Imperial College Union
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Imperial College Union is the students' union of Imperial College London. It is host to many and varied societies, and has student bars situated around Albertopolis. The Union is based in the north wing of the Beit Quadrangle on Prince Consort Road.
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[edit] Organisation
The Union is run by an executive committee consisting of five full time sabbatical officers, elected from the student population. There is one President with overall responsiblity, and four Deputy Presidents covering the areas of Finance and Services, Clubs and Societies, Education and Welfare and Graduate Studies.
The executive is held to account by the Union Council. Members of the council include senior Union officials (elected members of the student population chosen to represent groups of clubs and societies).
[edit] Imperial College Union and the NUS
Imperial College Union is most noted for the history of its relationship with the National Union of Students (NUS). Despite being involved in the founding of the NUS in 1922, Imperial College Union withdrew its membership of the NUS a year later. Since then, Imperial College Union has spent long periods outside the NUS, interspersed with brief periods of membership. A referendum for NUS affiliation held in 2002 was rejected by members of the Imperial College Union.
In November 2006, after a petition preposed a debate to affiliate with NUS at Freshers' Fair 2006 collected 617 valid signatures, from just above the 5% minimum of Imperial College Union members necessary to call a referendum [1], a referendum was held between Tuesday 14th and Thursday 16th November 2006. The result of this referendum, which had a record turnout of over 30%, was a yes to NUS affiliation by 53.26% for to 46.74% against.
[edit] Clubs and Societies
Imperial College Union has the largest number of Clubs and Societies of any student union in the United Kingdom. While the precise number of clubs changes regularly, owing to the relative ease of starting (or closing) a new club, there were believed to be near 300 at the start of the academic year 2005-6. Funding for clubs and societies at Imperial College Union is immense, taking up a sizable portion of the Union's annual budget provided by Imperial College London.
Clubs and societies at Imperial College Union are grouped by interest and are administered by either Clubs and Societies' Committees (CSCs - eg the Recreational Clubs Committee) or Faculty Unions (FUs - eg the City and Guilds College Union), who deal with the majority of procedural issues and who are responsible for representing the clubs within their care to Imperial College Union.
The clubs contained within Imperial College are supported by a number of features, including 9 minibuses (possibly the largest student union fleet in the country) which are available for clubs to hire. Imperial College also owns a mountain hut in Snowdonia, Wales, which it lets clubs use free of charge.
Coupled with free room bookings for clubs and societies, the determination of the average student to ensure that their club is the best and the transferable skills which such work promotes (eg a CSC chair can be responsible for budgeting for one hundred and twenty thousand pounds by the age of 22) it becomes apparent that Clubs and Socities at Imperial College are about more than having fun and promoting integration - they add to the quality of Imperial College Graduates.
[edit] Bars
The main Union bars are located in Beit Quadrangle. There are four:
- Da Vinci's is a bar serving food with a large screen, often showing sports events or popular music channels
- dB's is a nightclub with a small stage, which often plays host to DJs or to live bands
- The Union Bar is a small wood-panelled bar, having the largest selection of real ale in the Union
Union also runs a bar near the Charing Cross Hospital, largely frequented by medical students. It is officially known as Charing Cross Bar but is usually referred to as the Reynolds Bar. Additionally, there is a Union bar at the Wye campus.
Other bars at Imperial are run by the College itself.
[edit] Faculty Union Structure
There are three faculty unions which run as constituent parts of the Union. These are largely historical in origin and retain many traditions, such as their names when most of the actual faculties now have different names. They represent the students in their respective faculties: the City and Guilds College Union (for engineers), the Royal College of Science Union (for scientists) and the Imperial College School of Medicine Students' Union (for medical students). They are all run by part-time officers elected from the student body, with the exception of the Medical Union President, who is an elected full-time sabbatical officer with a one year tenure.
Note that in 2002 the Royal School of Mines was absorbed into the City and Guilds College Union, and is no longer a faculty union.
[edit] Redevelopment of the Union Building
As of August 2006 £2.2 million had been raised out of the total £6 million required for the redevelopment of the Union wing of Beit Hall. The project's first phase will include the installation of a lift and inbuilt cash machines as well as adding french doors to Da Vinci's, opening out on to the Quad. Further details of the project can be found here
