Students occupying a key University of Manchester building have left the premises — but remain camped in another facility.
Members of the UoM Rent Strike group have left the John Owens building, where the university’s senior management work, after eight days. They remain in the Simon building.
The group has also said that the occupation ‘was just the beginning’, and warned ‘action will continue to escalate’. The decision to leave the building comes two days after the university served a deadline to vacate, after which students involved could face disciplinary action, they said.
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“Occupiers of the John Owens building have now left, but this is just the start: we will continue to organise against the University’s management and their inadequate response to the cost-of-living crisis faced by students and staff,” a statement from the protest group said. “The building has been held for over a week, during which the management have refused to open direct talks or engage with any of the serious concerns raised by hundreds of students, including the 350 currently on rent strike withholding roughly half a million pounds in rent payments to the University.
“We are only leaving the John Owens occupation because the University has now proved our point, they do not care about students, and they are not willing to listen to our genuine concerns. Therefore, action will continue to escalate from this point until our demands have been met. John Owens was just the beginning.”
Although the John Owens Building is now vacant, the group have left barricades up to prevent security gaining access to the facility. In recent days, the university has turned off heating in the building, which the group said made them ‘quite cold’. Wi-Fi was also switched off.
The group initially occupied the John Owens, Engineering, and Samuel Alexander buildings, and then took over rooms in the Simon building, where they remain. That decision was taken because it ‘has space for the engagement of students’, a protester told the MEN.
The University of Manchester has been contacted for comment.
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