Given the chop: goodbye, Campus Ken
He’s seen the mullet, buzz-cut and ‘shag’ but after a career cutting the student barnet Ken’s moving on. Jamie Merrill meets a York legend.
After 23 years of tending to the locks of both staff and students, Ken Fairburn - or Campus Ken as he is affectionately known - is due to ‘retire’ at the end of July. Since arriving on campus in 1984, Ken has become a bit of a University institution, so much so that one senior University official described him as part of the “fixtures and fittings”. This isn’t surprising considering Ken has been here longer than most students have been alive.
Sitting down with Ken in Derwent bar over a pint of Tetley’s bitter, I realised how much Ken is valued by York’s community. He seemed to know most of the staff wandering by and a fair few of the students. Ken’s room in Langwith is a testament to his popularity; postcards from students and staff from around the world cover the walls. Adding to this is Ken’s spoof honorary degree in ‘follicle engineering’ and a photo of Ken and his wife representing the University at the Queen’s Millennium garden party.
A campus legend he might be, but he also knows pretty much everything there is to know on the University grapevine. This is likely to stem from the fact he still cuts the hair of the old vice chancellor as well as numerous heads of departments, provosts, and senior academics. It’s not just his razor sharp blades and hair cutting credentials that keep me coming back for a 2 on top and a 1 on the side; he has always kept me up to date with all the campus news. For a student hack, such a regular story source can be a blessing.
Back in 1984, Ken moved into the dressing rooms of Central Hall from his town centre salon and brought haircuts to campus. “This goes back to when Geldof got all the groups banned” says Ken, “they told him not to get everyone up dancing but of course he did and we haven’t had any good groups back there since”. Just as promptly as Geldof was chucked out of Central Hall, Ken was moved onto what was the Vanburgh sick room, before the days of the medical centre.
Ken moved into his current Langwith room in 1990, in time to see Jools Holland play the forerunner to Big D, the Derwent BBQ. An event so popular, says Ken, that students regularly swam the lake James Bond style to get in. “The security used to let them in for making such an effort.”
Ken reminds me that campus used to attract big names. He seems scornful of the lack of quality acts on campus today; when he first came to campus, Paul McCartney and The Wings played Vanburgh for 50p, and Rory Bremner and Lenny Henry played Central Hall. “Back in the 80s bands and comedians were happy to come and play to students to practise their new material. You won’t get big names back here unless the Students’ Union get a venue on the new campus.”
As with most hairdressers, Ken’s good for a chat whilst he trims away. He seems to have taken the role of agony uncle; he even had a column in Your: Mag for a few years dealing with the troubled love lives of York students. He’s not just good for a joke, though; he has really helped some people out over the years. Andy Hunt, who now lectures in Electronics and first went to Ken as a student in the 80s, said, “for years he has offered more than a shortening of the hair, he’s been an unofficial counselling service and an amazing human ‘directory’ of contacts within the University.” In fact, Andy says Ken’s knowledge of York academics has led to one of his most interesting research collaborations.
Ken recollects when the lake used to freeze solid in winter. Back then, students used to ice skate or cycle across the lake near Derwent and one year an adventurous first year parked his Triumph Herald on the frozen lake. In fact, the driver was a customer of Ken’s and is now head of HSBC on Parliament Street. Ken laments the fact that student pranks seem rarer now, saying the head of security, Ken Batten, would “jump on them, he’s just so worried about health and safety. Things have really changed.”
The University changing is a theme Ken and I return to whenever he is coiffing my hair. Despite some great academics and staff, Ken thinks the University is not always changing for the better. “All the good administrators and bursars who founded the University retired at the same time and all the new generation of management came in at once. The problem is they are trying to run the University as a business, but they’re not very good at business.” Even worse, Ken complains, “they don’t integrate. Ron Cooke, the old Vice Chancellor, used to eat with the students all the time. No disrespect to the current lot; I don’t know Brian Cantor, he might be a great guy, but we’re not going to find out”.
Ken views the recent porters crisis as a sad sign of how the University has changed. “Everybody helps produce our product; the cleaner, the porters… How many young people in the first few weeks of term have porters managed to persuade to not go home because they were home sick? You can’t put that on their job description.”
Ken has a slight personal gripe against some of the University managers. For six years he has been fighting a battle with them not to be moved into Market Square. “I told them that I’d rather stay where I am, but they want me in Market Square paying £17,000 a year rent plus rates and £30,000 to fit it out”. In 2001, after Ken refused to budge and staff, students and Nouse ran a campaign to ‘Save Campus Ken’, the University backed down and gave him five more years. But after a one-year extension, Ken’s tenancy ends this July with no sign that the University is be willing to extend it.
Ken’s not complaining though: “I just want to say thank you to the people who have supported me over the years. Cutting hair is the only way I could get to university, I appreciate that and I’m a more educated person now than I was when I came because of all the people of other faiths and nationalities who have come in and educated me”. Ken added, “we’ve had a good gossip and sorted out the world’s problems”.
“It’s just sad for me to go though,” says Ken. “I’ve just got this awful feeling of coming in and taking down all my few hundreds postcards from students around the world, putting them in a box and handing in my key. It’s going to be a really sad day for me.”
Perhaps though, if some senior University manager is reading this, the University could allow Ken to stay a few more years in the room he’s occupied since 1990. “In an ideal world, it would be nice if I could stay on and then try to get somebody else to take over in a few years time. There is obviously a market for it.”
For you, Ken, I hope that somebody in Heslington Halls takes notice. Otherwise, goodbye Ken and thanks.
Simon Thacker
Ken is a legend. Everyone on campus knows him and it’s absolutely awful that he’s having to go. I just hope the powers that be come to their senses and let this fantastic bloke stay.