The start of negotiations

A group of us are currently in negotiations at the Students Union with Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Paul Younger, university Registrar Dr. John Hogan and specialist in the Middle East Dr. Julia Trottier.

So far we have summarised why we decided to occupy the university and the action that we took prior to occupying. We then outlined how the occupation went and what happened and why we left. After this we formally stated our demands (re-itterating that these were already negotiated, revised demands and thus the bare minimum of what we want post-the occupation) and requested a signed declaration from Paul Younger that no student who took part or supported the occupation would face disiplinary measures now, or in the future. He signed this straight-away.

The university then addressed our demands one by one.

At present we're breaking for lunch and discussing our response.

The discussions do seem to be fruitful initially but their are some minor issues re. semantics, wording and the responsibility of the university as an educational charity.

We're here until 4pm and there is a strong feeling, I believe, that we will be far from drawing a line under this by then.

In other news the Newcastle Chronicle has printed an article on our action that is less than supportive of our cause. It is also unrepresentative of everything that we stood for and the approach that we took to the action. We will be contacting them.

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