Submitted on Wed, 02/28/2007 - 3:38pm
Regional Organizing Committee
- Mail - PO Box 1158, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE99 4XL, England
- E-Mail - [email protected]
Bread & Roses Editor
Fellow workers, Glasgow University IWW Job Branch workers have asked me to circulate this to the wider union. Hopefully some of you might be able to lend a hand here. Solidarity, Nick Durie, (Central Scotland Organiser, Clydeside GMB)
Glasgow University is proposing to close its campus at Crichton in Dumfries and Galloway. This campus has been really important in widening access to higher education, particularly amongst mature women. All its students have or are really enjoying the experience and feel really good about what it has done for them. There is overwhelming support from the local community and massive anger at the proposed closure. Crichton apparently has a deficit of £800,000 per year. However, Glasgow University had a surplus of £2 million this year and the principal, Sir Muir Russell, has just awarded himself a massive increase. Crichton was also not properly funded from the start and lacks some of the facilities that other campuses make money out of. Most important, universities should not be about money and making a profit. Universities should be about education and research, about opening up opportunities and changing lives. Crichton is doing this - opening up opportunities for people, changing their lives and being a focus and source of pride to the local community and hopes to continue to do so.
