Queen Margaret Union

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This page is about one of the students' unions at the University of Glasgow, and not the students' union for Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.
Queen Margaret Union building
Queen Margaret Union building

The Queen Margaret Union (QMU) is one of two students' unions at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1890 it caters for the social and cultural needs of its Glasgow student members by providing a range of services including, entertainments, catering, shop facilities, bars and games.

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[edit] Facilities

The QMU offers a number of facilities over four floors for students and guests, all of which are renovated on a reasonably frequent basis (in the order of a few years) to allow for increased capacity, and the preferred taste of the current membership. No student facilities are available in the basement, which is host to stock storage, delivery points, and a tunnel which runs the length of the Qudos hall from under the bar to the store, to roughly beneath the main foyer.

[edit] Ground Floor

The ground floor of the QMU contains the widest variety of services to its members: it contains a shop, a coffee shop, cash machines and toilets, the porters booth, and the Qudos venue.

Qudos is the main venue within the QMU for both club nights and bands, and is an important venue within the Glasgow music scene. With a capacity of 900 for gigs, it often plays host to up-and-coming bands who may later progress to larger venues. One prominent example is Nirvana, who played in the union on 30 November, 1991. It also plays host to new band nights, the QMU's club nights (such as Cheesy Pop or Revolution, commonly referred to as "Rev"), and has also seen popular nights such as Film Nights, and more recently, large pub quizzes.

The Coffee shop offers a variety of hot drinks, as well as some snacks, and a number of cold drinks and bottled beers. Tables are available just outside Qudos, and some within Qudos itself, offering a quiet setting in which to relax.

The QMU Shop stocks items similar to that of a newsagent, and was renovated in the summer of 2004. The new shop is much larger than its predecessor, allowing for it to carry much more stock.

[edit] First Floor

The first floor is home to Jim's Bar. The bar was renovated in 2001. Jim's Bar is a popular drinking venue, and is ideal for drinks before heading down to Qudos on a club night, for example. Many small Union events are run in Jim's Bar, including the Wednesday Night Pub Quiz (described by NME as the best in Glasgow), Unplugged Open-Mic night on a Thursday, small bands, DJs and game-shows.

The QMU Games Room offers 6 pool tables, a number of arcade machines and fruit machines, and a small bar (installed in 2004). A number of the tables and chairs once present in the previous incarnation of Jim's Bar can now be found in the Games Room bar.

Both Jim's Bar and the Games Room have jukeboxes with an eclectic range of music.

[edit] Second Floor

The second floor contains the Food Factory, open during the day within the academic year, and limited hours outwith. This floor is largely seating, with both round tables capable of seating up to around 5 comfortably, and edge tables situated in windows with tall stools for seating. The food factory offers a variety of cold and hot foods, most notably sandwiches and pizzas, and a rotating daily menu offering meat and vegetarian options.

Also situated at one end of the second floor is a Delice de France Café which offers items such as filled baguettes, and shares the same seating as the Food Factory itself.

The Food Factory became a non-smoking area in the summer of 2005, during which time the kitchens were also fitted with a new extraction and ventilation system due to construction work taking place adjacent to the building.

As of 2006, the Second Floor now has a late night coffee and panini shop by the name of Lacuna.

[edit] Third Floor

The third floor is left unvisited by the majority of Union members, due to the design of the building -- the main stairwell does not lead up to this floor; rather, the secondary stairwell and lift are the only routes up to this floor.

It houses most of the Unions Offices including:

  • General Office - for all enquires regarding bookings
  • Convenors Office - to find out about involvement in the running of the Union
  • Executive Office - a sure-fire way to make sure your views are heard (also home to the President and Exec Committee)

It also is where you can find:

  • Laundry Room - with the cheapest washing and drying facilities in the West End
  • TV Room - a place to relax with other QM members while watching TV
  • Two 24-Hour Study Rooms
  • Toilets - the Union's quietest toilets which include baths and showers

[edit] Entertainments

  • Monday: RAW - Local Band Night (Fortnightly)
  • Tuesday: Revolution - Rock/Alternative club night with XFM Scotland DJ Martin Bate
  • Wednesday: Early Evening Pool Comp, Big Wednesday Night Pub Quiz
  • Thursday: Open Mic Night
  • Friday: MouseTrap quiz/gameshow with Scott & Roo in Jim's Bar, followed by Cheesy Pop club night with DJ Toast in Qudos.
  • Saturay: DJ's in Jim's Bar
  • Sunday: Video Games in Jim's Bar, Film Night

[edit] History

The union was originally just for women students who were based at Queen Margaret College, established in 1883 and amalgamated with the university once this became legally possible in 1892. The older Glasgow University Union (GUU) offered membership only to male students. Both unions retained single-sex status until 1979, when the QMU admitted the first men to its board and allowed males to join for the first time. The GUU was forced in 1980 to admit female members membership of the union.

