It’s back to university for the 2024-25 academic year. That means a load of work for support services at unis, including security – to give them ID cards for accessing buildings and services, and offer advice on crime prevention when they are at their most vulnerable as they find their feet, which may include experimenting with drink and illegal drugs, even. Mark Rowe reports on two extra issues for security departments on campus; the war in Gaza and student protests; and protecting of Jewish students who feel threatened.
University College London is one of many institutions visibly affected by protest. In a blog in May, UCL’s provost Dr Michael Spence mentioned the ‘challenge’ around ‘what it means practically to create an environment in which debate can be free, but also an environment that is open to all staff and students and safe for scholarly activity’. The balance of rights and responsibilities is anything but a new one; in 1986, Bristol University made headlines when the veteran politician Enoch Powell had a packed lecture cut short by protesters who made for the stage and shouted him down (and away to the railway station). In the late 1960s, the protests and sit-ins and other tactics were over America’s war in Vietnam.
In that May blog, Dr Spence noted a ‘recent occupation of the Jeremy Bentham room. Although disruptive to the business of the university, and unsettling and upsetting for some members of our community, that disruption was manageable and in line with our Code of Conduct on free speech’. He referred also to ‘a small protest with tents has just gone up in the quad’, which has caused headaches for UCL’s security department. For one thing, as raised by Dr Spence in his blog, ‘although the university must be a place that can accommodate lawful protest by staff and students, and that must be open to the external communities that we serve, we are aware that there are external individuals and organisations who are seeking to exploit the university’s duty to allow freedom of expression, to disrupt the university’s business in the name of their cause’. In other words, trespassers; and hence, as Dr Spence added, ‘asking our staff and students to show their ID cards at the gate as a precautionary measure, and for academic visitors to do the same’, even though UCL like other city centre universities, prides itself on being physically as well as intellectually open – UCL has nothing to stop you walking in off the street, indeed to use some of their facilities such as restaurants, before you would have to have the correct access control to enter academic corridors and staff restrooms. As a page on the UCL website puts it, a campus is a place for ‘disagreeing well’; but that also places a requirement on those who feel protested against; are they supposed to shrug off banners, shouts? At what point do they complain – if threats, online or physical, are personally directed? If threats become normalised, have the haters won and unis lost?
Where protesters resort to ‘occupation’ – again, not a novel tactic – such practical issues arise as litter, and sanitation (even if the ‘occupiers’ are coming and going, to take showers and eat, where are they going to the toilet?!) besides reputational risk – if a camp becomes semi-permanent, what does it look like? Like HS2 went legal, to counter protest on the land they are building a high-speed line from London to Birmingham, so a judge granted the London School of Economics a possession order in June, indefinitely barring encampments in one of its buildings after students slept in its atrium for more than a month in support of Palestine.
Last month the charity for the protection of Jewish institutions such as synagogues and schools in Britain, the Community Safety Trust (CST) brought out its antisemitic incidents report for the first half of 2024. It included 96 antisemitic incidents in which the victims or offenders were students or academics, or which involved student unions, societies or other representative bodies.
National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) Lead for Race and Inclusion is Suffolk Chief Constable Rachel Kearton. In a September 15 statement she offered reassurance. She said: “Neighbourhood policing teams, community safety teams, and Higher Education Liaison Officers, have actively been engaging with partners and security teams at Higher and Further education establishments, offering advice and guidance to ensure that vulnerable premises are safeguarded, and that students know where to go for help and support.
“We have no intelligence to indicate there will be a reappearance of the major public disorder previously seen, but we ask educational establishments to remain vigilant, and to promote zero-tolerance towards hate or discriminatory behaviour.
“We know that the risk of hate crime never goes away, and we will not stop investigating reports. Our message to students is that racial and faith-based discrimination will never be tolerated in any form, and we encourage anyone who suffers such a crime to report it to the police.
“Our officers are highly trained, will treat everyone with respect and dignity and handle cases sensitively. We ask that victims come to us as soon as possible after an offence has been committed so we can begin our investigation as early as possible.
“Your place of learning will also have reporting channels, such as via campus safety teams, student hubs, the student union, and college support teams, and we encourage you to use them. For those who do not wish to report directly to the police, please know that crime can always be reported anonymously to Crimestoppers. We know that the events of the summer were hugely challenging, and that anxieties and concern will understandably linger. There has been incredible unity displayed across the country and this is how we tackle division, by standing together, and I want to reassure all of our communities that policing will continue to do its utmost to keep them safe.”
Photo by Mark Rowe: UCL security officer on on-street patrol last year on Gordon Square on the UCL ‘estate’ in Bloomsbury, central London; walking towards ‘the Jeremy Bentham room’.
