Talk:Cambridge University Students' Union

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Should "Students" have an apostrophe or not? The rules of grammar say it should. However when I last looked (about 20 years ago) the University Statutes said it didn't. I vaguely recall that when we made up the name (1987) it didn't have an apostrophe. We certainly didn't use one in editions of DARTS (the CUSU magazine) published in the first year or two after the referendum. Mpntod 22:44, 10 May 2004 (UTC)

The current website, and also the entry in the NUS directory of Students' Unions, both use the apostrophe. I'm wary of using the formal title as listed in the Statutes as this rule, if applied consistently, would lead to many other institution's pages having to be renamed - for example my own institution is formally Queen Mary & Westfield College, but all current literature and signs (bar a few old ones due to be replaced/abandoned) use Queen Mary, University of London.

I know I am far from being the only person involved in Students' Unions who finds the misuse of the apostrophe irritating! Timrollpickering 23:05, 10 May 2004 (UTC)

I suppose the question is whether the rules of grammar can rename an institution after a mispelled name has been passed in a student referendum and by the University Council of Senate (or possibly even a vote of Congregation) - not that I have the text of either to hand. Mpntod 00:10, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

Hmm - I'd reckon this is really a matter for people at the Cambridge end. Since CUSU is using the apostrophe, and on balance it's likely to be the most common version used, this page should be there. Timrollpickering 09:23, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

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Could this be a little less Brit-centric?

1. What's a sabbatical officer?
2. What exactly are the functions of this organization?

Thanks, Meelar 00:13, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

Sabbatical is a perfectly cromulent word, a sabbatical year is a year of paid leave. In this case the students get a paid year off from their course and work for the union as a full time job.

In what way is the article brit-centric? Dmn 08:59, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

I've tried to make the meaning of sabbatical clearer in the article. If someone has the CUSU constitution it might make sense to list the functions of CUSU. The OUSU article is better in this respect. Mpntod 19:35, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

The constitution is online at http://www.cusu.cam.ac.uk/union/constitution/ mvl22

Contents 1 Wrong info 2 Sabbatical officers 3 Students' Union / Association sabs list deletion 4 Sabbs-elect for 2007-2008 are as follows:

[edit] Wrong info

Some of the info you have is wrong.

The first president of CSU was a left-winger, son of a bishop with a name of, I think, John Newbiggin. Charles Clarke replaced him (and I was Secretary).

Mike Grabiner never held office with CSU.

Neville replaced Charles.

Aha. Neville suggested that Mike had preceded him. The email I got from Neville read:

"Tom Hayhoe has been in touch and suggested that I email you. I was the first CSU sabbatical officer, being President for a period in 1973. Before me, Charles and Mike Grabiner were Presidents but the University had not allowed the position to be a sabbatical one.

If you want any information about that period, I'd be happy to help. Certainly I can tell you the names of the officers for most of the early 1970's. asp).

I wonder how we can resolve this. I've had a guess at Mike Grabiner's email address at Apax.com, emailed him and perhaps he will be able to enlighten us.

Neville also mentioned John Newbegin/Newbiggin. Was he the first President of CSU or the last of the CSRC? I've emailed a John Newbiggin who works for Channel 4 - perhaps it's the same person... Mpntod 23:48, Jun 18, 2004 (UTC)

The John Newbiggin email bounced. No reply from Mike Grabiner yet. Should we start the hunt for notable executive members? Or add the slate or party that people were elected under? There are some surprising ex-members of the executive - for example, Archie Norman! Mpntod 12:08, Jun 19, 2004 (UTC)

An email from Mike Grabiner as follows:

I was the 3rd president of CSU in 1972/3 following John Newbiggin and Charles Clarke.Please ring if you need any further info,

List of Presidents updated accordingly. Mpntod 01:45, Jun 20, 2004 (UTC)

I was wrong about Mike it appears but Neville was not the first sabbatical officer, Charles Clarke was. My name is Pearson Brown, by the way, and I was secretary to Charles.