For many years, discussions took place on allowing students simultaneous membership of both unions. To this end, a concordat was reached between the QMU, the GUU and the University Court at the end of the 2003/2004 academic year. The QMU held an EGM to facilitate the appropriate changes to the constitution. These changes allow for Automatic Joint Student Membership, whereby all matriculated students will become a member of both unions. However, similar changes to the GUU constitution failed to pass their SGM, with the motion dismissed on a technicality. During academic year 2005/2006, the University introduced new RFID-enabled matriculation cards. While the traditional method of marking membership to either union had been to punch a hole through the matriculation card, this would damage the functionality of the new card. As such, each Union now has a separate membership card, allowing students to join both Unions. Due to a technicality in the constitution of the GUU, joining the QMU results automatic resignation of GUU membership. The issue remains contentious.

[edit] Publications

The Union has a rich history in publications. Throughout its existence, the Union's Board of Management and members alike have helped to produce magazines and newsletters to inform the general membership of current events. Unfortunately only a handful of publications remain (mostly from recent years), so the following is a mere summary.

  • In its early days, the Union published a magazine called, "Pass It On". Produced when the Union was still Queen Margaret College, the only remaining copy is from a special edition in 1935 featuring news on the closure of the college itself and a history of landmarks in women's education.
  • The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the creation of the QM Broadsheet. Having gone through many different incarnations between 1987 and 1993 (in so far as can be determined from remaining copies), it is difficult to sum up what the Broadsheet was. From reviewing Union gigs, to entire editions devoted to Union elections, the Broadsheet quite possibly stands as the Unions longest running (but highly infrequent) publication to date.
  • 1998: the Publications Committee produced the rather stylised Q DUP. Only one photocopy of this magazine remains, which appears to be incomplete. It is unclear whether or not Q DUP actually went to print.
  • 1999: QM² (Queen Margaret Magazine) was the last termly publication during the 1990s. It offered a clearer presentation and more information relating directly to the Union members.
  • 2001 saw the release of "CUM" (pronounced cu-M), a smaller, more magazine-like newsletter. CUM continued in the direction previous publications had headed in the past.
  • 2003 saw the creation of the magazine's current incarnation "qmunicate." The initial two issues were completely re-designed to created a much more readable and informative publication.
  • 2004: Qmunicate was developed into a more newspaper-like format and worked to a more demanding schedule, releasing an issue of qmunicate every fortnight (including one every day in Freshers' Week 2004). During this time, qmunicate became a recognisable voice on campus expanding from a union newsletter to compete with other campus media by featuring exclusive investigative stories from across the University. qmunicate was given a page in the 05/06 GUSRC guide alongside the main University of Glasgow student media groups.
  • 2005: The magazine was expanded to include separate sections for News, Film, Music, Sport and Features and included many ground breaking stories involving cross campus scandal[citation needed]. During this academic year, the publication's editorial and proofreading procedures were questioned twice: once when an edition went to print containing an anti-semitic joke; once when another edition went to print containing a film quote, which out of context appeared like a homophobic comment.
  • March 2006: Qmunicate's newspaper-style front cover was abandoned in favour of a magazine-style full colour photo front page . In 2006, the magazine covered topics including students in the 2005 French riots and the lacking internet set-up in halls of residence.

[edit] Today

As of 2006, the QMU, with approximately 7,800 members, is based at the end of University Gardens, near to the rear entrance of the Boyd Orr building.

Membership is split fairly equally among the sexes, and the members of the QMU now outnumber those of the GUU at student level, however it remains dwarfed by the GUU's 9,000 life members.

[edit] External links

[edit] Official Sites

[edit] News and Articles

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