Following the student protest event at Corpus Christi on Friday, in which students protested against alleged instances of miscommunication and financial mismanagement by College authorities, the Master of the College, Mr Stuart Laing, has responded to student complaints.

On Monday morning, the Master released a statement to Varsity, which appears in full below.

“I was present in the New Court during Friday’s “Protest Picnic”, which was conducted peacefully and with good humour. I understand that the students at the Picnic decided that the new JCR Committee would present a petition to the Governing Body on 15 March; I have not yet seen this.

“I have however seen the list of complaints which the JCR Committee presented to the Executive Body on 8 March. This included some items which all would consider minor (e.g., the seating plan for a recent dinner), some which were not based in fact (e.g., an allegation about failure to provide clean bed-linen), and some which are serious, such as student room rents.

“Nearly all these issues reflect lapses of communication - either between students and the College Administration, or within our administration itself. We are acting fast to put these things right, and are confident that, with the co-operation of the students, we can do so.

“The question of student rents is naturally difficult. Corpus rents are below the University's average, and the College is actually subsidizing the rents of all students - both the rich and the less well-off - by over £1000 a year each, in addition to the "loss" we make on fees and education (about £3500 per student).

“We cannot eliminate this deficit all at once, but we do need to raise rents in order to get nearer to covering costs. At the same time we need to help those students who have genuine difficulty in paying rents - which we do through generous support and hardship funds.

“As the Senior Tutor said at Friday's meeting (and was cheered for it), we are one College and one community; Fellows, Staff and Students share a determination to resolve our problems and move forward."

Nearly 150 students were present at the protest event on Friday.