Cambridge, 30th November 2011
Dear Mr Willetts,
We – students of Cambridge University – apologise for the behaviour of the
students who protested at your talk here on Tuesday 22nd November.
Regardless of our views on tuition fees and university reforms, we support
reasoned debate and the right to freedom of speech. We realise that interrupting
talks and “striking” from studying convinces no-one that students value their
education, nor that we deserve it for free.
We value our education. We want full debate over how it should be funded. Some
of us agree with some of the government's reforms to universities; some of us
strongly disagree. But the actions of the protesters were an embarrassment to
students at Cambridge and everywhere.
Please do not take the actions of a handful of protesters as representative of the
majority of students.
We hope you’ll return to Cambridge to engage in meaningful debate on
university funding; students here are interested in what you have to say, and
expect that you are also interested in what we have to say.
________________________
Note:
People need to be convinced that students deserve government subsidy for their
education. The protesters are damaging the very cause they’re fighting for. This
letter is to make it clear to the government – and more importantly the public –
that students are more intelligent, reasonable and mature than the protesters’
actions suggest and that they are actually worth the funding they need.
This letter is not an endorsement of any government policies. It is deliberately
neutral to allow students of all political opinions to sign, and prove that we are
worth engaging with, and that the funding of our education is worth proper
consideration.
__________________________
Signatories – 255 Students of Cambridge University
Anna Stansbury
Joe O’Connor
Caroline Platt
Abeed Mohamed
Karolina Adamkiewicz
Lou Grossick
Olivia Williams
Alex Palmer
Heidi Richardson
Joshua Levy
Peter Gould
Branden Chan
Christopher Stanton
Flick Osborn
Jonathan Gilmour
Joe Clarke
Eve Taschimowitz
Philip Patricha
Nick Baker
Daniel Rogan
Helen West
Henry Charrington
Mark Willis
Simon Allan
Grishma Shanbhag
Mark Salmon
Iona Stevenson
Sarah Regan
Lewis Cannon
Nick Edwards
Katie Humphries
Will Tennent
Nick Harinos
Nick Crawford
Pauline Gillbanks
Shaun Lu
Helena Barman
Adam Nightingale
Jacob Lever
Guy Edmund-Jones
Justin Kempley
Joseph Minchin
Mark Liu
Will Phillips
Christian Roberts
Rahul Patel Mall
Heather Brolly
Felicity Bates
Christopher Montague-Jones
Sophie Odenthal
Will Chaplin
Goylette Chami
Max Thompson
Alison Andrew
Matt Johnson
Brad Hall
Fergus Hamilton
James Cliffe
Alex Garton
Alexandra Bright
Christopher Walsh
Simon Johnson
Alison McFarland
John Kwan
Adrian Potter
James Robinson
Wilfried Genest
Matt Hazell
Oli Munns
Rosie Freeman
Johnathan Alexander Zemlik
Guido Paolini
Tom French
Duncan Maud
Becca Jevons
Michael Armstrong
Sunil Ghosh
David Leigh
Jimmy Liu
Ollie Salvesen
Thomas Bumberger
Anant Bahl
Lucy Makinson
Sarah Thomas
Jolyon Martin
Jack Bartholomew
Jonny Greengrass
Calum Macdonald
Sophie Catt
Charlotte Macleod
Joseph Myer Sanderson
Michael Goodwin
Thomas Li
Jennifer Wall
Florence Curtis
Tomas Kesek
Jamie Crawford
Jess Matthews
Joel Michael Moss
Becky Stephens
Britta Tarvis
Steve Kemp
Helen Thorpe
Viki Green
Katie White
Felix Schaaf
Joe Beecham
Tigran Mankuyan
Chris Ratigan
David Shaw
Rebecca Hann
Zahra Mashhood
Claire Elford
Emily Knuckey
Thomas Harrison
Becky Hadgett
Sophie Barker
Rosie Olliver
Nicholas Gebbett
Camilla Longden
Abbie Lawrence
Chloris Yang Yu
Dave Hodgson
Cameron Lyons
Miranda Bond
Jonathan Rogers
Tom Seddon
Amy Chichester
Charlotte Higgins
Miriam Knights
Andrew Campbell
Saori Obergarten
Helen Woodley
Anton Ozornin
Sean Dingley
Paddy Alton
Lara Davies
Henry Bottomley
Sarah Garland
Daniel Ryan
Rose Beale
Emilia Gyles
John Flesher
Sanjeev Math
Alastair Dawson
Andrew Munro
Richard Smith
Elly Booth
Nicola Daubeney
Tom Jack
Nick Hall
Jayne Broomhall
Matthew Cook
Rick Paul
Jannine Nicholas
Alyssa Catharine Hickson
David Leahy
John Messent
Olivia Rogers
Sam Browne
Jolyon Winter
Tom Lee
Beth Richardson
Fiona Stainer
Hugh Bennett
Vit Huang
Dan Brackenbury
Kathryn Singleton
Niall Bird
Christina Farley
Ed Couzens
Nicolas de Juniac
Pradipta Kumar
Sam Davis
Simon Michael Schulz
Chris McNicol
Callum Wood
Chris Deacon
Adin Samson
John Lindsay
Avital Berger
Chris Lambeth
Gavin Bennison
Harry Sheehan
Flora Harvey
Wenda Zhou
Ruth Glauert
Hannah Barrett
Matt Wood
Sophie Lawson
Matthew Elliot-Ripley
Flo Butler
Emily Jane Newton
Clemens Loeschnauer
Emiliija Emma
Lizzie Hollwey
Christopher Belfield
Carolus Sturge
Bethan Jones
Daniel Fisher
Robert Thomas
Oli Taylor
Dom Weldon
Karen Covey
Mollie Arbuthnot
William Spencer
Alistair Hamilton
Edawrd Turnham
David Stansby
Louise Wilkinson
Mark O’Connor
Aaron Schroeder
Michael Freedman
Tom Jackson
Jenny Crowhurst
Anthony Martnielli
Eddy Ashton
Jess Rae
Michael Goode
Peter Symonds
Grace Murphy
Urte Laukaiyte
James Mottram
Rachael Bloomfield
Alex Bower
Jon Harrison
Tom Smith
Clara Perez Adamson
Waheed Chaudhrey
Leo Davidson
Adrian Woon
Jatinder Sahota
Victoria Ting
Daphne Dijkman
James Moreton Wakeley
Paul Grethe
Jamie Clark
Tim Allen
Ian Leith
Fran Brandon
Lotte Rietveld
Tim Woodman
Becky Stephens
Anna Dougherty
Frances Docx
Christopher Wheelhouse
Jonathan Boeuf
Claire Huxley
Tim Borgas
Clare Williamson
Mikkel Gladhaug
Billy Aldridge
Laura Peatman
Hannah Waxman
Ed Hezlet