Sanctions and Update

Dear all,

Apologies for all the e-mails recently.

• Council meeting. Council yesterday rejected a last minute compromise and instead put rents up by 13.5% per week for next year. Overall termly bills will rise by 6.5% as we are being kicked out of our rooms a week earlier each term (all figures exclude inflation)

• The Wallach compromise. A last minute deal whereby council would state that it didn't think the bursars report was 'sufficient alone' to make rent policy, rents would go up by less than the bursars' report and we would trust that they were sincere was thrown out by council. They think sanctions will end everything and thus rents can continue to rise regardless of the damage to access.

• The Room Ballot. This will be taking place starting on Friday. We will be organising a boycott. If you are in the second or third year please do not make your room available to be viewed - stickers to put on your door should be available soon. If you are in the first or second year we would strongly urge you not to take advantage of the rest of your year and instead join the boycott. Hopefully hardly anyone will take part in the ballot. We will also be considering ways of preventing the excluded-ballot from taking place at all.

• Bills. Please pay these into the Alliance account. If you have any questions Martin's e-mail is mvl22

• The Future. College believes this will all be over in a week. This may prove to be arrogant presumption. If the threats fail in King's then other colleges that are considering doing similar things will probably think again. We have been though many ups and downs, through about 40hrs of negotiations and many set-backs. But we have stood together in our belief that Cambridge should attract the best, not just the wealthiest. When this all began many people were scared and many didn't think that we would get a big strike. We are the largest strike in any single college ever. Now that we are being threatened it is time to stand together again.

If you have any questions please contact the exec (accessalliance@hotmail.com).

Take care,

Mat