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Volume 25, Issue 3 Christmas Special Monday 14th December
tridentmedia.org NEWS
Who Runs the World? | pg 7
FEATURES
Societies at Christmas | pg 15
HEALTH
Animal Testing | pg 19
SPORT
Judo Club Charity Event | pg 23
Herts SU launches Campus Costs campaign Laura Slingo | News Editor At this year’s SU Annual Members’ Meeting on 24th November, Hertfordshire Students’ Union officially launched its Campus Costs campaign. With feedback from Repstival, Student Ideas Forum and students from across the University suggesting major concerns with the cost of living, the SU made the decision to take action and launch a priority campaign to cut costs on and off campus. President of Hertfordshire Students’ Union, Jack Amos, revealed the driving force of the campaign: “The price-tag of higher education is growing and getting bigger and bigger and students are struggling because [they] have less and less money. So we are running a fantastic campaign this year, Campus Costs, which is going to look at all aspects of how much things cost on campus and associated with the university.”
The Campus Costs campaign will address key areas of university life that students’ feel are financially straining such as travel and parking costs; the cost of health and childcare; support, grants and bursaries; halls and housing; campus food and shops and extra course costs for students at the University. At the SU Annual Members’ Meeting, an open floor discussion took place with students of the University so they could raise their issues, concerns and opinions regarding Campus Costs and the price of living. A few shocking statistics were revealed from students such
as: “Today I bought pizza, chips and a fizzy drink in the restaurant and it cost £6” and “I’m studying a book a week per class and spent £140 on books so far this semester” highlighting the need for financial readjustments on campus. Despite being officially launched on the 24th November, the SU has already consistently made proactive efforts to ease the financial pressures at the University for students. On the 13th October, the SU managed stop the cost of the Park and Ride rising from 50p for £1 for students by talking to the University’s Deputy Vice Chancellor, Ian Campbell.
This success has contributed to one of the main goals of Campus Costs: lobby the University to reduce costs on campus. Other goals for Campus Costs include: ‘make sure the Students’ Union is a value for money service’ and ‘work with SUs and National Union of Students to stop national and regional cuts to higher education. With such a good start to the Campus Costs campaign so far, it is expected that this success will continue.