Students are currently occupying the decommissioned Owens Park Tower on the Fallowfield campus. The protesting students have occupied the site for one week. The students feel they are not getting a satisfactory university experience because of lockdown conditions.
Speaking to Sky News, Lotte Marley, a first-year student from Sussex said: “Almost everyone on campus caught COVID within the first two weeks.
“This was simply because we were all in close proximity.
Catching the disease was inevitable.
“Isolating for two weeks is really tough for anyone.
“But, it is particularly hard in a tiny flat with people you don’t know.”
Ben McGowan, another first-year student, said: “The fact is that we were told there would be face-to-face teaching and that promise was broken in the first week by university management.
“The university has prioritised profits over student wellbeing.”
The death of a 19-year-old student on this site last month has shaken the student population.
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“The death on campus was tragic but the lack of support from the university has been completely atrocious and terrifying.”
A first-year politics and philosophy student Maya Moodley received support from the university counselling service.
She said: “All my lessons from the start have been online and my counselling has been Zoom calls.
“I feel like I’m not part of the university at all, I never go to campus.
“A big part of why I chose this uni was the vibrant city and I feel like I haven’t had that experience.”
