University College Cork (UCC) has called in an independent mediator ahead of formal discussions this week with the college’s students’ union, as over 100 students continue their occupation of the campus in protest at accommodation rent increases.
Speaking to The University Times this evening, University College Cork Students’ Union (UCCSU) Commercial and Communications Officer David Condon confirmed that talks would take place between UCC and its union by the end of this week with a mediator present.
Condon said bringing in a mediator was “suggested by the management of the university”, as students prepare to spend their eighth night camped in UCC’s historic Quad after a three per cent increase in the cost of the university’s campus accommodation.
“We were able to agree upon an independent third party mediator who we think might be able to facilitate some conversation between us and the campus accommodation”, he said.
UCCSU has vowed to continue its occupation of the Quad until the college rows back on the rent increases and agrees to a rent freeze for three years.
Condon said that “if something that isn’t mutually satisfactory to all can’t be found, we’ll have to re-assess our options at that stage, but we remain committed to our pledge to remain camped in the Quad until we achieve what we set out to achieve”.
UCCSU President Ben Dublea today said in a press statement that while talks are ongoing between UCC and the union, “the student occupation of the Quad will continue, day and night”.
Pádraig Ó Sé, the president of UCC, last week called for a national response to the situation.
On Twitter, Ó Sé wrote that “UCC offers the best high-quality student accommodation in Cork, by keeping rent well below commercial operators”.
“We receive zero State funding to operate, maintain & develop the housing our students so desperately need”, he added.
“We call for a National response to a National issue.”
Today, Provost Patrick Prendergast wrote in an op-ed in the Irish Times that student accommodation “cannot be cross-subsidised by revenues from student fees or research grants”, adding that housing students on campus “has to pay for itself” in order to keep up with demand.
Prendergast hit back at the idea of college-subsidised accommodation for students, writing: “Why should students living in flats or at home subsidise those living in university accommodation?”
