Occupiers of the Hicks Building are accusing University staff of locking their personal belongings in a room and refusing to return them unless students show ID.
Students have now received their belongings after an afternoon-long standoff with security. ID was required to retrieve personal items.
A protester at one of the occupations on campus said: “[Security] are claiming the property that is very clearly ours, they locked it in a lecture theatre we were sleeping in.
“They’re claiming it’s lost property.”
The request for ID from people retrieving belongings has raised concern amongst protestors that the University was aiming to put academic sanctions on identified students, though this has not been confirmed.
Students have managed to set up occupations of five University buildings since the beginning of the UCU strikes.
The Diamond, Jessop West, Firth Court, Hicks Building and Arts Tower have all been occupied this week.
The Sheffield Rent Strike team are demanding the University of Sheffield support the University and College Unions demands and that the University’s Archeology department not be closed.
The UCU are striking on the grounds of pay, conditions, pensions and, specifically in Sheffield, against the closure of the Archeology department.
Representatives from Sheffield UCU said: “These actions by university management are aggressively punitive and hostile towards the students engaged in this occupation.
“The decision to separate students from their property by locking a door was a deliberate one, and to treat it as “lost property” and require students to provide ID to reclaim it is an overtly threatening move on the part of management.”
The University of Sheffield has been approached for comment.
