Rent Strike Update

What objections have been raised to College's proposal?

• Their paper made no real concessions (apart from admitting a previous error over heating charges).
• The proposal that 20% of rooms should stay at current prices is problematic - it could create "ghettos" of cheap, low quality rooms for the financially unprivileged.
• It didn't address our key concern - that comparatively high costs will deter many potential applicants.
• No upper limit on rents was proposed - they could rise to £60, £80 or even £200 per week.
• We haven't been given any proper information on how much our accommodation costs to run.
• We don't even know exactly what College think should be included in "costs" - e.g. Porters, gardeners?
• The paper proposed no steps to prevent Cambridge as a whole becoming very expensive and even more elitist.
• Negotiations seem to have been replaced by threats over the room ballot.

Why is the rent strike necessary?

Many potential applicants perceive Cambridge to be socially and financially elitist. If we become comparatively much more expensive than other universities this perception will be confirmed and entrenched.

What will college do now?

• No vote was taken at Council on the college proposal.
• At the moment Council has thus taken no formal decision on the room ballot.
• College may still try to employ some other tactic (rather than negotiating) to break the strike - e.g. fines. They are likely to start getting heavy handed, and we should be prepared for that. As long as we continue to stand together, there is little College can do.

What are our options?

• We need to decide collectively how we would respond to some of the threats mentioned above (e.g. the room ballot). We may need to consider various forms of non co-operation/action - e.g. boycotts or sit-ins. Hopefully though this can be avoided.
• Our aim is to re-open negotiations in order to resolve the dispute and gain a settlement that protects access and is acceptable to College.