rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/letter/queen-marys-london-stop-evicting-your-students-now?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-letter-area-queen-marys-london-stop-evicting-your-students-now' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> Rent Strike Network https://actionnetwork.org/groups/rent-strike-network https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/letters/photos/000/167/130/normal/Covid_Window_Help.jpeg Will you join us in demanding that Colin Bailey and the rest of the Queen Mary's UoL leadership meet stop the cruel covid evictions and meet with students now? Dear QMUL Management Team, I am writing to express my outrage at the way your team has handled the student housing crisis, and your response, or lack thereof, to the QMUL Rent Strike Campaign. I am sure you are aware, as I am, that over 350 students at Queen Mary University of London are on rent strike. This is part of a national wave of rent strikes happening across 50 different UK universities. I am particularly outraged by the fact that Queen Mary’s Management Team has not met with any strike organisers, despite this being requested. You have yet to even acknowledge the strike and its work. This shows that you do not care for these students and the issues they are dealing with. A number of other University Residential Teams such as those at KCL, LSE, Goldsmiths, Manchester, Sussex and Bristol have indeed met with their relevant strike campaigns. I find it absurd that at QMUL the strike has been continuously ignored. I therefore ask that you meet with the QMUL Rent Strike, as has been requested by them, to discuss the strike and solutions to the problems (particularly wellbeing issues) these students are facing in your halls of residence. On top of this, the way that your team has dealt with your students, i.e. by manipulating them into signing on to undisclosed non-negotiable terms and conditions for the (bare minimum) discount you have granted is utterly disgraceful. This is, in my opinion, an exploitative method of locking young people into terms they have not even been properly notified of. In fact, it took a number of students to email you asking for these terms, and yet they are still unclear. I am aware that you have continued to offer this discount to students, most recently as a ‘final offer’. It is terrible to even think you would continuously pressure these students into accepting such a dodgy agreement with unspecified, yet “non-negotiable” terms. It has caused many of them undue stress, and is a vulgar attempt to break the momentum of the strike. I am confident that the strike will not back down. I therefore urge you to meet with them and hear their concerns. As far as it seems, you currently do not care for your own students’ welfare by continuing to ignore them and their calls for help. They are struggling under the financial, emotional and academic pressure that your lack of response is causing. I hope you will listen to my concerns on this extremely urgent matter, https://actionnetwork.org/letters/queen-marys-london-stop-evicting-your-students-now