By James Roberts
Cardiff University has denied claims that a ‘working group’ set up to give advice on the upcoming changes to the John Percival building has unanimously resigned in protest over the university’s plans to rip out the top floor of the Arts and Social Sciences Library.
The alleged resignations come during a period of turmoil for Humanities at the University.
As part of a broad ranging set of changes to the university estate, academics in the JP building have been forced into shared offices with up to three occupants.
The move by the university follows the selling of large amounts of real estate, especially in the area around the music school.
An advisory committee had been set up to allow academics to express concerns about the changes.
However, a university source told Gair Rhydd that the working group, resigned earlier this week citing opposition to the changes set to be enacted by The University Executive Board (UEB).
The renovations to the ASSL, which will see a “new teaching and seminar space” built on the second floor of the library, have drawn widespread criticism as they will see the removal of up to 7km of bookshelves, which house not only works on Literature, Philosophy and History, but also the Salisbury Collection.
It was in opposition to what is being seen as an ‘attack on the humanities’, that the committee resigned, the source said.
This comes amid other criticisms levelled at the university by academics such as Lloyd Llewellyn Jones, who described the changes to JP as “the purge”, adding that “my office [is] emptied of books…Empty of students…Empty of Learning. A fitting symbol for Cardiff University sadly”.
Commenting on the claims a university spokesperson said “We believe you are referring to a working group connected to the JP renovations that has disbanded last week. As far as we are aware, this is not linked to the ASSL project”.