Cardiff students required to show ID cards to enter campus building due to encampment

Cardiff University students will need to show their student IDs if they wish to enter the Main Building.

The news was announced in a message from vice-chancellor, Professor Wendy Larner on the student intranet following a pro-Palestine encampment being set up on the building’s driveway.

Professor Larner said the new security measure was introduced so that staff and students could be “free from harassment” and feel safe on campus.

She continued by saying university staff are monitoring the situation and are working to minimise any disruption.

The email also outlined that the front entrance on Horseshoe Drive will not be open, and that students must enter the Main Building via Park Place.

The vice chancellor closed off the communication by affirming that the university supports “the right to take part in lawful, peaceful and respectful protest”.

This comes as the encampment composing of numerous tents was set up on Monday on Horseshoe Drive, the semi-circular driveway at the front of the Main Building. Protestors have also laid out banners and signs showing support for Palestine on the building’s front lawn.

One student inside the Main Building when the encampment was set up told The Tab that security asked them to stay away from the doors, and that if they left the building, they wouldn’t have been allowed back in.

She said: “They’ve locked the front gates and told us to go out the back entrance. When we got to the back entrance, we were told we weren’t allowed to stand near the doors because they stay open and that if we left we wouldn’t be allowed back in.”

The set up of the encampment followed a protest that took place outside the CSL and ended on the Main Building’s lawn.

One of the groups organising the encampment, Cymru Students For Palestine has outlined four demands to Welsh universities.

These are for universities to “disclose their accounts and maintain full transparency in their investments and donations”, reject companies that are “active in the genocide”, and invest in Palestinian educational programmes.

Finally, it is asking universities “to support Palestinian students and faculty who have suffered as a result of the genocide, and protect students and faculty who hold or act upon pro-Palestinian beliefs”.

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