Update #2: A Mixed Bag and An Underwhelming First Draft

Following yesterday's meeting, I sent the relevant KCLSU staff member an email summarizing the morning's discussion and the commitments made (several other parties were also CC'd). The contents of that summary email are mirrored in the contents of the first update posted here.

Today, I received the reply and it was, unsurprisingly, a mixed bag.

First, The Good:

• There is meaningful movement on the implementation of the short term solution. By this I mean appropriate options have been identified (by me) and orders have been placed (by KCLSU).

The Inadequate:

As you may recall from yesterday's update, my central demands were that KCLSU release a public statement 1) taking ownership of how they mismanaged this issue, and 2) committing to specific improvements within specific timelines going forward. The KCLSU staffer explicitly agreed with and committed to both of these demands.

What follows is a direct copy past from the email I received today from the KCLSU staffer, which as you can see, he gave me permission to share...

"I have put together the short statement below which I’m happy for you to share with your members, alumni and on social media if you wish.

“KCLSU would like to thank the committee, members and alumni who have escalated the concerns regarding the storage space at Bush House. KCLSU now has additional resources in place to support with making arrangements to improve this space, which have been escalated as a result of the concerns. Following conversations with the President and Gear Secretary, KCLSU is committed to purchase cages, storage boxes and hooks as requested. These will be installed as soon as they arrive and we will work with the club to clear the space for installation and then returning the items to the space. We will continue to work with the club to look for other storage solutions in the longer term.”"

What follows is a copy paste of my reply (although names have been removed).

"Hi __,

I appreciate this statement that you've provided, but I would like it to be more specific in the following ways: 

1. On what date did or will KCLSU place the orders for this equipment?
2. On what date does KCLSU reasonably expect the totality of this equipment to arrive (I assume the longest wait time will be on the cages, surely there is a shipping time estimate)?
3. On what date can KCLSU reasonably commit to these interim improvements being fully installed, barring an act of God? I'd like to reassure you that KCLMC is readily available at any date and any time to facilitate these improvements. I propose the end of April 2022.
4. The phrasing "other storage solutions in the longer term" is too vague: Q: What type of longer-term storage solution are KCLMC and KCLSU working towards? A: For example, relocating KCLMC to a more appropriate and secure KCLSU storage space.​ 

These adjustments may seem minor to you, but they are very important to KCLMC for the sake of transparency and accountability going forward. 

Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that this statement makes absolutely no mention of the very first commitment you made to me yesterday. Namely that:

• KCLSU will publicly take ownership of the fact that they have mishandled this issue on an institutional and individual level. Specifically, KCLSU mishandled this issue by continually failing to be communicative, transparent, and responsive to KCLMC's serious and legitimate concerns about the Sports Store. This was negligent.

That this issue was mishandled by KCLSU in terms of both process and outcome up until now is simply the fact of the matter. I can easily prove this because it is extensively documented through my written communications. The majority of which, may I remind you were at some point rotting away in your email inbox or ____'s email inbox. Your predecessors clearly dropped the ball too, numerous KCLMC Committee alumni from as far back as 2017 have testified to that. If you need a refresher, please revisit our email thread from just last week with the subject line "KCLSU Negligence of Sports Store" to which 3 former KCLMC Presidents contributed. Several more KCLMC Committee alumni have reached out to me personally since then and I am sure that they would be more than happy to make their experiences a matter of public record if asked. Archived emails between the KCLMC Committee gmail account and KCLSU corroborate the alums' anecdotes as does the fact that the storage situation is what it is today. 

So, it is not only incredibly decieving, but profoundly disrespectful for KCLSU to publically posture as if they have been nothing but communicative, transparent, and responsive to KCLMC's serious and legitimate concerns about the Sports Store​. 

KCLSU needs to take ownership of its past failures because otherwise how can I, or any other King's student, expect anything different from the SU going forward? It is unacceptable to me to sweep this mismanagement under the rug. The KCL student body deserve genuine transparency and accountability from their own Student Union- it is a baseline expectation as far as I am concerned. You explicitly agreed with me when I made this exact point during our conversation yesterday. 

I respectfully ask that you update KCLSU's statement with all of the above in mind."

That's it. That's the update. It remains to be seen whether KCLSU will actually follow through on all of the very clear commitments they made to me less than 48 hours ago. Ideally they would do so with minimal equivocation. 

All this over a storage cupboard. It really does my head in.