Teviot Row House is the oldest purpose-built student union building in the world.

Edinburgh University Students' Association and the University of Edinburgh want to close it for over a year, exacerbating the strain on the precious few study spaces available at Edinburgh and depriving a whole new cohort of a crucial space in which to gather, socialise, and relax. They want to gut it, removing many of its period features and replacing them with bland, derivative, and ugly ones, stripping it of it's sense of place and making it into another generic University building.

There was no consultation, no vote, no consideration whatsoever of the impact this might have on students. Not even staff were informed before the plans were announced to the public. EUSA and the University expect us just to sit down and take it as they continue to prioritise expensive vanity projects and PR stunts over the student experience. No more! This is the last straw. Teviot is an essential part of thousands of students' social and academic lives, it hosts hundreds of society events, and it provides relatively inexpensive food and alcohol for cash-strapped students and societies. In many ways it is the beating heart of our campus and it cannot be allowed to close for this length of time without massive ramifications.

In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, where some students struggle to afford basic amenities, EUSA wants to take away one of the cheapest options for those students to socialise and study.

Instead of paying its staff, the University is focused on costly and pointless vanity projects, so it can cultivate the optics of a student experience.

In the midst of a loneliness epidemic, EUSA wants to take away a key space for students to mix and form bonds with other students.

Both are intent on continuing their relentless campaigns against the character and charm which makes this campus so attractive to prospective students in the first place.

The building can be updated to have better disabled access without closing it for a year. If subtle restoration is required it can happen incrementally, space by space, without closing the whole building and depriving us of this essential organ of student life.

It is incumbent on us as as custodians of this magnificent building to preserve it and ensure that future generations get from it the same benefit that we have. We must therefore do everything in our power to defend it from the cynical, bland, corporate interests that seek to destroy it.