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Lecturers write to uni against chalk graffiti conviction

Instructions on how to remove chalk from a surface with "gentle circular motions" will be attached to the open letter

University of London (UoL) lecturers will send a letter to bosses today in protest at the criminalisation of students who chalked slogans on campus.

Sponges, wash clothes and instructions on how to remove chalk from a surface with "gentle circular motions" will be attached to the open letter.

It reads: "Hearing that you had recently experienced some trouble involving chalk marks being made on your foundation stone, we pooled our collective knowledge and, after many strenuous hours of discussion, came up with what we humbly submit is the best possible solution to your problem."

The letter closed by suggesting that indicting and victimising students for something as absurd as putting chalk on stone is "a needlessly vindictive and wholly disproportionate attempt to suppress campus protest and intimidate any who might consider engaging in it."

Last month one of the students arrested for chalking UoL buildings was tried and found guilty of criminal damage. Konstancja Duff was told to pay over £1,000 in costs.

The protest comes after UoL lecturers and students united yesterday at a talk on police attacks on student activists.

Police involvement in the marketisation of modern universities was exposed at the School of Oriental and African Studies meeting.

Student victim of extreme police violence Alfie Meadows, as well as Protest Handbook author Tom Wainwright and lecturers Priyamvada Gopal and Nadine el-Enany, spoke in support of the Cops Off Campus campaign.

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