Ask a nutter who occupied his uni

[Shekwan]

Was there recreational drugs? Legal or otherwise.

 

[nonconformist]

Was there recreational drugs? Legal or otherwise.

Some ground-rules laid out at the start designated the Senate a non-drinking area, and no drugs, which a number of us vigorously opposed, but to no avail, so we'd quite often sneak off to one of the on-campus bars for a couple hours in the evening.

After the lock-in, we pretty much said "sod it", and all bets were off regarding drinking, though we tried to remain fairly responsible, with only Xmas, and New Years as the real "heavy"nights.

However, when we approached the day we knew we would leave, we still had a huge amount of alcohol which had been donated, and some of us too kit upon ourselves to get rid of it.
I remember having a meeting 2 days before leaving in which every person present went through at least 3 cans of lager.

That happened to be the day we thought it was a good idea to film a zombie movie too.

I'm a smoker, and I found it hard being locked in, on account of smoking laws.

 

[Flying Pig]

I'm a smoker, and I found it hard being locked in, on account of smoking laws.

I wonder what the legal status of smoking with your head out of the window would be...

 

[nonconformist]

I wonder what the legal status of smoking with your head out of the window would be...

Illegal, as I'm over 50% inside the building.
IF I'm 50% outside the building, then I'm outside the building, and can be prevented from reentering

However, they had roaming patrols and CCTV on the building, and I quickly managed to build up a patrol timetable, and get them to divulge where the cameras were, so I occasionally jumped out of the window in a blind spot, with my camoflage smock on, and pretended to be a bush.

 

[holy king]

you didnt designate a smoking room somewhere?

 

[nonconformist]

Illegal, we really didn't want to compromise our position.

Also, had a fire alarm gone off, we would have been required to evacuate the building, or face an exceptionally hefty fine from the fire department, and the moment we'd evacuated, they've lcoked us otu.

 

[holy king]

was there no windowless room in the center?

 

[GinandTonic]

Illegal, as I'm over 50% inside the building.
IF I'm 50% outside the building, then I'm outside the building, and can be prevented from reentering

However, they had roaming patrols and CCTV on the building, and I quickly managed to build up a patrol timetable, and get them to divulge where the cameras were, so I occasionally jumped out of the window in a blind spot, with my camoflage smock on, and pretended to be a bush.

Graduate level secret cigarettes. Little did you know when you were hiding from your parents how the skills you were honing would be put to the test.

And good work for not giving them an excuse to claim to have to redecorate and therefore claim x £k of damage had been done.

 

[Takhisis]

A number of things.

First of all, 20% of the university budget is being cut, meaning we're seeing very real job redundancies and course cuts right now.

Secondly, all the people who passed this bill got 100% state subsidised education, so maybe they wouldn't be so hypocritical if they paid their courses back at £9000 PA plus interest.

Thirdly, this is essentially economic warfare against "undesirables" at university; we're gonna see university demographics change-it's going to become a white, middle-class male thing to do.

The lower classes aren't going to want to put themselves in substantial amounts of debt. Most ethnic minorities are from the lower classes.
The greatest attacks on education are in the social sciences and humanities departments, which is where most females study.

Well, it was enough to allow these dirty Pakis into England, allow them to learn how to read and write, now you want them to stop being poor, too?

I assume you mean the uni, rather than the state?
Not really, since we were infringing civil law, and I still have a few months probation left on this court order.

However, there have been talks of suing councils and the government for breach of contract, duty of care etc.

Well, yes, you were effectively under siege, something should be done about it. And you're on probation for defending your rights, how strange.

Will do!

It'll be a long journey, take a kitten.

 

[bhsup]

Well, yes, you were effectively under siege, something should be done about it. And you're on probation for defending your rights, how strange.

Wouldn't it be more accurate to say the university was under siege? I am not trying to belittle or condemn what Non was doing, don't get me wrong. Sometimes a little civil disobedience is a good thing, but he and his group were the ones taking the 'aggressive' action.

 

[classical_hero]

Illegal, as I'm over 50% inside the building.
IF I'm 50% outside the building, then I'm outside the building, and can be prevented from reentering

However, they had roaming patrols and CCTV on the building, and I quickly managed to build up a patrol timetable, and get them to divulge where the cameras were, so I occasionally jumped out of the window in a blind spot, with my camoflage smock on, and pretended to be a bush.

So some good could have come out of it, if you remained faithful to the cause. You could have stopped smoking, which would have been good to your health.

 

[nonconformist]

So some good could have come out of it, if you remained faithful to the cause. You could have stopped smoking, which would have been good to your health.

We did remain faithful to the cause?

As much good as we could have hoped to achieve in the given circumstances was obtained, and I'm not quitting smoking because of the "man"

 

[El_Machinae]

First, I must emphasise how much respect I have for this. I love protests. I think the UK has a fine, fine tradition of making itself better through protests.

How much of the donated stuff was nearly anonymous? Or were there obviously collections and deliveries? How much did they donators want to jaw with you?

Why didn't the university cut the electricity?

 

[nonconformist]

How much of the donated stuff was nearly anonymous?
Or were there obviously collections and deliveries? How much did they donators want to jaw with you?

Some was anonymous, and came via post etc, but most was give to us through a window by well wishers, who really wanted to talk to us for a while, wish us well etc. and then ask if there's anything we wanted in particular.

That outside contact is one of the things that made us sane, and we were really grateful for all the wonderful stuff people gave to us, and the fact that they would tell us how well we were doing.

Why didn't the university cut the electricity?

I can't really speak for the university, but from what I can gather:
a)they could find excuses for cutting off the heating and internet (routine maintenance etc)
b)cutting off electricity would have neutralized smoke alarms, would have neutralised the electric door locks, and might have been illegal?

 

[Takhisis]

Were people allowed to stand just outside the windows and talk to you?

 

[nonconformist]

Yeppers, no law against that, we're an open campus.

 

[Takhisis]

You could always have dug out a tunnel in order to receive supplies more regularly.