Email the Vice-Chancellor
The best way to make your voice heard is to email the university Vice-Chancellor, Karen O’Brien, at vice.chancellor@durham.ac.uk .
You can get a pre-composed email with some suggested text – make sure you add your own name, and feel free to make your own adjustments to reflect your feelings!
Or there’s a pre-composed email for families and friends of offer-holders.
Or if you can, write your own email to express your feelings on the cuts to staff working conditions, and how these affect you as a prospective student. Be creative!
Sign the Petition
You can also sign the petition and join Durham students in supporting the strike.
Why are staff striking?
Dear Open Day student,
Today staff at Durham who are members of the local University and College Union are on strike. We are on strike about massive cuts to our pensions, poor pay and working conditions, and inequalities at work.
We love our students and we love working here, but right now the way universities across the country are being managed is damaging staff and students alike. We want you to come to Durham next year, but we need you to know that the senior management of this university are not listening to their staff.
Staff in UCU have always supported student struggles, most recently the protests about events at South College. Together staff and students make this university an exciting place to live, learn and work. We want you to be part of that.
But we need to send a clear message to the senior management of the university that they have to listen to their staff and not ignore us and slash our pay, pensions and working conditions.
Student learning conditions are staff working conditions and vice versa.
Want to help? The most important thing you can do is contact the Vice Chancellor using the details below. Tell her that she needs to listen to staff and negotiate honestly and meaningfully so we can get back to teaching, learning and supporting a university we can all be proud of.
– Durham University Staff