SU kicking out the Nestlé KitKat snack

Charlotte Boisrond 

Many students were outraged after it was announced that KitKats are no longer going to be sold at campus shops, after a motion was passed to stop the sale of Nestlé products at KUSU’s yearly student meeting.

KU student Michael Toy proposed to ban Nestlé products in KUSU stores because of their alleged unethical practices across the globe.

The motion passed with a clear majority at the meeting held on November 14, but was met with disdain by many students.

“I don’t see why we should all be forced not to buy something we like,” said KU student Jordan Aylward on Twitter.

KitKats labelled fairtrade but still support unethical practices

Mr Toy pointed out that even though KitKats are labelled as fair trade products, Nestlé company actually still support a range of unethical business and commercial practices that are unacceptable.

These practices include the violation of human rights, destruction of the environment and child labour.

“The KUSU should remove and ban all Nestlé products from all our shops and establishments, and ban any Nestlé affiliations,” said MrToy.

Three motions passed at KU student meeting

In addition to Mr Troy’s motions, three others were passed at the KUSU student meeting.

The first one, proposed by Danny Hall, was to pressure the university to install wireless routers in all of the halls of residence.

Second motion proposed and passed by Mr Toy was to implement a traffic light system on KUSU products to indicate how ethical the sourcing of the product is.

The third motion that was passed was to set up anonymous marking on exam scripts to avoid “racism and discrimination” issues or any kind of racial favouritism.

In order to achieve this, KUSU are planning an anonymous marking campaign which will probably be directed by the SU President, Mr Kelly.

Ibrahim Ali, who proposed the motion, said: “Twelve per cent of black students have received lower marks for coursework or exams than that of their white counterparts.”

More prayer rooms for muslim students

Mr Ali also suggested creating prayer facilities for Muslim students on each of the five Kingston University campuses.

He said: “Muslim students obligate themselves to pray five times a day as part of their religious practice. One in three KU students are Muslims”.