FREE
Fresh meat: the freshers’ week you don’t see pg. 22
Take a copy
Dodgy don plagiarises student’s essay pg. 3
No.914 Friday 29th September 2023 varsity.co.uk The Independent Student Newspaper since 1947
Revealed: College disparities in hardship awards
Sidney in court over access disputes
Felix Armstrong
Disabled student made to feel ‘unsafe’ by college
▲LOUIS ASHWORTH
Hannah Gillott and Erik Olsson A disabled student has accused their College of withholding mail, accessing their private counselling records, and denying them food and hot water in their attempts to evict them. In court documents seen by Varsity, a PhD student at Sidney Sussex College who lives with severe disabilities alleges the College made their life “as difficult as possible” after they filed a complaint. The student believes this pattern of harassment was intended to force them out. The College also filed an eviction notice – which the student has resisted through legal action. The hardship the student faced consisted of continued harassment from senior college officials and the Master, University Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Richard Penty. In an email seen by Varsity, the Head Porter, under instruction from the Senior Tutor, requested that the student’s mail be photocopied and returned to sender. This allegedly went on for over a year without the student being informed. “I thought I was going mad,” they said. “I thought I was incompetent, and
that due to my disability I was giving people my wrong address.” They claim that they were fined for late payments, had to appeal parking tickets they had not seen, and lost employment. “It made me feel unsafe in my home,” they said. The student had to involve the police and finally the seizing of their mail ceased. Sidney Sussex also allegedly attempted to withhold food from the student and deactivated their Camcard until the College apologised in court. They denied them access to the buttery, and when they suffered from Covid-19 in February, they delivered only one meal to their room over the course of three days. They received a pork burger. For religious reasons, they do not eat pork. Three days later, the student was admitted to A&E. According to a doctor’s note seen by Varsity, the student “is in the extremely vulnerable group in relation to Covid.” The student has a severe immunodeficiency which leaves them susceptible to infections. They are treated with regular blood transfusions, the supplies for which they keep in their fridge at college. The student also has a musculoskeletal problem which has left them
with chronic pain syndrome, and causes fatigue. The student also alleges that the Bursar instructed the College Registrar and IT manager to “access [their] private counselling records and emails” with the college chaplain. In an email seen by Varsity, the chaplain confirmed that his emails had been accessed, but told the student he did not know why. The chaplain then instructed that they email via a secure University system. The student alleges the action taken by the College was retaliation for the February Varsity article Sidney Shame, which detailed the accessibility issues at Sidney Sussex. The student maintains they were not involved in the publication of said article. The student submitted a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), an independent regulatory body dealing with data protection, which is ongoing. “This made me feel very unsafe,” they said. “I believe this was part of some misguided attempt to harass and intimidate me, and to gain information for use in litigation.”
Students from colleges with large state school intakes are less likely to receive support from the University’s Hardship Fund, a Varsity investigation has found. Application success rates at colleges such as Lucy Cavendish, Pembroke, Homerton, and Fitzwilliam are significantly lower than at colleges where the privately educated feature more strongly in the student body. The Hardship Fund is a universitylevel scheme under which students can apply for up to £3,500 to address “unforeseen financial difficulties.”
39%
Sidney Sussex also issued a formal eviction notice, which the student has successfully resisted. The student took action after he received the notice on 14 July. They secured a successful injunction against the College in the Cambridge County Court on 3 August (03/08), preventing the college from issuing an eviction notice for the next four months. They allege that after three years in unlawful accommodation, they were given just over a month to find new housing – even though they had already informed Sidney Sussex that they were planning to move out in December. The student provided the College with their doctor’s notes and letters from the national charity representing immune deficient people. They allege they never received a reply from the College. Doctors wrote to Sidney Sussex, advising that due to the complexity of the student’s conditions, eviction would cause “serious physical deterioration.” Nonetheless, Sidney Sussex pressed ahead with their eviction. The college alleges that the student
Varsity’s findings come from a series of Freedom of Information requests made to the University, and cover the applications made for the fund in the 2022/23 academic year. Students from Lucy Cavendish College were the least likely to have their Hardship Fund application approved,
Story continued page 2 ▶
Story continued page 3 ▶
Application success rate at Lucy Cavendish College
65.5% Application success rate at colleges with a state school intake of over 70%
75.1% Application success rate at colleges with a state school intake of below 70%
Inside ● Meet Jack from Jack’s Gelato pg.14 ● Agony aunt answers freshers’ woes pg.21 ● Get raunchy with Vintage Varsity pg. 18