KCSU is a campaigning organisation. We campaign on issues that affect students and our college community. Below are details of the campaigns we are currently running. If you’d like to get involved in any of them or have any suggestions of other things we should campaign for, get in touch with Ceylon (President) or Amy (Vice President).
Student Living Costs
KCSU believes that nobody should be excluded from college life due to high living costs. We campaign to ensure that student living costs remain at an acceptable level. This means opposing unfair rent increases while also arguing for a better deal on food and bar prices.
The Living Costs Working Group has been mandated to coordinate KCSU’s response to unaffordable living costs. After a survey of KCSU members’ thoughts on the matter, the working group presented a paper which KCSU sent to the College Council.
We’ll also fight to ensure that student support, in the form of grants and bursaries, is maintained.
Eleni and Gabriel (Pres & Vice Pres) will be making these arguments to the college Council and in other meetings with college officials. But we need the whole student body to get involved in this crucial issue.
Living Wage Campaign
The Living Wage Campaign is a national campaign to encourage employers to pay their employees a decent wage. The Living Wage is an hourly rate set independently and updated annually. It is calculated according to the basic cost of living in the UK and is currently £7.85 per hour. You can find out more information about the campaign here.
KCSU has been running a campaign to encourage the College to pay all staff the Living Wage since 2013. King’s is a large college that simply could not function without the hard work of its cleaners, catering staff, porters, maintenance staff, gardeners, and many others. We believe that they all deserve a decent wage that allows them to live rather than just survive.
KCSU runs a Living Wage working group that meets regularly to run the campaign and coordinate its actions. Although the campaign has had some notable successes, including the College Council agreeing to consider the living wage when deciding staff pay, there is still more to be done. We would like to see King’s move towards Living Wage accreditation to ensure that all college staff are paid the Living Wage on a permanent basis.
In the coming year we’ll stepping up our efforts to get this done; get involved!
Ethical Investment
TBC
Student Spaces
There is an exciting opportunity coming up for students to have a major say in what our bar, common rooms & coffee shop look like. Watch this space for more information in Michaelmas 2016.