Our committee consisted of Cathy Prior, Stewart Joseph, Steve Hart, Tim Jones (now Lord Clement-Jones), Steven Evans-Freke (now Lord ?) Richard ?????, Andrew Hogarth

There were three SocSoc members and three right-wingers. Tim Jones and I were the 'moderates'. Tim was (and is) a prominent Liberal and I was in that moderate Cambridge Tory group PEST (along with Charlie (now Lord) Falconer) which seems to have formed the basis for New Labour.

Why don't you contact Charles directly? If you don't want to, I will.

I'm Martin Tod and was the last Deputy President of CSU before we changed the name.

I suspect you would be more likely to get through to Charles Clarke. I think I emailed once but didn't hear anything.

I'm a Liberal Democrat myself, but didn't know about TCJ being an ex-CSU executive member and also didn't know that he'd ever dropped the Clement.

I'm truly fascinated by this PEST group being a precursor to New Labour. Who else was in it? Mpntod 07:49, Aug 3, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Sabbatical officers

CUSU now have a list on their website, taken from this article, at http://www.cusu.cam.ac.uk/union/history/sabbaticals.html (as part of a new 'history' section). Can the version on Wikipedia be removed now?

Done. I've added a small section listing all sabbaticals linked to in the Wikipedia (even if they don't have a full article yet). Mpntod 08:41, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

I see Dmn has reverted the change, despite the caution expressed previously by Secretlondon. Do we really need two copies of this on the web? Wouldn't it be more sensible just to link to the now official one on the CUSU website (which I see they have credited appropriately), or are there really going to be so many changes that CUSU can't be trusted to respond to minor corrective updates?

Apologies for not addressing the concerns of User:Secretlondon, however it appears that these were deleted by someone. I can't see any harm the list has done. Given that the CUSU site is required ot provide a link to the list compiled here, wouldn't it look odd if our list was absent? This list does no harm, we have plenty of space here. This data doesn't belong to CUSU does it? I imagine several other names on the list will become even more prominent in years to come. Dmn € Դմն 09:28, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

It is not Wikipedia's role to exclude information just because it is held elsewhere i.e. on the CUSU website! If that was the foundation of Wikipedia most of it should be deleted! Also bear in mind that many people outside of Cambridge will read this article e.g. newspaper editors, who want to find out who past and present officers are. In fact I feel the list should be extended, not removed.

Also the CUSU list was copied from here... Mpntod 22:55, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

How exactly does that change the fact that these people are not notable and therefore not worthy of mention in an encyclopaedia? Chris talk back 01:22, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Students' Union / Association sabs list deletion

• I've started a discussion on Chriscf's Talk Page as this involve all the union's page. Please go there to provide your opinion if you're interested. -- KTC 16:01, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
  • I will be removing the above discussion from my talk page. User talk pages are for personal communication. They are not for conducting general content debates. Feel free to start a discussion in the Wikipedia namespace, but this is not an appropriate discussion for user pages. Chris talk back 16:00, 19 December 2005 (UTC)
    • Discussion was needed because of your unilateral deletion on multiple pages. So in a sense, your talk page does fit for purpose. Anyhow, it's now at Talk:Students Union -- KTC 03:42, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Sabbs-elect for 2007-2008 are as follows:

President: Mark Fletcher, Jesus. Services: Adam Colligan, Selwyn. Academic Affairs: Peter Coulthard, St John's. Access: Charlotte Richer, Jesus. Welfare: Andrea Walko, Kings. Womens: Elly Shepherd, Fitzwilliam. 131.111.179.78 15:04, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Is there any reason why this shouldn't be added to the table? I realise it's entitled "Former sabbatical officers", but that's already a somewhat inaccurate title since the current set are listed. I think in this case strict title accuracy should be discarded in favour of providing relevent and useful information, so I'll make the change. Simxp 03:43, 14 March 2007 (UTC)