Cambridge vote to ban military at freshers’ fair

Freshers’ fair is no place for recruitment, says students’ union as they vote to ban firearms and servicemen

Having military personnel and weapons on display at freshers’ fairs is “alarming” for students and could affect their mental health, according to Cambridge University Students’ Union, which has voted in favour of a ban on military societies bringing along firearms to display. A motion brought by Stella Swain, the union’s welfare and rights officer, stated that the presence of military personnel and firearms at the fairs gave “implicit approval of their use”.

By Camilla Turner EDUCATION EDITOR

and Claudia Rowan

CAMBRIDGE University Students’ Union has said having military personnel at a freshers’ fair is “alarming” for attendees and could “detrimentally affect” their mental health.

Students have voted to ban any societies from bringing firearms along to the fair after Stella Swain, the welfare and rights officer, argued that some people may find them “triggering”.

The motion stated that the presence of firearms and military personnel showed “implicit approval of their use, despite the links between military and firearms and violence on an international scale”.

Ms Swain, who proposed the motion, said the union there had previously committed to supporting efforts to “demilitarise” the university, and the freshers’ fair should not be a place for “military organisations to recruit”.

The motion said: “The presence of firearms and military personnel at freshers’ fair is alarming and off-putting for some students, and has the potential to detrimentally affect students’ mental welfare.”

Col Richard Kemp, the former commander of the British Forces in Afghanistan, called the motion “pathetic, to say the very least”. He added: “I would suggest this is nothing to do with the military as such. It is just yet another effort, as we have seen in so many of these student motions at various universities, to undermine British society.

“Without the Armed Forces these students wouldn’t be able to study. They are only able to because the country has been protected and defended by the British Army. Many students from Cambridge University fought and died in the Armed Forces and for our country. Students should have more respect for those who went before them, who made the ultimate sacrifice to allow them to study in freedom.”

James Palmer, the mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, described the motion as “ridiculous”. He said: “This kind of attitude is quite bizarre to normal working people who have no understanding of how you can behave in this way. I look at some of the things put through and I really just think they are so far removed from the lives of the people I represent. The point is that they are forcing their views on other people and the lack of tolerance among the supposedly tolerant.”

Three student societies – the Cambridge University Officer Training Corps (CUOTC), the Cambridge University Royal Naval Unit and the Cambridge University Air Squadron – receive some Ministry of Defence funding.

Ben Hodgkinson-toay, an engineering finalist at Cambridge and platoon commander at CUOTC, said the motion was an “unfair attack” on students who chose to join these societies.

He said the societies largely organised non-military outdoor pursuits such as hill walking and mountaineering, and no one was compelled to join the military after graduating. In 2018, CUSU voted against promoting Remembrance

Sunday, amid fears about the “glorification” of conflict.

The motion called on the university to be “more proactive in promoting the cause of Remembrance”. This could include asking for a minute’s silence on Remembrance Sunday or sending reminders to students about the availability of poppies, the motion said. It encouraged the commemoration of UK veterans, adding that CUSU should “ensure Remembrance Sunday becomes a well-established and wellmarked event across the university”.

But the motion was rejected, and an amendment voted through that noted the efforts of various organisations to “reshape remembrance away from glorification and valorisation of war” and to campaign “against militarism”.

Another vote is required before the firearms motion can be enforced.