| Motto | Better Student Life |
|---|---|
| Institution | Loughborough University, Loughborough College, RNIB College Loughborough |
| Location | Ashby Road, Loughborough, Leicestershire, UK |
| Established | 1975 |
| Members | 20,000 |
| Affiliations | NUS, BUCS |
| Website | www.lufbra.net |
Loughborough Students' Union (otherwise known as LSU) is the students' union serving members from Loughborough University, Loughborough College and the RNIB College Loughborough.
The Union is unique among British universities, in that its premises are owned by the students themselves.[1] The union building sits in the North-Eastern corner of the campus, and consists of two floors.
LSU employs 300 students, out of a staff of 400, and has an annual budget of around £2 million, around half of which results from the Union's commercial services. The Union is managed on a day to day basis by the Executive, with scrutiny from Union Council, chaired by James Carroll.
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Loughborough Students' Union was founded in 1975 following the resolution of a dispute arising from the disparate nature of education in Loughborough. Its founder president was David Dixon who held the position in 1975-76.[2]
Established as an umbrella body to represent the students of Loughborough College of Technology, Loughborough College of Education, Loughborough Training College and Loughborough College of Art and Design, The Union of Loughborough Colleges operated from Rutland Lodge. Over the first half of the 20th century the ULC acquired land which has continued to place its successor unions in a unique position.[2]
With the splitting of Loughborough College in 1965, and the College of Technology's subsequent application for University status, LUTSU was created to represent the students of the University. At the time the legislation which enabled the creation of the University was understood to require an autonomous Union. LUTSU was created with the approval of Loughborough University of Technology's Royal Charter by the Privy Council in 1966.[2]
LUTSU operated from the Edward Herbert Building (EHB) at the centre of the campus, and hosted concerts with artists such as the Rolling Stones.[2] During the first 3 years of the new institutional arrangements there were various disputes over who owned the land acquired by ULC, which the continuing ULC wanted to sell to fund their own new building. Negotiations led by the University resolved the dispute in August 1975, when LUTSU and ULC merged to form Loughborough Students' Union.
Following the merger the construction of a new students' union building began, although this project was placed in jeopardy by the liquidation of the building firm employed, almost leaving the building unfinished, however the building was completed and opened by Terry Jones and Michael Palin on 20 February 1979
Loughborough Students' Union has established student run committees in the majority of Loughborough University's academic departments. The role of these committees is to aid academic-student liaison, enhance academic feedback, increase course involvement and to enhance the Loughborough experience within the departments.
The students' union is a centre of activity during the daytime. Along with Loughborough University's numerous sports clubs the union hosts and organises many other activities, clubs and societies catering for a wide range of interests. At the beginning of each academic year the Union Bazaar is held to allow students, especially new arrivals, to talk to existing members of these clubs and societies and to provide an early opportunity to sign up.
See also Loughborough Students RUFC.
Loughborough Students Athletic Union is steeped in history and has a tradition of sporting excellence, exhibiting a history of dominance across a number of specific sports such as rugby union. Loughborough has dominated the University sport for 30 years and having won the Men's British Universities and Colleges Sport championships for the last 26 years, and the women's competition for the last 28 years.[3]
This success is celebrated through a number of channels, not least the weekly Wednesday Hey Ewe event and Lufbra WOW (Walk On Water) which is a monthly sports publication documents Loughborough's sporting success. The Athletic Union has three full time staff members and one sabbatical officer, the Athletic Union President.
Action is the main volunteering section of the Union and is a vital in improving the relationships with the local community. Approximately there are 2,000 active volunteers a year, undertaking a wide range of activities, such as going away to a Kids Camp for a week, assisting in special needs schools, running one day sports events for 200 children and helping conserve Outwoods, the local forest, by chopping down trees. The Chairperson, a sabbatical position, is elected in a campus wide ballot, with the Action Chair for 2010/11 being David Cox
LSU runs numerous clubs and societies catering for many different tastes including hot air ballooning, SCOGUI (Scout and Guide club, affiliated to SSAGO) and Labour Students. In 2007, Sabrina Johnson, the first Sabbatical Officer with overall responsibility for this section, was elected.
Since then, SOCFED or the Societies Federation has been set, which is the collective group of societies, similar in nature to what the AU is to Loughborough Sport.
The Rag office is responsible for organising, encouraging and supporting charity fund-raising amongst the union's members, and is the largest of such organisations in Europe, raising just over £974,000 for local and national charities in the academic year 2008/09. The Chairperson of the organisation is elected via a campus-wide ballot as part of LSU's Spring Term exec elections. He or she is tasked with co-ordinating the busy Rag calendar, which includes Rag Raids, Annual Events and Challenge Events; activities every weekend. The Chair for 2010/11 is Maddy Buckley.
