Packed King's Meeting Pledges Strike Action

By Caroline Muspratt and Martha Holmes

  From The Cambridge Student, 21st Oct 1999

OVER 240 STUDENTS at King's College have refused to pay rent. At a packed meeting on Monday night, the students voted to elect officers to the Access Alliance committee. Mat Coakley, King's JCR president who resigned last week over this issue, was unanimously elected to the chair of the committee.

Mr Coakley proposed the motion that "King's rents should be kept to the national ex-London average (as identified by NUS)", which was passed at the meeting. He proposed that the committee vote to accept this year's rent increase but no more after that.

The second motion that "everyone forced to pay the college charge should be given a binding referendum on whether they wish to scrap it and pay fair prices in canteen" was also passed by a majority.

Mr Coakley said, "it is important to be honest with the college, which we have been, but the college is not responding in any way. We don't want special treatment or to be subsidised below the national average, we just want what's fair".

A similar meeting took place at Clare College on Tuesday night. The situation in Clare is that rents have increased by 10 per cent in each of the last three years, but the college have pledged that from now on rises will only follow inflation.

Una Clifford, President of Clare JCR, said: "Negotiations with college haven't started yet. I have no intention of keeping students in the dark, and I don't want rent to go up by an unreasonable amount. I would initiate dialogue with college before we take that step. I think King's is justified in going on strike, but they are in a different situation to Clare".

At a meeting called to discuss an emergency motion at Trinity last night, students gave "massive support" to the campaign. Trinity JCR president Damian Smith said: "This is the biggest voter turn-out that we've had at an open meeting for some time. It goes to show that Trinity is getting active about the issue."

There is to be a protest on Queens' College Backs this Saturday against the rent rises.