TO UNIVERSITY of Southampton vice chancellor, Christopher Snowden

Ahead of the impending strikes, I wish to make it abundantly clear that my full support lies with the University of Southampton's striking lecturers.

Blame for this issue lies with the university's management, not academic staff.

As a student at this university, I would strongly urge you to reconsider your stance on this matter and cancel the proposed 20-40% cut in lecturer pensions.

It is senseless that such cuts to the university's most vital assets are being chosen, given that the institution currently has tens of thousands of students enrolled on its courses, most of whom pay high fees for this service.

The student body condemns your decision to cut lecturers' pensions.

To do so while your paycheck is so grotesquely lavish in comparison is an abuse of your position to the highest degree.

What is more, it is an outright affront that lecturers face their pay being docked by 25% on the days they work to contract during the strike.

I feel that by attempting to quell their democratic and justified protests, you have only strengthened their resolve and added impetus to their cause.

Students shall feel the effect of this pay-docking too, given that the money deducted from striking lecturers is no longer funnelled into the student hardship fund - a policy enacted under your tenure.

Is it not clear to you that these cuts will demoralise university staff in the short term, and negatively affect the University of Southampton's ability to attract talented lecturers in the long term?

Your unchecked greed is on course to engender totally unjustified negative consequences. If you cannot see this, then your position has become untenable.

Since tuition fees were raised to £9,000, senior management pay has skyrocketed1, while student satisfaction levels have stagnated and lecturer pay is now falling.

You are indebted to the hardworking lecturers whom you employ, and to the students whose tuition fees line the pockets of you and your chums. It is imperative that you not forget this.

The right course of action is clear: cancel the cuts. Do the honourable thing and return the obscenely disproportionate pay of the university's management level to a sensible, fair rate.

This includes your own. A good start might be to give back the extra £80,000 you rewarded yourself with last year, while simultaneously deciding to axe 75 academic jobs.

My personal suggestion would be to lower your annual salary to no more than £150,000, a generous sum by anybody's standards.

I would be interested to hear your reasoning as to why you deserve higher.

It is difficult to have any faith in the conscience of a man who decided that his own paycheck should resemble a taxi company's phone number, but perhaps you will prove me wrong.

Do the right thing: cancel the cuts.

Elliot Smith

Southampton