University management are proposing to make 115 staff redundancies, in addition to other cuts across the university, summarised as follows:

• Redundancies in the schools of Life Sciences, Informatics, English, Engineering & Design, Informatics, the Centre for Continuing Education, and History
• Redundancies or reduced staffing levels in the Library, IT Services, lab technicians, portering and catering
• Cuts to the students' union annual funding
• Closure of Unisex, the sexual health and drug/alcohol awareness service
• Redundancy for 11 out of 16 of the university's student advisers
• Closure of the subsidised childcare service
• Closure of Inqbate, a pioneering high-tech learning space

These short-sighted proposals will hit students hard, taking away services students rely on in times of need, closing many important courses and undermining the quality of those that remain. Access to money, welfare and academic advice will be severely restricted, and students and staff will no longer have subsidised access to childcare. It is hard to imagine cuts that would have a more devastating impact in students' welfare and on standards of teaching and research at Sussex.

In addition the Students' Union is threatened by a 5% cut to our annual funding from the University. Without proper financial support we will be unable to provide the level of services that students need.

University management have indicated that this is only the first round of cuts, with another major proposal to be announced in the first three months of 2010.

The Vice-Chancellor claims the cuts are unavoidable given reductions in government funding. However this hasn't stopped pay rises for senior management, with the latest increases bringing the Vice-Chancellor's salary to £227,000. There are now more senior managers on six-figure salaries than ever before, with the wage bill for the twenty top paid staff exceeding £2.6 million. Meanwhile millions of pounds are being spent on a new buildings programme designed to project a good brand image to prospective students.

Although USSU welcomes improvements to learning facilities on campus, it is staff who are the University's most valuable asset. The University should be focussing on achieving a good reputation on the basis of academic excellence, not just buildings that look good in a prospectus.

University management say the changes are about creating a sustainable future for Sussex, but the vision proposed by the Vice-Chancellor will ultimately only lead to more cuts. We are opposed to a university funded increasingly by corporate research contracts, as this would leave us even more vulnerable to market forces, not to mention further away from the University's purpose as an academic institution. Sustainability will only be achieved by resisting these attacks on our education.

The 'consultation' promised by University management is a sham, as they have made clear to union officers that they are not prepared to negotiate over the principle of staff cuts, only the details of how
they are implemented.

We need to demand a change in direction that serves the interests of students and staff. At a time when all public services are under threat, it is more crucial than ever that we stop these attacks on
Higher Education, to send a message to the government that we will not accept cuts to public services. Sussex staff and students have fought back successfully against bad management proposals in the past, such as in the 2006 campaign to save Chemistry, and that is a success we
intend to repeat. By defeating these proposals locally and by working with students' unions around the country we can put real pressure on government to increase investment in universities.

USSU fully supports the staff-student Stop the Cuts campaign and we look forward to participating in a joint campaign with the campus trade unions towards these aims. We will in due course be announcing further measures to put pressure on University management to maintain staffing levels, subject to decisions made by students through the Union's democratic processes.

We urge all students and staff to make every effort to attend the Stop the Cuts demonstration outside Senate, the University's academic governing body, on Thursday 3rd December, assembling in Library Square at 9.30am. To receive updates or get involved the campaign send an email to sussexstopthecuts@gmail.com.

Facebook - Sussex Stop the Cuts group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=209057155759

Defend Sussex blog:
http://defendsussex.wordpress.com/

On behalf of USSU,

Tom Wills
President, University of Sussex Students' Union
Email: president@ussu.sussex.ac.uk
Web: http://www.ussu.info