After King’s announced on January 14 that residents of the University’s Champion Hill accommodation would be moved out within two weeks, the university clarified that this decision had been made on December 19, a month before students had been notified. King’s claimed that the timing of the announcement was made because it played “a key part of our planning process” and “the timing of the announcement was to take account of the university’s scheduled Examinations Period which ended on Friday 10 January 2020.” There was a 17-day period between the day the decision was made and the start of Examinations Period 1.
When asked by Roar whether the KCLSU was aware of the gap between the decision being made and the announcement to students, Student Officer Nafiza Mamun explained that the Student’s Union was “happy with” the priorities chosen by the university in the decision-making process, and implied that student officers had been made aware from the start. Overall, the KCLSU supported the university’s decision to wait. Ms Mamun repeated the role of the exam period in her justification, as the choice was made “to reduce the impact on their study and ensure face to face services were put in place to support them.”
Roar was assured that the face to face services that King’s and KCLSU have spent over a month putting in place are still “being worked out internally” and that the Student’s Union stresses the use of KCLSU help, which all students are free to use anyway. The KCLSU Student Officer team “have been to Champion Hill” to talk to students first-hand and assist with any queries they may have.
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