Alice Evans · @_alice_evans
8th Feb 2018 from TwitLonger
"Why I'm striking, & what you can do" - a letter to my students
Dear all,
Many have asked about the upcoming wave of strikes.
I find this subject very difficult, because I love teaching, and hugely support your learning. We've had such wonderfully productive sessions. So many fascinating ideas, and critical questions.
However, lecturers are now striking because USS is making our pensions much riskier and smaller. We stand to lose £10'000 every single year. This is really scary for us.
We have tried to reason but they have not listened. So now we are forced to strike for 14 days. We are supported by the National Union of Students.
Lecturers and students will be protesting outside KCL, taking adversarial action, to discourage anyone from entering the building.
Obviously, this will make it hard to study and prepare for the essays. As part of this industrial action, I have removed all the learning content from KEATS for these weeks. There will be no office hours to help anyone catch up. But essays will still be set on these subjects, and marked as usual.
As students, you have the power to complain, to push KCL to stop the strikes and protect our pensions. See here: https://www.ucu.org.uk/studentvoice and: https://www.ucu.org.uk/student-uss-information
I am so sorry that you are being hurt, despite the huge fees you all pay. There is only one way to stop this. And you have the power to do that.
Best wishes,
Alice