Rayyan Ikram for kclsu president
Hello! My name is Rayyan Ikram, I’m a second year law student at Kings, and I am running to be the President of the KCLSU. I believe your time at university as a student should be an intellectually-stimulating, enriching, and rewarding experience. You should not have to sit by and watch your university experience marred by the pandemic, strikes, an unsafe environment, lack of opportunities, increases in tuition fee and accommodation rents among many other issues that create an unnecessary burden for students. You need to have a stronger Student Union, and a strong, willing, capable, and dedicated President who will echo your voices and your demands as we create the student experience we always deserved, and build a better Union.
This is why I look forward to being your President, so we can liberate the Union, and democratise, diversify, decolonise, and demarketise the University.
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CORE PROMISES
“A cardinal tenet of democracy is that people must be free to choose freely whom they want to support.”
– Archbishop Desmond Tutu
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I intend to make elections more democratic and accessible by implementing measures that would facilitate a higher voter turnout, such as by having announcements in lectures about elections to encourage more people to vote resulting in more voices being heard, and increasing the availability of polling stations to include them in Kings Accommodations.
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Societies should not have to chase the SU officers around for support. I will ensure societies have easy and quick access to resources provided by the KCLSU, such as funding, DBS checks, training, etc. This will allow all society events, charitable endeavours, and club activities to be easily supported by the SU with no hassle at all.
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I will hold weekly open office hours, where students can directly meet me and the other elected officers of the SU to speak to us about their concerns with the SU itself, or any society, or to report any other issue they face at Kings which the SU can support them with.
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The SU officers must be held accountable, so I will work towards providing a platform through which societies and students can launch complaints against the SU for any action taken they feel is creating an unsafe environment on campus or violating the rules under which the Student Union and its officers must operate.
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Increasing funds provided by the Student Opportunity Fund is essential to allowing our students and societies to pursue activities that are vital to them. I will lobby for higher funds being made available, and for the SU itself to promote national and international competitions and events for students to represent Kings in.
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Students deserve as much of a say in their education and examinations as their Professors, which is why the SU will hold meetings with students across all courses to hear their concerns regarding exam patterns, syllabus content, and other such matters, and will lobby with the University to implement better measures which the students deem fit.
“Never give nor take an excuse [especially from kcl management]”
- Florence Nightingale
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I will work with Student Networks, such as the Black Student Network and LGBT Student Network, to organise monthly drop-in sessions and empower the Student Networks to hold bi-weekly wellbeing events and to be able to check in on their members regarding their mental health while at university. I will build Student Networks to be safe spaces for all students and a place for them to rely on for their wellbeing!
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Building stronger Student Networks is a topmost priority for me. Student Networks should be safe spaces for students and easily accessible for all, so I will ensure student networks have a higher member count next year by ensuring all students are aware of them and what they are engaged with. More students engaged with Student Networks will allow them to advocate for changes to the Student Union based on the collective will of their members.
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I aim to set up a Trans Student Network to increase the diversity within the SU in order to have a group that can effectively campaign for the voices of trans students at Kings!
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I will launch the Kings Student Monthly, a monthly publication that will include stories from a diverse group of students about their experiences at Kings, and it will highlight events run by societies and activities arranged by them to increase awareness of the different societies and events at Kings.
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I will use the SU to campaign for common rooms on campus, where students can gather and socialise, increasing student interactions and allowing for students to take a break from their students and relax in a comfortable environment on campus instead of having to find space outside campus.
“Never give nor take an excuse [especially from kcl management]”
- Florence Nightingale
King’s is a colonial institution founded on colonial principles. KCL founders were slave owners and recipients of slavery compensation. It is time to dismantle colonial remnants brick by blood-soaked brick.
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No University should be receiving funds from arms manufacturers! Kings has received over £25 million from arms companies over the last 5 years. The SU will campaign to get arms off the campus, and to get Kings to end its relationship with such companies and organisations that profit off of war and the suffering of innocent people.
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I will ​​work towards ensuring that the curriculum at Kings reflects the diversity of perspectives and experiences, particularly those that have been historically excluded or marginalised, including advocating for the reviewing of the current syllabus and creating new courses that explore issues of colonialism, imperialism, and racism.
"When there is oppression, the only self-respecting thing is to rise and say this shall cease today, because my right is justice."
- Sarojini Naidu, Poet & Political Activist, Kings Alumni
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Graduate Teaching Assistants are consistently underpaid by the University, and as President, I will lobby to ensure their wages are better, and they have better contracts on which they are hired to teach instead of the current system where they are underpaid and their services are over utilised.
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The KCLSU will oversee the election of representatives from different KCL accommodations, who will provide monthly complaints in a list to the SU who will use those to campaign for better conditions in Kings Accommodations and to lower the rent for these accommodations.
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I will guarantee faster reimbursements for students and societies that organise events, as they remain underpaid and unreimbursed for months after asking the SU for support. I will implement an easier and much more efficient way to expedite requests from societies for any and all forms of support from the KCLSU, putting money back into the pockets of students faster.
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The KCLSU will campaign excessively to lower tuition fees across courses, because it is high time that the University acknowledges the unfair nature of its tuition fee hikes over the last few years and works to rectify it.
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Sports clubs at Kings and the students who are a part of them are required to pay money out of their own pockets to find training facilities, and must book venues and organise events all by themselves. This kills the willingness of students to participate in their favourite sports, and sports clubs have always been ignored in this regard, which is why I will campaign to have the University fund and create training facilities on campus for sports which the campus can accommodate, such as cricket, tennis, swimming, squash etc.