SU President Abdullah Khan on protests and student safety

We met with Union President Abdullah Khan to talk protests, spiking, and how much he can really change as president.

Khan became president in July after being vice-president and education officer the previous year.

He said he ran for president “to support students of all backgrounds,” but when he first ran for student government it was to improve the experience of international students.

Recently students have been protesting about Kingston banking with Barclays and investing in Blackrock because of their to Israel.

When asked if the SU is getting involved Khan said: “there hasn’t been any kind of discussion,” about the protests. However, he said he personally “supports Palestine”.

He said: “My question is if this was happening somewhere else where there are no Muslims how would the world have reacted? I’m sure the world would have reacted differently.”

But Khan said he was concerned about student safety when protesting.

“If something goes viral somewhere… it ultimately leads to a situation where students are being targeted because they’re doing a protest,” he said.

Khan was reluctant to say the University should divest from Barclays and said another challenge he’d face raising the issue of divestment is that he “(doesn’t) sit on any finance committee.”

He said: “(The University) doesn’t see that as necessary,” adding “I wonder why…”.

Another concern facing students is safety on nights out. A survey by The River found one in ten KU students had been spiked at a KU event.

One student said the event being marketed to students gave her “a sense of security (…) but I still got spiked.”

Asked what the university can do to protect students from spiking, Khan said the KU recommends societies hold events on campus.

He said: “Some of the societies – they do events outside – which is an external event – and in our policies, you’re doing it on your own risk.”

Khan said the university does have checks for what venues students can use off-campus.

He said: “You need approval and that involves: Where are you hosting? Which company are taking food from, and then there are different checks that you need to do.”

However, he added spiking “ultimately is a risk,” if societies hold events off-campus.

He said the university has to balance out the risk of danger with student’s desire to explore venues off-campus.

“If the university says, don’t do this event students would also complain we’re not getting enough engagement, we’re not getting enough of a social life,” he said.

Khan said concerns about the rates of spiking should be raised with the borough MP, which he promised to do when he visits KU, as he does twice a term.

“He’s the man who can bring actual change externally,” Khan said.

As President, Khan also sits on the equality, diversity, and inclusion committee, and was keen to stress “any student is equal”.

He shared concerns that “In the past… they had certain officers who might have done stuff for certain communities but didn’t for other communities.”

He clarified the SU had overlooked its commitments to LGBTQ students because former members of the SU had “personal opinions,” that biased them against queer people.