The university of Leeds senior leadership team is unilaterally throwing students out of the homebase of the Marjorie and Arnold Ziff Building, we the undersigned, urge the Vice chancellor and their officers to reverse this harmful decision. 

Underrepresented groups, within the top performing universities in Britain, have always been marginalised and this is due to get worse. The Lifelong Learning Centre work with a significant percentage of disabled, mature, disadvantaged, and ethnic minority students (greater than the wider university community) providing a ‘physical’ home for them. The University claim they are trying to widen participation from diverse backgrounds, yet those of us who have fought the system so far are not being listened to. The Marjorie and Arnold Ziff building, on one floor alone, is home to the Lifelong Learning Centre (LLC), who support mature students, foundation year students, apprenticeship students (approx. 550 students), plus a further 3000+ wider community of mature students, including postgraduates and a resource room. The support system provided by the LLC and other departments located in the building have been a lifeline to so many of us. They truly are the only people who provide us with some sense of belonging on campus. We use this space as students to carry out work in a safe environment as our student community has larger issues with belonging and representation (an already marginalised group, who enter university education through non-traditional routes). Our groups therefore do not traditionally feel ‘at home’ in the other spaces across campus.  

As of the end of April 2023 this will no longer be the case. The staff are to be segregated from the students. Students will be expected to frequent a dilapidated and un-resourced building that is only partially accessible. Yet mature students represent the highest proportion of disabled students. The decision has been made without consultation of the students and staff affected. The University of Leeds does not respect the marginalised groups that it “has to take on” to not break the law. It is only concerned with its image and not the students who pay the Vice-Chancellors wages. The proposed reason for this change is because the University Executive team feel unsafe with on-site protests and occupations. If this is truly the reason, then there is a misunderstanding of free speech and what a university campus represents. Protests have been a significant part of university life for many decades now.

We are sure that it would be more resourceful for the University Exec team to inhabit an office with additional security than lock down a whole building for their pleasure. The displacement of 3000+ students for the safety of less than 20 people is illogical, unresourceful and represents a complete lack of regard for the services the build offers.