SOAS News

Continued from page 1 with a set of demands including the creation of an independent external panel of enquiry designed to adequately investigate the complaints of racism and Islamophobia at SOAS. e second letter, written by a group of students angered by the heightened security presence at SOAS, brings attention to the harmful consequences of a campus which prioritises securitisation and surveillance over decolonisation and liberation. e letter cites various instances of intimidation and harassment from guards (including one allegation of a student being told they would be ‘broken in half’); management’s decision to hyper-securitise picket lines and student rallies; the diculty of accessing campus spaces and the frustrations of constantly having to present ID cards; and security’s forbidding of students to hand out yers and literature at the start of term. e letter states: ‘Teaching and learning lose their value when taken place in a heavily securitised space which aims to restrict expression and undermine the worth of students.’ e inability to present student concerns at the Board of Trustees is regarded by some as part of a trend in limiting the democratic capacities of the Students’ Union. In addition to