College JCRs and CUSU were this morning scrambling to decide their policies concerning the Occupation by Cambridge Defend Education (CDE) of Lady Mitchell Hall on the Sidgwick Site.

The Occupation, which began after protesters interrupted a speech by David Willetts and forced him from the stage, today continued into its fourth day.

Early yesterday morning Jimmy Murray, CUSU Chair, sent an email confirming that CUSU Council would debate a motion which proposed that CUSU would “condemn the actions which prevented students hearing and questioning David Willetts”.

The motion also called for CUSU to disassociate from CDE, to reaffirm both their commitment to fighting against the government cuts in higher education and their commitment to academic freedom and freedom of speech.

The motion was at that time signed by 31 representatives from 15 JCRs, and these are expected to be joined by many more. It will be debated at an extraordinary meeting of CUSU Council on Saturday.

Last night CUSU President Gerard Tully said that the strength and depth of feeling in JCRs on both sides of thedebate is one he’d never seen before. Tully told Varsity that CUSU will not have any official policy until Saturday’s meeting.

CUSU is yet to take any stance on the Occupation.

On Tuesday night Ben Russell and Hannah Capek, President and Vice-President of Trinity Hall JCR, sent an email to Presidents of other JCRs, which said that they were “really rather angry” about the protest, which they believed had obstructed freedom of speech.

They also alleged that CDE had lied to members of CUSU council after “explicitly stat[ing] that they would not prevent Willetts from speaking.”

However, at an open meeting of King’s College Student Union last night representatives from CDE argued that since the organising meeting for the protest took place before and during the meeting of CUSU Council, Chris Page – who proposed the motion – could not have known that the action was going to take place.

Yesterday saw a group of protestors gather outside the Law Faculty to protest against the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove.

Gove gave a talk at the faculty as part of a ecture series on ‘The Meaning of Liberal Learning’.