University senior management have recently announced their "Investing in Excellence" paper, which contains a number of controversial proposals.

If you are concerned about any part of the paper, you may find some of the resources on this page useful.

This page will be updated as more information becomes available.

Chemistry Department 'refocus'
The big news has undoubtedly been the effective closure of the Department of Chemistry, a department with international reputation.

Click here to download a pdf file of a petition of no confidence in the Dean of the School of Life Sciences.

Click here to download the special edition of the badger, which covered the closure, released on Tuesday 14th March.

Submit a letter to the decision-makers
Remember, "Investing in Excellence" is still just a proposal - it needs to be approved by the University's Senate, the highest academic decision-making body in the University. It is made up of staff from across the university. If you click here, you will download a word document containing a letter that you can print out and sign to give to Senators before Friday's meeting.

Perhaps you'd like to send a letter to your LEA? click here to download a model written by Chemistry students!

Emails to decision-makers
You may want to consider emailing the decision makers to express your concerns with the 'investment in excellence' paper. Click here for advice on what to discuss when contacting people.

To contact key members of the Strategic Resources Committee, where this document was last approved, use the email addresses below:
vc@sussex.ac.uk, A.L.Moore@sussex.ac.uk, Registrar@sussex.ac.uk, J.P.Bacon@sussex.ac.uk

Also, as this paper is to be presented to Senate (the highest academic decision-making committee) on Friday, you may wish to email Senate members. If you send your emails to USSU President, Roger Hylton, he will present them all to Senate on Friday.

What to put in your responses

At a recent meeting it was discussed that each of us have different stories about how this paper will affect us, and it's really important that decision makers are aware of these issues. But if you would like to include any other information, you may find the list below is a useful aid.

• Chemistry at Sussex is nationally renowned, having produced three Nobel Prize winners, two of which, including Sir Harry Kroto, are still active
  
• Chemistry is one of the few money-making departments at Sussex and generates 50% of the University’s entire Intellectual Property (IP) income
  
• Chemistry applications are up 40% from last year, and if the pure Chemistry degree were continued, should expect 40-60 first year undergraduates in 2006/07
  
• 6 Chemistry faculty have left in the last 2 years, due to the refusal of the University to adequately support their teaching and research
  
• Chemical Biology is much less popular than Chemistry (15 applicants compared to 348), and the quality of applicants in terms of predicted ‘A’ level grades is far lower. Some of the applicants to Chemical Biology had to be rejected as they would not be qualified enough to cope with the course
  
• At Exeter, where the Chemistry department was closed and replaced by Chemical Biology, applications plummeted and the course was discontinued after 2 years
  
• At no point were Chemistry faculty consulted about the proposal; they were only informed of the proposed changes AFTER the Strategy and Resources Committee (SRC) approved them
  
• Current students were informed on Friday after the media became involved, AFTER the University had emailed prospective students to tell them not to accept Sussex as their firm choice
  
• This flies in the face of the transparency and involvement in decision making that the Students’ Union were promised in the University’s response to the Sort US Out submission: they have lied to our faces
  
• Chemistry has borne the brunt of the effects but the proposals also aim to scale down other important areas of study, including the Centre for Continuing Education (CCE), which offers part-time degrees, non-degree level and ‘open’ courses which are vital for fulfilling the University’s widening participation requirements