“Are there too many radicals at Trent?” This was one of the questions posed in the Trent survey distributed earlier this year intended to produce a new marketing image for the university. When thinking of “radicals” at Trent, one cannot help remembering the Trent 8. The Trent 8 occupied the offices of the VP academics in 2001 in protest of the closing of the downtown colleges and the decision-making process at Trent. The administration allowed police in full riot gear to enter the university and break the demonstration.

Four years later, three Trent 8 members have won prestigious Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHCR) scholarships and a fourth member was admitted to some of the top Masters’ programs in education in the country. It seems that, after all, the radicals turned out to be some of the best and most successful students at Trent.

PETERBOROUGH, ON (CUP) – Eight Trent University students have occupied a vice-president’s office demanding that two of university’s colleges not be closed.

The women have occupied the office since 8:30 a.m. Monday, angry over the university’s board of governors’ approval in November 1999 of an application to SuperBuild, that didn’t include a clause preventing the "sale, relocation or closing of any college." In May 2000, Trent was awarded more than $26 million under the SuperBuild program. The university’s two downtown colleges have since been slated for closure.

Vice-president academic Graham Taylor was not in his Lady Eaton College office when the students showed up Monday. The students asked the two staff members who were there to leave, while the students formed a human barricade.

"Everyone asked them politely to go," says fifth-year Trent student Jamie Williams. Students helped the staff retrieve their coats and boots. "They were pretty upset but we’ve tried to accommodate them."

Students formed a human barrier outside the office, standing with arms linked, while a group of students inside the office constructed a sturdy barricade across the office’s only door with desks and padlocked chains.

Trent student Jessica Grillanda says the office occupation comes after 18 months of attempted participation in university governance processes.

"The [board of governors] bears a responsibility for the action that is being taken now," she says.

"This is not particular to Graham [Taylor]," says graduate student Ali Sauer. "We are looking to negotiate before we leave."

The students have said they will occupy the office until their demands are heard.

They include a promise to keep the downtown colleges open, the creation of a committee to look at decision-making at Trent, a referendum on campus advertising and the creation of a policy on campus privatization.

They are also calling for the current administration to recognize its "culpability in the process leading up to these demands and grant legal and academic amnesty to all students in the current protest actions."

Nobody from Taylor’s office would comment on the situation.

Trent President Bonnie Patterson paid the students a brief visit. One protestor addressed Patterson through the glass, saying, "When you’re ready to negotiate you can come back and discuss it with us." Patterson said "Okay" and walked away.

Local television coverage of the occupation featured a statement from Patterson.

"The board has made some decisions and we are proceeding to move forward," she told viewers. "This is a self-appointed group of students that obviously disagree with decisions that have been taken and they’ve chosen to protest in this way. But the demands as they’ve laid them out are not issues of negotiation, they are simply their perspective on issues."

Student association president Derrick McIntosh says the group of students who occupied the office "feels consistently ignored."

"Students have the right to express themselves," says McIntosh.

- with files from Lee Wingett