Queen's University Belfast Students' Union

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QUB Students' Union
Logo of Queen's University Belfast Students' Union
Established c.1897 (first Union building opened)
Institution Queen's University Belfast
President John Roger
Other Sabbatical Officers Deputy President: Sarah McCaffrey; Vice-President Clubs and Services: Steffan Rafferty; Vice-President Education: Michál Harkin; Vice-President Welfare: Ciarnán Helferty
Location University Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Members 24,560[1]
Affiliated to NUS-USI; Aldwych Group
Homepage www.qubsu.org

Queen's University Belfast Students' Union (QUBSU) is the official representative body for students at Queen's University Belfast. Membership in the Union is automatic and currently totals 24,560, making it the largest single campus Union on the island of Ireland, and one of the largest in the United Kingdom.[2] The Students’ Union derives its existence and authority from the University’s Statutes, and so is not entirely independent of it, and must have amendments to its constitution approved by the University Senate. It aims to represent students' interests both with the University and the wider community, to create a sense of student spirit and provide services that aid the students during their time at the University. The Students' Union can trace its origins to the nineteenth century, and has been based on University Road, directly opposite the University's main 'Lanyon Building', since the 1960s.[3]

Contents

[edit] Governance

[edit] Student Representative Council

Currently, the Union is governed by an Executive Committee who are aided by a number of full time staff, and answerable to the Students' Representative Council (SRC). In the past, the SU had gained a reputation for being highly politicised and sectarian through the nature of debates and motions before the SRC, and through official policies. In recent years, sectarianism has become less of an issue, and the Union, like society in general, has moved on to deal with other issues that affect students in their daily lives.

Elections for the SRC take place in October and seats are filled through proportional representation (PR), with constituencies representing each faculty. The elections in 2007, saw the use of online voting for the first time, resulting in a substantial rise in the number of people who both sought election and voted.[4] Following the changes made to the constitution and constitutional rules in 2007, the number of Councillors is to be reduced to just one hundred from around 160 at present; the move is an attempt to streamline the process and increase competition for seats. The SRC also elects the membership of several committees which oversee the work of the relevant elected officers and formulate Union policy. The Union Speaker is also elected at the inaugural meeting of the SRC, with the current office holder being American international student, Phillip Londeree.

[edit] Executive Management Committee

The Executive of the Union currently comprises five sabbatical (full-time) and six non-sabbatical (part-time) posts that oversee the day to day running of the Union and represent the students in dealings with the University and other groups. It was decided in late 2007 to launch a review of these positions with the view of overhauling the present system. The review is expected to make recommendations to the SRC in February 2008.[5] The sabbaticals are elected in March every year, with six non-sabbaticals being elected a few weeks later, and all officers take office from 1 July. [6] The Executive also sit on Executive Management Board which contains full-time personnel such as the General Manager, and helps keep the Union's strategy's coherent and in line with the decisions of the SRC.[5]

[edit] Current Executive

[edit] Sabbaticals

  • President (John Roger)
  • Deputy President (Sarah McCaffrey)
  • Vice-President Clubs and Services (Steffan Rafferty)
  • Vice-President Education (Michál Harkin)
  • Vice-President Welfare (Ciarnán Helferty)

[edit] Non-Sabbaticals

  • Cultural Affairs Officer (Alexandra Hobson)
  • International Students' Officer (Artur Magrian)
  • Mature Students’ Officer (Caroline Lagan)
  • Postgraduate Students' Officer (David McKeown)
  • Student Community Action Officer (Sharon Simpson)
  • Women's Officer (Jennifer Dunn)


  • Speaker (elected at the first meeting of the SRC, and also sits on the Executive Committee without a vote) (Phillip Londeree)

[edit] Services

[edit] Advice Centre

The Union provides an 'Advice Centre' that offers guidance to students in the areas of accommodation, academic affairs, student finance, counselling and welfare. These services are provided by the executive officers in addition to a permanent team of advisors.

[edit] Commercial Services

The commercial services of the Union have changed since it first opened, and once included a laundrette and even baths. There are several different businesses based in the actual building, space is rented to a coffee chain franchise, a pharmacy, a Bank of Ireland branch and an Oxfam Ireland charity shop.

However, the main bulk of commercial activity is carried out by the Union itself, including:

  • BarSub
  • Bunatee Bar
  • Chapter One (Second Hand Book Shop)
  • Cloisters (canteen area)
  • Mandela Hall (main venue for the popular 'Shine' club)
  • Snooker Rooms
  • The Speakeasy Bar
  • SU Shop (including Ticketmaster)

[edit] Clubs and Societies

There are more than 50 sporting clubs, including soccer (QUB AFC), hockey (QUB Hockey), boating (QUB Boat Club) and Gaelic games. As well as this there are more than one hundred non-sporting societies, including cultural groups like An Cumann Gaelach and the Ulster-Scots Society, gaming societies such as the Dragonslayers, activism societies like Amnesty International and debating groups such as QUB Model UN, while most of the University's schools and departments also have a corresponding society. Clubs and societies receive annual grants from the University via the VP Clubs and Services to carry out their educational roles; however, although political clubs and religious societies (such as the Christian Union) receive official recognition from the SRC, they do not receive money from the Union. Most of the main political groups on the island are present at Queen's including the Young Greens, Ógra Fhianna Fáil (the first branch in Northern Ireland), the Democratic Unionist Association (the single largest group in the SRC), the Young Unionists, SDLP Youth and Ógra Shinn Féin.[7]

Queen's Students' Union is the long term venue of Q-Con, one of the largest gaming conventions in the UK and the largest in Ireland. It is an event critically acclaimed[8][9] by members of the gaming industry, in particular because it is organised exclusively by the members of the Queen's University Dragonslayers society.

