Banned from UCL Union

Imperial students were banned from the University College London Union (UCLU) following accusations of criminal damage and theft by Medics RAG during their Circle Line Pub Crawl.

The ban came to light on Saturday 2 February when a group of Imperial students were turned away from the UCLU, located on Gordon Street, close to Euston train station. The students were told that the ban was the result of the actions of another group of some 30 students who had come in the previous night.

In a comment given to Felix Sam Gaus, Democracy and Communications Officer at UCLU, said: “Some students in Imperial RAG t-shirts were found having stolen something from the UCLU on Friday night. Our Commercial Services Manager is the license holder and so has the ability to ban people from entering the premises at his discretion. He decided that until he could talk to the Full-Time Officers on Monday, he would ban Imperial students from entering the premises over the weekend as a result of the theft.” He added that while “Imperial students are now allowed back in the bar, ... the two students who stole the items are still banned from the bars”.

The nature of the items has not been disclosed but it is known that they were stolen from UCL medical students. The Imperial students were wearing Raising and Giving (RAG) t-shirts and have been confirmed to be from ICSMSU RAG and not ICU RAG, which are separate. They appeared to be taking part in the Imperial College School of Medicine Student Union’s (ICSMSU) Circle Line Pub Crawl on Friday 1 February. The Pub Crawl is an annual charity fundraising event which finishes off ICSMSU’s RAG week. The UCLU bar, however, was not one of the official destinations.

Shoaib Rivizi, the ICSMSU RAG Chair, expressed disappointment at the behaviour of the Imperial students, saying: “I think it is important to point out that neither ICSM RAG nor ICSMSU condone theft or vandalism. Everyone taking part in our events is aware of the negative effects that this kind of behaviour could bring to Imperial, the medical school and the charity we are collecting for.” However, he also stressed that ICSMSU “never asked or even encouraged anyone to go to the UCL Union and it was not one of the assigned pubs on our circle line route”, adding that while “RAG has organized the collect, [it] cannot be accountable for the actions of two irresponsible students acting out of their own accord”. Furthermore “ RAG t shirts ... were bought by medics and non medics, so [it] cannot be certain that [those involved] are part of the medical school”.

While neither ICSMSU nor the central Union have receivedany formal complaint from UCLU the ICSMSU plans to fully investigate the incident when its President, Shiv Vohra, returns from annual leave later this month.