Campaigns claim damage of materials and allege room bookings blocked

A number of Rector campaigns have reported numerous disruptions, ranging from the defacement of promotional materials to being blocked from booking venues on campus. The Jordan Peterson for University of Glasgow Rector campaign allege to have been blocked from booking a room on campus and that the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) ignored their requests regarding the format of the hustings.

The Peterson campaign allege that they made a number of attempts to book a room that either went unanswered or were said to be “processing.” Four days after the campaign first requested a room from the SRC for a question and answer session with their candidate, they received a reply reportedly stating: “CTT have gotten back to us and denied this booking as the University won’t allow it […] We do not have any spaces that accommodate what you need.”

The SRC responded to these claims saying; “We contacted CTT about allowing room bookings for candidates. It was decided by university court that no candidate would be allowed to book rooms within the university.”

The Peterson campaign also accuse the SRC of having “completely ignored our requests for clarifying the format of the hustings. We were planning to open with a video recorded by Jordan Peterson, but in the end we had nothing to do but improvise.”

The campaign also alleged that they contacted Glasgow University Student Television (GUST) to organise an interview with Jordan Peterson, but GUST stopped replying to their messages. A spokesperson also claimed that the campaign’s fliers and posters were “ripped down consistently.”

A spokesperson for GUST said: “GUST News is a small operation within the larger body of Glasgow University Student Television, so arranging interviews with all candidates was difficult. Priority was given to candidates who could make it to campus to conduct a sit-down interview. GUST News also spoke to Lady Cosgrove, John Lindburg and Milo Yiannopoulos about conducting interviews remotely. However, due to circumstances or a lack of time these did not come about. Jordan Peterson was also contacted in this drive for interviews. Time differences, technological difficulties and busy schedules meant this interview was delayed, however, it has been released. We refute the statement that dialogue died out, Prof Peterson is one of ten candidates and must understand the strain that many candidates can put on a team headed up by two full-time students.”

Jordan Peterson was scheduled to stream a live Q&A session via YouTube on Sunday at midday, however it was cancelled on the day. A statement posted to the event from the campaign read: “Professor Peterson will be travelling and cannot schedule this session into his day.”

The Milo for Rector campaign were also refused a room booking for a Q&A session in the Queen Margaret Union, as a spokesperson for the QMU stated that it “would have been in breach of our Constitution, Bye-Laws, and Policy to allow it to go ahead.”

Milo’s campaign claim to have had several posters removed or damaged. The Senate have been made aware of this, although they were not informed by any of the campaign members.

The Vince Cable for Rector 2017 campaign report having posters removed and having misleading information spread regarding the campaign, such as the claim that Cable was charging people money to hear his manifesto. The Glasgow University Liberal Democrats ran an event called “Meet next Rector of Glasgow University: Vince Cable”, for which they charged initially £13.33 entry, then £10.09.

The Brace Belden for Rector of Glasgow University campaign report having their posters ripped down or covered up by other campaigns.

The Minister Thomas Hind for University of Glasgow Rector campaign allege to have had their stickers on campus taken down, with some having been replaced by posters for other candidates.

The Aamer Anwar for University of Glasgow Rector campaign allege to have had more than half of their campaign posters removed from campus.

Jonathan “JJ” Tease, Lady Hazel Cosgrove and John Lindberg have reported no campaign disruptions. However, Lindberg is running a paperless campaign and has therefore not printed any promotional materials.