The Union also provides facilities for these societies within the Union, including several club rooms and a resource centre, while the former Snack Bar is used by the larger societies. The Union's main space for students, 'The Beech Room' is re-opened in March 2008 and will now also be available for use by clubs and societies.

[edit] RAG

RAG (Raise and Give) is the official money raising wing of the SU, although it is operated in a similar way to societies, it is monitored by the SRC and the constitution states that the Deputy President is the group's treasurer. RAG chooses several local and national charities on an annual basis and raises money through a variety of fund raising events and coordinates 'RAG Week'. The group also raises money through the publication of its annual joke book, 'PTQ'.

[edit] Affiliations

The Students' Union at Queen's is affiliated with two major groups, the oldest of these is NUS-USI, which was set up at the height of the Troubles in 1972. The group brings together the Students' Unions from across Northern Ireland and its unique set-up means that Unions are members of both the National Union of Students of the United Kingdom (NUS) and the Union of Students in Ireland (USI). In 2007 Queen's officially became a member of the Russell Group, (an alliance of twenty prestigious research universities across the UK) following this, the Students' Union joined the Aldwych Group (an alliance of the Unions whose universities belong to the Russell Group).

[edit] Media

The past several years have seen the growth of student media within the Union, which now includes print, web and broadcast. The Gown is seen as the paper of record of the Union although it is entirely independent and relies solely on advertising revenues. The Union has also funded its own publication for several decades, but following the failure of several different papers in previous years, the SU Mag was launched in September 2007. Plans were also announced in November 2007 to launch a Union television station called 'SU TV' which would initially be broadcast in the Union and on a re-launched 'SU Website', it is expected to be up and running in early 2008 and will use the studio in the Union building built by the University's Film Studies Department. The Union is also home to the student station, Queen's Radio (QR) who broadcast online and on medium wave, however, unlike SU TV, they are an official society and independent of the Union. The station is the only one of its kind in Northern Ireland and has one of the largest membership of any QUB society. All four media outlets, regardless of their status, are, or will be based, primarily in the Union building.

[edit] Union Building

[edit] History

The Students' Union building
The Students' Union building

Queen's University Belfast was founded in 1845 as Queen's College, Belfast (one of three established, the others being Queen's College, Galway and Queen's College, Cork), and became a separate university in 1908. Student facilities at the College remained low throughout most of the 1800s amounting to little more than a cloakroom, toilets and later a gymnasium and small shop where basic refreshments could be purchased. Work on the first purpose built premises was begun in January 1896, after four years of fundraising, and was located at the end of University Square behind the Lanyon Building. The following year, the building was opened by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, George Cadogan, and catered for a student population of 400, administered by the all male 'Students' Union Society', with women student having premises in several houses on the other side of University Square. The building remained in use for the next six decades and is now part of the School of Music.

As student numbers grew throughout the twentieth century (reaching 2,500 by the 1950s), the University tried to procure a new location for the Union and purchased a premises adjacent to the City Hospital which had formally been the Deaf and Blind Institution, but the state of the building meant that another alternative had to be found. The University then decided to demolish the Queen's Elms building at the corner of University Road and Elmwood Avenue, and build a new Union from scratch, which was opened in 1967.[10]

[edit] Recent Development

A plan to demolish the Union building and replace it with what was called 'Lanyon II' three decades later was denied planning permission and so the decision was taken to redevelop the existing building and bring it up to modern standards. The original building had been constructed to cater for 6,000 and was struggling to cope with a student population that had reached almost 25,000 by 2005.[10] The result was a £9 million facelift which began in 2005, and officially reopened on 21 March 2007. The work had been funded through donations from the University and Alumni, but the bulk came in the form of large loans being taken out by the Union.[11]

[edit] See Also

[edit] External Links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Table 0a - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2005/06. Higher Education Statistics Agency online statistics. Retrieved on 2007-04-04.
  2. ^ HESA - Higher Education Statistics Agency
  3. ^ QUBSU Constitution (19 June 2007). Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
  4. ^ The Gown: 'Online voting proves a winner in SRC Elections'. Retrieved on 2008-01-31
  5. ^ a b Minutes of QUBSU SRC. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
  6. ^ QUBSU Executive Committee. Retrieved on 2008-01-31]
  7. ^ name='QUB Clubs'>QUB Clubs and Societies. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
  8. ^ http://blog.mongoosepublishing.co.uk/index.php?blog=2&title=q_con_con_report&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
  9. ^ http://www.irishgaming.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=155
  10. ^ a b History of the Students' Union. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
  11. ^ Students' Union Redevelopment Appeal. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
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