Caius Rent Is Too Damn High

Caius students are being robbed blind by a 9.5% rise in rent that the college snuck into effect last June.

Students now have to shell out an average of £1300 pounds a term for a room in college, while the government maintenance loan stands at £1217.

They also have to pay £928 a year on a kitchen fixed charge and tickets to eat in the Caius hall.

The college brought in the hugely unpopular rent rise in a June meeting, after students had finished exams and were getting ready to leave for summer.

In an email sent out in late July, the college administration said that their ‘difficult financial situation’ made it ‘necessary’ to increase the cost of living.

College authorities said that student representatives approved the new charges, which has since been denied by the student body. Three undergraduate representatives were at that meeting, but none of their objections were taken on board.

The ongoing row came to a head at a heated meeting on Monday afternoon, to which The Tab gained access.

Students blasted their Senior Bursar, David Secher, for what one student called ‘ludicrous’ living costs.

Hot property

They also questioned Caius’ lack of financial transparency and the timing of the decision, which came right at the end of the academic year.

Secher, who began by reading a prepared statement, confessed that the message was not “effectively communicated”.

Another fellow present, Senior Tutor David Holburn, said little and spent his time doodling.

Secher discussed the college’s ‘severe financial hardships’ that they were trying to address.

He justified the rise saying Caius rent is still cheaper than universities like UCL – seemingly ignorant that London students receive a larger loan.

Not as expensive as UCL

Holburn, taking a break from drawing on his notes, added insult to injury when he suggested that Caius would help students they deemed to be in ‘genuine hardship’ but would be wary of those ‘just disinclined to pay’.

But it didn’t go down well among his audience.

Bruno Sussat, a third-year engineer voiced his anger, saying ‘I feel like at Caius we’re made to do things we don’t want to do and we pay the price. We have no input, we don’t get any say’.

Meanwhile a rumour has spread around the college that despite the students suffering under a higher cost of living, the college recently splashed out on a bigger wine budget for their fellows

As this question was raised, Secher responded after a pause that ‘fellows pay for their own wine’, but whether this wine is subsidized was not made clear.

Caius students aren’t optimistic that their rent will be reduced. A student who wished to remain anonymous said that ‘there are a number of good college officials who do care about what happens to students.’

‘Unfortunately he [Secher] is one of the bad ones.’