The London School of Economics has threatened its students with legal action after they refused to end a sit-in demonstration.
Protesters have camped out in one of the university’s main meeting rooms for nearly two weeks, with a range of demands about privatisation, tuition fees and diversity.
Now, in a long letter to students, the LSE’s deputy director, Stuart Corbridge, has warned: “Your unauthorised occupation cannot continue.
“In the event that the occupation does not immediately end, LSE will have no alternative but to escalate this to legal proceedings.”
One of the protesters, Natalie Fiennes, 23, a postgraduate student, said: “We’re preparing for the police. We’ve had legal training and direct action training. We’re preparing for them to come in in quite a heavy-handed way.
“It will look really bad on the school if they get the police in. It will look terrible because we’ve been so peaceful and our demands are reasonable. But we’ve told them that we’re not leaving until they meet our demands. We will be prepared to compromise a little bit.”
The protesters are occupying the Vera Anstey room in the heart of the university after barricading themselves in using bicycle locks earlier this month. Fiennes said: “We’re disrupting management, which is exactly what we wanted to do. We’re definitely annoying them.”
Their demands include the LSE committing not to raise tuition fees, fairer pay and conditions for university staff and a pledge not to invest in fossil fuels.
Joey Davison, 20, a second-year student, said: “The protest is about opposing the kind of corporatisation we see in the US model of education, and about democratising the university.
“We entered negotiations with them thinking it was going to lead to something positive, but now they’ve turned around and threatened legal action.
“Even though the LSE has a reputation for being a hotbed of political action, everyone is very atomised in their approach. There’s been barely any political activity on campus in the past year.
“We’ve got a no alcohol and no drugs policy, so it’s very tactile and peaceful. All the legal threat has done is solidify people’s opinions about the management.”
Another student taking part in the demonstration admitted she was scared at the prospect of the police turning up, but believed it was just a scare tactic. Noele Audi-Dor, 23, said: “It is scary, but it is also disappointing to see how they’ve reacted. I think it may just be a strategy to scare us and get our demands to be very low.
“It’s been a build up of frustration about how education is being changed. They have pushed us to a point where we thought that occupation was a good tool.”
The threat of legal action could lead to the latest in a series of police interventions in peaceful student demonstrations.
An occupation in Warwick in December lead to accusations of excessive force by police officers who arrested three people, sprayed CS gas and pulled out a Taser. A video of the incident showed chaotic scenes with students screaming and chanting.
In 2013, an MP said students were being persecuted for protesting and criticised heavy-handed policing. John McDonnell, the MP for Hayes and Harlington, said: “It’s outrageous that students exercising their traditional democratic right to protest have been persecuted in this way.”
Although the LSE says the protesters make up a very small proportion of the student population, those at the occupation say they have received a big response.
“Lots of people have been involved,” said Fiennes, who is doing a masters in political sociology. “Most nights there are at least 10 of us here, and we’ve had discussions and workshops where there are up to 100. On the first day, we organised a rally which about 400 people came to.”
An LSE spokesman said: “LSE can confirm that the dialogue with the students occupying the Vera Anstey room is ongoing and continues to be constructive. The school issued a letter to the group on 27 March which, while outlining the strictly legal status of the occupation, does not alter this willingness for constructive exchange.”
The letter to protesters, which was sent on Friday, said the university’s response has so far been “reasonable and proportionate” and that it still hoped for a peaceful resolution and discussions. But it added: “The LSE cannot give disproportionate weight to small groups.”