Students’ protest lights up at London Met University over threat to Cass arts campus

Students who have been occupying east London’s Cass Arts college campus in protest at its planned closure have flashed their campaign message to the London Met University’s vice chancellor in lights. The protesters projected their demands onto the university’s main campus at Holloway in north London.

Message "loud and clear" on London Met Uni's main campus [photos: Marcus Tylor] - Credit: Students' Union

They claim their concerns are being ignored —so they flashed their Don’t kill the Cass slogan onto the main high-rise building in the Holloway Road to send the message “loud and clear” to the Vice Chancellor.

The campaigners occupied the arts campus in Whitechapel High Street for nine days before Christmas in protest at the university wanting to close it and shift students to north London with a £125 million scheme to create a single campus.

But student and lecturers’ unions fear this will lead to courses being “streamlined” or dropped, with student places lost and eventual staff redundancies.

“The university is forcing The Cass faculty into an untenable future,” one organiser said. “Prospective students will not feel secure studying at Whitechapel, which would lower the intake, leading to courses being cut and the eventual demise of a treasured institution.

“Consultation is pointless after the decision to sell The Cass site has already been made.”

Staff are being balloted by the UCU for strike action to oppose the ‘One Campus’ scheme.

Some 14 senior teaching staff at the Cass are now considering quitting en mass in solidarity with faculty Dean Robert Mull, who resigned before the New Year over the “untenable position” he said he had been put in.