It was both a familiar and unfamiliar picture that presented itself on Monday afternoon in the atrium of the University of Zürich. Familiar in the sense that more than a hundred people were gathered at the round tables studying their worksheets, learning vocabulary and engaging in lively discussions. Unusual in that most of them were people who do not normally go in and out of the university.

After the Sechseläutenplatz on Friday, the Autonomous School Zürich used the atrium of the university as a classroom yesterday. Five days after the ASZ had to move out of its old home in Altstetten, it sent out a strong signal for the principle of “education for all” in the hall steeped in history. Around 150 course participants, facilitators and activists demonstrated impressively in the middle of Zurich’s education center that quitting is out of the question for the ASZ.

The ASZ received support from university rector Michael Hengartner, who paid a visit to the temporary classroom. “The city is big. There has to be a place for the autonomous school,” says Hengartner.