Warwick Occupy

On Tuesday 19 November 2019, a collective of students known as Warwick Occupy led an occupation of three rooms in Warwick SUHQ for 30 days to protest allegations of institutional racism within Warwick SU. The collective were made up of several liberation groups and societies on campus including Warwick Anti-Racism Society, Warwick Anti-Sexism society, Warwick Pride and Warwick Labour.^[8]

The initial protests that sparked the occupation began when retired Israeli Defense Force Colonel Eyal Dror was invited by the Warwick Jewish Israeli Society and Stand With Us UK to speak on campus. The event took place on 19 November. A statement with more than 250 signatures had called for the cancellation of the event. During the colonel's talk, protestors linked arms and the protest eventually culminated in the occupation of three rooms in the SU headquarters.

Free education

In the Autumn of 2011, Warwick Students' Union passed policy against tuition fees which stated its position in defence of free education.^[9]

In October 2014, a campaign group emerged, called Warwick for Free Education. The group rose to prominence after a sit-in at the University's Senate House was broken up by the police, who had been called in to deal with an assault of a university staff member. The police were accused of using excessive force, and video footage appears to a show a police officer using CS spray on students.^[10] This led to an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.^[11] In July 2015, one protester was found guilty of common assault, while another was found guilty of causing fear and provoking violence.^[12]

In response to his handling of the situation and other issues, Warwick Students' Union passed a Vote of No Confidence against Nigel Thrift, Vice-Chancellor of the University.^[13] A two-hour panel debate was held on the student protests, at which Thrift faced further criticism for calling students yobs.^[14] University Registrar, Ken Sloan, said that Thrift's response was "very human" claiming that Thrift had been victim to a student campaign of targeted intimidation, and had been verbally abused and spat at near his home.^[14] The Warwick for Free Education Campaign group denied any association with such attacks but claimed they "further highlight the widespread dissatisfaction and anger towards Nigel Thrift and his behaviour as VC".^[15]

Fossil fuel divestment

On 8 July 2015, the university committed to divesting from fossil fuels, and placing its investments elsewhere when an opportunity becomes available. This came in the wake of a successful student campaign, and union referendum at which 65% of voters supported divestment. At the time of the decision, the university held no direct investments in any of the 200 largest fossil fuel companies, but did hold indirect investments, which it pledged to eliminate.^[16]

Disaffiliation from, and subsequent reaffiliation to, the National Union of Students (NUS)

In February 2023, the student body voted to leave the National Union of Students in the Spring 2023 All Student Vote, a group of generally binding referenda put forward by students to be voted on by the student body. The primary arguments made for leaving were over allegations of antisemitism within the body and the £30,000/year membership costs.^[17] The vote was 42.1% in favour, with 35.9% voting against and 22% abstaining.^[18]

It subsequently voted to reaffiliate in the Autumn 2023 term's All Student Vote, with the primary arguments for reaffiliating being that the prior vote to disaffiliate "received only 42.1% of votes in favour, with a large proportion (more than 20%) of students abstaining", the fact the NUS was "the formal national body for representing students", that "its lobbying secured £243 million for university hardship funds during the cost of living crisis", that the disaffiliation campaign was heavily criticised for its treatement of Jewish students and the Jewish Society, with the President of the Society calling its treatment of JSoc and Jewish students “reductive and exploitative", and that it had not called for Students Unions to disaffiliate over the findings of the recent antisemitism report.^[19] The vote to reaffiliate passed with higher turnout than previously, an increase of 16.7%, with 64.1% voting in favour, 16.1% voting against and 19.7% abstaining.^[20]