Lancaster Uni opens ‘Margaret Fell’ hall despite promoting military
University claiming Quaker heritage has signed Armed Forces Covenant
Lancaster University has named one of its lecture theatres after Quaker Margaret Fell despite recently signing an Armed Forces Covenant, raising questions about its commitment to its Quaker connections.
The hall was named in March 2020 weeks before the university announced its partnership with the military.
Meanwhile, thirteen Friends sent an open letter to the University of Lancaster expressing ‘concern’ that the university which accredits Woodbrooke degrees has signed an Armed Forces Covenant.
One of the signatories and Quaker chaplain at the university, Phil Chandler, told the Friend that the letter was sent to professor Sue Black, pro-vice-chancellor for engagement, and was signed by ‘staff, former staff and students’ from the university.
The letter expressed their ‘concern’ at the ‘disturbing’ news saying: ‘The University claims a certain Quaker heritage, which you yourself referred to in your talk at a recent online Open Day, and Quakers are known for their opposition to “war and the preparation for war”…While the University’s links with Peace and Quaker concerns are manifest in such things as the Richardson Institute and collaborations with Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, if its claim of a Quaker heritage is not to ring hollow, it must have some influence on the University’s actions in the present.’
The letter also states that ‘many in the University community share this opposition, and will have been uncomfortable… We are disturbed that what appears to have started as an initiative to promote access to university places for the children of Armed Forces families has grown into or been presented as something more’.
The letter ends by urging the university to engage in ‘wider consultation’ in future before committing to ‘action or… public pronouncements of an apparent militaristic nature’.
Bailrigg Meeting, which is based at Lancaster University, is planning to have a Business Meeting to consider its response and whether to raise this as a concern for Area Meeting.
Woodbrooke declined to comment on the naming of the lecture hall.