PA L A T I N A TE Student support for UCU strikes wavers

Ben Webb and Emily Doughty News Editors

The UCU has announced a further 18 days of industrial action at universities nationwide, with many Durham University lecturers and tutors joining the strikes.

These 18 days equate to 44% of remaining teaching hours for Epiphany Term (accurate from the UCU announcement on 24th January).

A poll conducted by Palatinate on 28th January found that 29% of Durham University student participants supported the UCU and all of their tactics. This is an increase of 1% compared to polling conducted in November 2022.

However, the poll saw an increase from 27% to 32% of students selecting the statement “I support the UCU but not their actions”.

There was also a decrease from 34% to 25% of students selecting the statement “I support UCU strike action but not marking boyco ”.

Palatinate also saw a slight increase in the percentage of students who selected the statement “I do not support the UCU at all” from 11% to 14%.

This means that student support for current strike action stands at 54%. Student opposition to strike action ranks at 46%. In November, support for strike action was at 62%

A total of 965 students took part in January’s survey, up 39% from the 692 respondents that participated in November 2022.

Testimony provided by students to Palatinate was mostly positive towards the strikers and their demands, with one student stating that they would “support strikers all the way until their demands are met. It’s the only way to make change happen”.

Another student wrote: “At the end of the day, the best way to make social change is to cause issues and if that means lecturers have to strike and stop lectures then that’s what they have to do. They deserve to be well paid”.

Some testimony places the fault of UCU strikes on the University. One student testified that “The

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Mould,

Nicole Wu and Lucy Baldwin Editor-in-Chief and News Reporter

Since the beginning of Epiphany term, students at St Aidan’s College have complained about the “abysmal” food quality being served to students living in college. There have been college-wide complaints with students finding mould, hairs and plastic served within their food.

The University has said this is due to the construction of a new kitchen - students are expected to be served reheated food from Hild Bede College and Lindisfarne until at least the end of Epiphany term but most likely longer.

Students claim they were not appropriately informed about the University’s plans to provide reheated food. Aidan’s

Reheated Catering

students claim the first time they were formally told about the new arrangement was in a St Aidan’s wide email sent on 8th January, a day before Epiphany term and the new food arrangement began.

In the email, Susan Frenk, St Aidan’s College Principal addresses students saying: “While the project leader, Paul Taylor, and University Executive Chef, Michael Thorne, have assured us that the arrangements should run smoothly, the trial run is today and we ask you to be patient and understanding if there are any problems.

“The food is being prepared in the Hild Bede kitchen, transported to the Lindisfarne Centre (which has been requisitioned as a temporary kitchen to reheat the food) and then transported to the concrete area outside the Dining Hall. It is then brought inside in specialist trolleys to the servery. Used crockery will be taken offsite after each service to be washed in the service kitchen in the Snow-South hub.”

Starting on 21st January, St Aidan’s students organised an open le er to the University’s Executive Commi ee that since has amassed 109 St Aidan’s student signatures as well as the support of: Dan Lonsdale, President, Durham Working Class Students Association; Halle Afflick, President, 93% Club Durham; Don Brooks, President, Durham Tenants Association; St Aidan’s First Generation Scholars; Joe Eaton, President, St Aidan’s JCR; all Executive members, St Aidan’s JCR as of Monday 6th February.

In the open le er, students criticise the University’s lack of quality of catered food and the mental toll from the current catering arrangement, concern regarding increased discourse surrounding eating disorders, socio-economic divisions between students who are able to afford external takeaway meals. Students also had concerns regarding the environmental impact of the new catering arrangement, the feeling of St Aidan’s as a college becoming sidelined and marginalised compared to other colleges, as well as no monetary compensation for the reduced quality of catering.

Four demands were outlined clearly in the open le er, these are as follows:

• We would like for ‘Livers in’ to be compensated £1000 for the loss of quality of our catering, including mouldy and inedible

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