10 Reasons to visit OccupyRHUL!

1) Free access
You can visit Occupy but you don't have to become part of the occupation! Under our occupation demands we have free access to the corridors we are occupying - this means people can come and go as they like and there is no chance of either being locked in the occupation or not being able to get back in if you leave and come back. 

2) Free Study Space
 We have occupied the Principal's Meeting Room, which is a luxury boardroom - the entire corridor has WIFI access and there are a large number of seats in the room - we keep this silent so people can get on with their work. Why go to Bedford Library and struggle to get a space when you can use Principal Layzell's own private meeting room!


3) Make a difference
We aren't here for the hell of it, we're here to make a difference. If you support the cause then occupation is the highest form of protest for a student (as obviously we can't strike as that's slightly detrimental for ourselves). 


4) Intellectual Debate
Whether you support the cause, are against it or perhaps you're unsure - we are willing to have discussions with all. We are forever sitting and discussing the reasons we're here and wider politics or intellectual discussions. We often have speakers, so far we've heard from Royal Holloway lecturers, a GMB representative and writer Symon Hill. 


5) Live Music, drama & entertainment.
We have a piano, a lot of guitars and have even had a trumpet! Especially later in the evening - Management Corridor is definitely the place to be for live music - we also have drama planned and spoken word. We aren't here to be bored - we're here to be productive! We have an open mic night on Saturday 3rd December!


6) You can actually meet the Principal!
Paul Layzell (he's the Principal of Royal Holloway - you probably didn't know this) has met with us on several occasions to discuss our demands - it's interesting to hear his views on why he's making our lecturers redundant and cutting our courses - all our meetings with him are advertised and open. 


7) Find out why these people are cutting our courses despite making a sizeable profit
Royal Holloway makes a surplus of £6.5 million every year - yet management still insist on cutting courses, staff and resources despite the Senior Management budget being 104% of our Library budget.. if you want to hear the reasons for this then come along - as it's what we plan on finding out and are holding regular meetings with management to achieve this aim.


8) It's great if you're nosy and want to see where Royal Holloway Senior Management work!
We have occupied the entire management corridor - the Principal's Hallway, his kitchen, his meeting room etc. If you want to be nosy, come have a look and see what's going on! 


9) Be part of something...
The atmosphere and relationships here at OccupyRHUL are really strong, there is no hierarchy and every decision made is voted upon before action is taken, we work in groups to ensure everything is prepared for when we meet with management, we have entertainment teams who plan things such as our Open Mic Night, we have out reach teams, media teams - collective action is the way forward. 


10) Food...
Whilst we aren't gonna let you walk into Occupy and take our food - if you're here for a while you may very well be offered drinks & food! We look after the people who are staying with us. 


So why don't you come and join us for a bit? We're in Founders East on the ground floor - come through the disabled entrance and turn left or go through main entrance, turn left and go through the corridors.

Meeting with Paul Layzell

At 13:00 we held a meeting with Paul Layzelll, we will be formulating a response to this meeting later on during our General Meeting at 6pm.

An enjoyable evening at Occupy RHUL

Thursday evening was quite an enjoyable one here at OccupyRHUL. Between 6 and 7 we had lectures join us and talks on the centralisation and power of finance and 1960's counter culture - interesting for all. The Great Money trick was performed by one of the occupiers - an interesting demonstration on how economic exploitation works (we'll probably have this again tonight!!) taken from Robert Tressell's Ragged trousered philanthropists.

Later in the evening we held a General Meeting where it was decided to uncover our security cameras and also discussed was the time of the meeting to be held on Friday. We also had lots of live music, pianos trumpets guitars etc - join us this evening for more of this!