King's College London Students' Union

King's College London Students' Union (KCLSU)

Institution	King's College London
Location	London, WC2
Established	1873 as the Union Society of King's College, London [1] 1908 as KCLSU[1]
President	Momin Saqib
Vice presidents	Tayyaba Rafiq, Rahma Hussain, Imaan Ashraf, Yousef El-T, Mahamed Abdullahi
Members	c. 36,000
Affiliations	National Union of Students Aldwych Group National Postgraduate Committee
Mascot	Reggie the Lion
Website	www.kclsu.org

King's College London Students' Union (KCLSU) is the oldest students' union in England. KCLSU is an independent charitable organisation^[2] existing solely to further the interests of its members (approximately 36,000 students^[3] at King's College London) and govern over the more than 300 student societies and activity groups at King's.^[4]

The Strategic Plan that defines the mission of KCLSU is "together we are a union of students where individuals connect, have fun, build communities, share experiences and make change".^[5]

History

Sir Ivison Macadam, KCLSU President in 1922 and became the Founding President of the UK's National Union of Students

KCLSU took over from what was then the Union Society of King's College. The latter had a common room in the Chesham Building on Surrey Street since 1873 but was running into financial difficulties.^[6] With the College Council agreeing that every student should support the Union, a sum was collected from the student fees effectively re-establishing the Union in 1905.^[7] The new KCLSU eventually took over the organisation of the King's College students' social activities and the athletics club,^[1] having been formally established at a general meeting of King's students held on 4 December 1908.^[8]

The first president was F. Hanson and for a number of years, it remained an all-male organisation until the arrival of female students in 1915. The most famous President of KCLSU was Sir Ivison Macadam who governed in 1922 and became the first President of the newly merged National Union of Students.^[1] An early honour board in the main building dates from 1908 with the name of the first President of the KCLSU.

Following the various mergers and de-mergers of colleges in the University of London with King's, many collegiate students' unions records have either been misplaced or are possibly stored in the King's archives.

Mascot

Reggie the Lion

KCLSU's official mascot is Reggie the Lion. In his early years, he would often be paraded on sports grounds by teams to support matches. There are at least four official "Reggies" in existence: the original, on display in KCLSU's Student Centre at the Strand Campus, a papier-mâché Reggie outside the Great Hall at the Strand Campus (pictured), a miniature display Reggie outside Willie's Common Room in the East Wing of Somerset House, and a small sterling silver incarnation displayed during graduation ceremonies. In 2003-04 he celebrated his 80th birthday, which was celebrated by a reunion of students' union officers from years past. In September 2009 the crown from the papier-mâché Reggie in the Strand Campus was stolen by first year Medical students from RUMS and is now housed in the bar of the Huntley Street Union.

Being such an easily liftable mascot that was often seen in public, Reggie was an obvious target for marauding students from other institutions. In the 1970s, Reggie was buried upside-down in a pit near Waterloo station, which was filled with concrete; the tip of his tail remained visible. Later, he was lost for many years in the 1990s, and not recovered until he was found in a field. Having been restored at the cost of around £15,000, Reggie has been placed on display in a glass case in the "Lion's Walk", Macadam Building (Strand campus) in 2002, after being filled with concrete to prevent theft, particularly by University College London (UCL) students who, prior to his burial and dumping, had also castrated him. (King's students had also stolen one UCL mascot, Phineas and, in an apocryphal legend, allegedly played football with the head of another, Jeremy Bentham).

Reggie is often styled His Royal Highness, but there is no recent policy on the matter, and this convention has fallen into disuse as mascotry in London has declined.

Student media

KCLSU Student Media won Student Media of the Year 2014 at the Ents Forum awards^[9] and came in the top three student media outlets in the country at the NUS Awards 2014.^[10]

Roar! News is the multi-award winning tabloid for students at King's College London and is owned and funded by KCLSU. In 2014 it had a successful awards season, scooping several national awards and commendations. It is editorially independent of both the university and the students' union^[11] and its award winning website^[12] is read by tens of thousands of people per month in over 100 countries.^[13]

KCL Radio is the SRA award winning^[14] Student Radio Station run by and for King's students, currently podcasting weekly and live streaming special events.

Services and facilities

The Waterfront in the Macadam Building (Strand campus)

The primary role of KCLSU is to provide student representation and advocacy. The Academic Advice service provides much of the individual advice and representation to students regarding academic issues and misconduct, while the democratic structures - which are made up of the elected Student Council (which includes Liberation Officers), and full-time Student Officers, who take a sabbatical year to work - enable the Union as a whole to express an opinion on almost any matter. However, like other students' unions, KCLSU does not affiliate to any political party or religious group.