In June 2010 it was revealed that the total for the year's fundraising was £1,042,126, once again braking the previous years total.[4] This prompted a question from Loughborough MP Nicky Morgan to David Cameron at Prime Minister's Questions on 14 July asking:
| “ | Will the Prime Minister join me in congratulating the Loughborough University Student Union Rag Committee, which as well as providing many volunteers to local groups has this year raised more than any other rag in the country-more than £1 million, including raising £34,000 in one day for the Royal British Legion? Is not this an example of the big society in action? | ” |
The Big Society is a flagship policy of the Conservative Party which makes the question a 'plant' for the Prime Minister who took the opportunity presented by his backbencher to highlight the policy and its objectives; as well as congratulating the students involved:
| “ | I thank my hon. Friend for her question. She is absolutely right. Sometimes students can get a bad press for what they do, but we can see from the example of Loughborough that they have focused on doing things for other people and raising money for charity. They should be congratulated.[5] | ” |
The students' union has its own purpose-built multi-media centre, opened in 1999, it is home to union's media activities which are coordinated by an annually elected sabbatical officer, this year (2011/12); Head of Media, Anie Davis. Previously to this £1.4m development media was spread in various locations, including LCR which was for almost 30 years based in a small set of studios in the Student Village adjacent to the Purple Onion cafe. The Media section provides a number of services for the students on the campus and gives volunteers the chance to experience media work. Since the role's creation in 2007 the Head of Media's responsibilities are aiding the station managers of LSUTV and LCR and being Editor in Chief of Label. The four production outlets are:
Loop Recording Studios
Label Magazine the magazine of Loughborough Students' Union. Evolving from a previous newspaper format inventively titled The Newspaper, Label Magazine was launched in 1997, and is notable for its debatable editorial independence from the union itself. Previously a weekly publication, since 2007 it has been fortnightly.
The magazine launched its website in 2010 at [www.lufbra.net/label] and has had major stories about the Ashley Cole shooting, Live Updates from the London March and an investigation into the legitimacy of the 2011 Exec elections.
Loughborough Campus Radio broadcasts 24 hours a day during term time on on its website [www.lufbra.net/lcr]. One of the oldest student radio stations in the UK, LCR started as pirate radio broadcasts from a suitcase in Hazelrigg Hall of residence, during Rag Week 1970. Known as Radio Mule - a small station with a kick it had become so popular after 3 years that the students voted to turn it into a legitimate station, over a student magazine. URL (University Radio Loughborough) was born, and went live on-air in 1973, the name was changed to LCR in 1983. Initially broadcast through induction loops on the roofs of each hall of residence, it was one of the first UK student stations to move to the new free radiating low-powered AM licence in October 1999, with webcasting starting later the same academic year. In 2007 the AM transmitter was severely damaged in a fire, and LCR have continued to be a solely internet station since. At the 2010 Student Radio Awards, LCR picked up the Silver award in the Best Student Station Category. 2010/11 saw LCR have some fantastic shows, notably, The Official Start to the Weekend, BUCS Live, The Saturday Sports Show and Bedtimes with Ben and Friends.
LSUTV was established in 2001 as an expansion of the Media Centre, broadcasting online and via SUBtv plasma screens. It works at a professional level and as an independent production company, and produces news, sport and documentaries alongside what The Independent describes as one of the best student programmes, Totty TV.[6] LSUTV has been extremely successful on a national level at the NaSTA Awards. In recent years, Ore Oduba and Sam Darcy have collected Best On-Screen Male, Loughborough Gold has scooped Best Sport and Best Title Sequence and LSUTV's coverage of the Real Varsity in 2008 picked up Best Live. In 2011, LSUTV was the host station for NaSTA. Held in the Piazza area of Loughborough Students' Union, LSUTV scooped Best Sport Programme for a second year, for Loughborough Gold and their coverage of the Dan James Memorial Match in May 2010 won Best Live Programme.
There are a range of retail outlets in and around the Student Union building. The first floor incorporates the Administrative parts of the Student's Union. The ground floor of the Union building consists of three bars.
Free Fest is an annual free-to-attend outdoor music concert originally organised by the Union's Musicians Society (known as Musoc), which takes place all day on the May Day bank holiday weekend. Originally conceived in 1996 by the then editor of the student magazine Label, Emily Dubberley, as a simple May Day music festival with professional acts, it was enhanced in 1997 when Musoc began to use it as a showcase for student bands. It is now organised by the Technical Department's student production crew.
Competition for inclusion in Free Fest is always high, as such it has become necessary to hold Auditions and a Fringe Festival has been added to encompass more acts, this takes place during the penultimate weekend before the main Free Fest. In 2006 around 10 bands performed at Free Fest, including the only non-student act Carlton Cole (who has become something of an institution at FreeFest) and guitarist Dave Rogers. In 2006 Post Fest, an alternative music club night held in Room 1 following the bands, which was originally conceived and run by LSU Rocksoc, was taken over as an official part of the event and featured a wide variety of music from one of LSU's resident DJ's.
Past Freefest Headliners:
2000: Splitscreen
2001: Gentlemen's Relish
2002: Magenta
2003: Disinformation
2004: Love Ends Disaster!
2005: Threadbear
2006: Dual Decay
2007: Gonzo Long[7]
2008: Dead Slow[8]
2009: Apache Outlaw[9]
2010: Snakeskin!
2011: The Alice Band
From 2009-2010, FreeFest was a two day event, starting on the Sunday. The 2009 event was also the first FreeFest to restrict attendees to drinks purchased from the Union. However in 2011, due to a desire to save money, the event was toned down, back to being more like the original stage-on-the-back-of-a-lorry event as well as only being held on the one day.
On 11 March 2007 a shooting incident occurred at around 2.45am following a performance by Pretty Ricky at the university. A 21-year-old student at the university, who was employed as security staff at the event, received gunshot wounds to his abdomen and was taken to hospital where his condition was not believed to be life threatening. Six others were also injured during what was described as a scuffle that broke out after CS gas was sprayed following the event.[10]
At the conclusion of the case at Leicester Crown Court in April 2008 Jermaine Carty was convicted of attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, and sentenced to 14 years in Prison. The court also heard that Carty was a leading member of the Johnson Crew.[11] Carty was not a student at the University.