Members of King’s College Student Union (KCSU) and King’s College have expressed upset over the president and vice-president’s (VP) handling of the Union.

The KCSU president, Teddy Graham, was formally absent at the beginning of Easter Term. Luca Limoncelli, acting VP at the time, was then made president following a vote from the executive committee.

This left the committee without a vice-president, with members of the executive committee telling Varsity there were “confusions regarding who to contact, due to a lack of clarity regarding the turnover when it happened”.

Another student close to the JCR accused the executive committee of “inefficiency and corruption” in relation to their conduct.

Graham continued to contact members in their capacity as president, despite being uncontactable.

In June, the two BME officers were dismissed for “continued failure to notify when unable to attend meetings”.

When contacted, a source close to the matter stated that the officers were unfairly dismissed after giving less than 24 hours notice of absence due to a sports injury. Both officers were soon reinstated, with Graham the admitting that the dismissal of both officers was “erroneous,” and offering a full apology to both officers.

The officers also complained to the president and VP that they needed their passwords back after being logged out. They remained logged out for three months over the summer, despite continuous attempts to fix the problem. This meant they could not contact the College, and thus could not represent BME students while they were logged out.

Students’ concerns around the state of the KCSU were raised on the Facebook group, Kingsfess with one writing: “The KCSU has no accountability. The president is absent and present at the same time”.

Another questioned the whereabouts of the committee, with one asking: “Where tf is the KCSU president? The ‘on behalf of’ emails are funny… surely in your capacity as an elected president you shouldn’t be delegating to the VP”.

This news comes after the Downing JCR vice-president was forced to resign over corruption allegations last year.

The JCR president announced the resignation to the whole college, stating that they had “acted in ways that did not meet the standards expected of a student representing the JCR”.

The KCSU has also found itself in conflict with pro-Palestinian students campaigning for divestments. One student who was approached at the encampment by the president told Varsity that they “agreed that I would write a council paper on divestment, and he would submit it to give it more credibility.”

“He said student activists at King’s were seen as the ‘bad guys’ and that whatever we sent would not be passed. So, I sent the paper to the KCSU President. It was not submitted to council as agreed. Instead, the president and VP waited until the deadline had passed to send me feedback,” he continued. The president has denied these allegations.

Last term, King’s agreed to review its investments amid pressure from students to divest from arms companies, following a student-proposed paper urging King’s to cut ties with the arms industry.

The paper, which proposed a deadline of the end of 2025 to pull investments from weaponry, was was co-signed by the College’s students’ union (KCSU) after a vote, before being taken to the council.

A representative for the KCSU told Varsity: “The KCSU is a democratic union. Due to extenuating medical circumstances, the President was temporarily absent from the KCSU. The KCSU Standing Orders do not require a vote to be held for a temporary absence and the KCSU Exec unanimously agreed that the Vice-President would temporarily assume the post.”

“The BME Officers were erroneously dismissed and were shortly reinstated with a full apology from the KCSU exec. The KCSU exec has a positive relationship with pro-Palestinian students and have taken action to support them including establishing the Affected Students Support Group, fundraisers and establishing the investments working group,” they continued.