Report from Shreya Ukil

On 29th January 2019, the Upper Refectory was set up for a night of celebration - it was the Annual Supper of Goldsmiths’ College Council. The sofas had been stacked against the wall, the knives and forks were set on the tablecloth but sat in the chairs, helping themselves to wine, were not members of the governing council but student activists protesting the conditions in student halls. They came armed with keyboards, vuvuzelas, placards and pictures of halls.

Hovering by the doors was a hesitant pool of council members distancing themselves from the interlopers, with uncertain looks on their faces, and nobody approached the group of students for the first half hour. When Warden Patrick Loughrey entered the room, he sat down with the group in an attempt to move the protesters along.

Nine representatives of Goldsmiths Housing Action group (GHA) were present and eager to state their case. The group formed in autumn of 2018 and its members are a collection of Goldsmiths students in various years of study. They aim to represent both those who lived in the halls managed by the College and the three (Chesterman, Surrey and Raymont House) managed by Campus Living Villages (CLV).

GHA member Clementine Boucher speaking at the protest

Photo: Will Herbert

Their dissatisfaction stems from high rent prices, reports of poor maintenance and what they see as dangerously negligent security. They are dissatisfied with the College’s apparent lack of respect for student welfare.

Jake Roberts, a member of the GHA, said on the night: “We are here to disrupt the meal in protest at the continued rise in rent whilst students live in squalor.

“We’ve had students report that they have had dead mice in beds, their kitchens have been flooded by exploded boilers, ceilings have collapsed. So we’re here in protest of these horrible conditions whilst rent every year has risen way above inflation. We are here to disrupt the Council’s meal, send a message that this is not okay and that we will be protesting until things change.”

The Warden, who had left his fellow council members and waded in to sit down with the students, was shown pictures of these individual complaints.

Pat maintained that these instances are “regrettable”, but that students needed to follow procedures for complaints. Initially he insisted that the students’ sit-in cannot have a productive result. However, the activists stood their ground and wanted to put their case to the whole Council.

Students’ Union Education Officer, Taylor Mcgraa, and SU President, JT, who was attending the supper as part of his role on the Council, negotiated between council members and activists. Several huddled conversations later saw everyone drawing up chairs in the middle of the room.

Clementine Boucher of the GHA spoke passionately on all the individual grievances but made it clear that the GHA felt “systemic problems of privatisation of student accommodation and high rent” lay at the root of housing issues.

Dinah Caine, the Chair of Council, emerged as spokeswoman for the Council in the discussion that followed. She invited the students to speak their mind but was careful to add: “Councils are not executive senior leadership.” She said that there was not much that the Council could do immediately because they are not responsible for the day-today running of the College. As Dinah spoke, council members and activists sat side-by-side in silence.

The discussion ended with a reiteration of GHA’s demands: for rent to be not more than 50% of maintenance loans; students to receive a fair compensation for legitimate complaints and that halls meet the ‘Living Home Standard’ as outlined by Shelter, the housing charity.

Having listened to the activists, council members agreed that the next course of action would be a meeting between members of the GHA and Sue Tarhan, Director of Student Services and Rocchi Acierno, Head of Accommodation. Activists then insisted that Joe Leam, SU Campaigns and Activities Officer and the two SU part-time Housing Officers also be present. The meeting is scheduled for 12th February. “Give us an agenda,” Pat said.

Council members may have hoped that this would be enough to end the sit-in and begin their delayed supper, but they were to be disappointed. The students, after a vote amongst themselves, opted to remain in the Refectory for a further half hour, while the council members slowly left.

Robert Munton, student activist and a veteran of the recent campaign to bring cleaners in-house, admits to being cynical: “I’m surprised they came and sat down with us but the reason they’ve probably come and sat down with us is that they realised if they don’t things will get escalated.“We will a hundred per cent carry on with the direct action. They know what happens when we do it; we shut down events, we picket the buildings. It’s bad publicity for Goldsmiths - loses them money, they \staff\ don’t come in so it’s their choice to listen to us now.” SU Housing Officer, Louise Warberg, said later that she understood why students feel direct action is needed. She said the best she has been able to do as a part-time officer is to signpost students to the appropriate staff at Student Support.

Patrick Loughrey was initially unimpressed with the disruption

Photo: Will Herbert

Louise said: “The complaints procedure needs to be more accessible and complaints should be more objectively assessed. Currently it is solely down to the University management to decide whether complaints are valid, which is problematic as the University often has been the reason behind complaints.”

She is not sure the “confusing nature of the procedure” works for busy students. She worries: “They tend to completely refrain from using the complaint procedure available and therefore miss out on their rightful compensation. Furthermore, compensation should not be paid in shop vouchers which is completely disrespecting towards students [sic]. They should have the option of choosing financial compensation which is the form with which they’ve paid for their product, that being either a rented student hall room or place at the university.”

University officials may have listened, but it remains to be seen whether they understood the urgency of the students’ concerns. A spokesperson for Goldsmiths, University of London said: “If there is an issue with halls not managed by Goldsmiths we would expect any accommodation provider to act as the College would, by thoroughly assessing the situation and responding appropriately.

Students brought vuvuzelas and banners to the protest

Photo: Will Herbert

“We understand housing in London can be a real issue which is why we offer some of the most affordable halls accommodation in London – with rooms starting at £118 a week inclusive of bills, contents insurance and WiFi. Nine out of ten rooms are below the average price for London student accommodation.”JT would like to see both short and long-term concerns being dealt with in the meeting ahead. “Has to be both,” he said. “If there are ongoing issues that aren’t being fixed they are a priority. I don’t want students living in substandard conditions, especially based on the prices. Outstanding issues that aren’t being resolved, that needs to be an immediate fix and the college needs to go to CLV and demand that happens.”

He thinks the time is right for an evaluation of the partnership with CLV: “It is now the second year since CLV halls have been ‘finished’, and there now needs to be a real analysis of how the move to CLV has altered student accommodation at Goldsmiths, as that transfer has clearly not worked for a lot of people.”

These are big challenges ahead of the meeting set for 12th February. For now JT is satisfied: “It was good to see the students engage. They made a good point and got council members to sit down and talk to them.”

The next time all parties meet, this time over a sober conference table, they will find out whether they can agree on the nature of the problems students face with housing issues and how to resolve them.