KCLSU also provides almost all the sports clubs, societies and volunteering opportunities available at King's with over 50 sports clubs, 150 societies and thriving student-led Community Engagement and volunteering projects. In 2003-04, King's came top in the University of London Union overall sporting leagues and the medical school (which, like others, are permitted their own, separate teams) came third, showing the dedication to sporting excellence in London.

In recent years, KCLSU has waxed and waned as a service provider as the numbers of students at King's increased due to the various mergers of different colleges, but also as the spending profile of students has changed with the introduction of tuition fees in 1997, a drive towards a healthier lifestyle and now with the introduction of top-up fees in 2006-07. Following the closure of the student bar at St Thomas' Hospital in 2005 due to Health and Safety reasons, KCLSU currently operates two bars, over 5 rooms of indoor Student Activity Space, the King's shop, and a gym.

In October 2005, KCLSU was awarded the Investors in People standard. In January 2006, due to increased student concern for the global community, KCLSU took its two-year Fairtrade University campaign as a major priority. In March 2006, the Fairtrade Foundation awarded King's College London Fairtrade University status.

Venues

KCLSU offers students two venues: The Waterfront bar in the Macadam Building at the Strand campus and Guy's Bar at Boland House at Guy's Campus at London Bridge. These establishments offer students social interaction at wallet-friendly prices. Former nightclub. Tutu's has hosted multiple artists over the years such as: The Vaccines, HAIM, Feist, Alanis Morissette, A Camp, Vampire Weekend, Bloc Party and Lacuna Coil.

Politics

KCLSU is not officially affiliated to any political party. Those involved in union politics are reflective of the most active students and draw upon the student make-up at King's. In recent years the political affiliation of the President has tended to see-saw between Labour, Independent and Conservative. In 2006/07 the President was Labour but from 2006 there was a gradual shift to the right until in 2008-2009 saw a Conservative elected, suspended, and then finally impeached for alleged racist comments at a NUS training event. 2009 to 2011 saw the re-election of a two-term President, Ryan Wain, who is regarded by many as a member of the progressive left. Before 2006 the student elected as President was a Conservative from 2003 to 2005, though from 1999–2003, the President was Labour.

KCLSU and the College are increasingly taking a role of partnership when it comes to issues of common concern such as accommodation and facilities, and anything particularly related to the 'student experience'. Some students, however, have decried this policy as capitulating to the establishment and called for a return to more vocal and active campaigning on issues of contention, e.g. accommodation. Other students have voiced approval for this approach as they see it as taking a pragmatic approach to getting the desired outcomes, while leaving petty and party politics behind.

Recently elected candidates have taken a rather pragmatic outlook, focussing on delivering short to medium-term improvements for students. Notable campaigns have included those for widening participation, hidden course costs, housing and accommodation, employment and religious exception.^[15][16]

In March 2014, President Sebastiaan Debrouwere was re-elected with a record-breaking 2130 first-preference votes.

Union Governance

The governance of KCLSU has changed much in its history.

Past structures included a proportionally elected Student Representative Council (similar to a 'parliament') with a 14-strong directly elected 'cabinet', known as the Executive Committee ('Exec') who are also the Trustees of the union. Five Executive Officers are full-time, taking a 'sabbatical' year either at the end or in the middle of their degree. They were informally described as the 'sabbatical officers' ('sabbs') but in theory hold no more constitutional weight on the Exec than the part-time officers.

This structure then changed to a 30 strong, cross campus, un-proportionally elected Student Council from 2006-7 until 2010-11. The SC was made up of students still studying on their course, and so representation was a voluntary activity. The SC was supported by and worked with four elected full-time Student Officers (still often referred to as Sabbs).

For the 2010-11 academic year, Student Council evolved into a 50 strong cabinet of cross campus elected students. Within the 50, councillors have specific or open roles, with the council being made up as follows:^[19] 30 General Representatives - who work with all students in mind 7 Campaign Officers - who work to represent particular 'constituencies', or causes, identified as under represented by KCLSU Officers in the summer 2011 4 Liberation Officers - who work to represent 'oppressed' groups, as identified by the NUS: Women, LGBT, Disabled and BME students 5 NUS delegates - who will attend the NUS annual conference in the Spring, as well as working to represent students at King's throughout the year to Council 4 Academic Board reps - who alongside attending and representing students at Council, also represent students at the College's 4 Academic Boards.

References

External links

• King's College London Students' Union
• King's College London