Chalmers Student Union (''Chalmers Studentkår'' or ChS) is the

student union A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, ...

at Chalmers University of Technology in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. Its primary purpose is to look after the interests of the students of the university in questions regarding the education. The student union also arranges one of Europe's largest labour market days,

CHARM Charm may refer to: Social science * Charisma, a person or thing's pronounced ability to attract others * Superficial charm, flattery, telling people what they want to hear Science and technology * Charm quark, a type of elementary particle * Ch ...

. The social committee of ChS, consisting of 6 members, is called FestU. It was founded in 1948.http://festu.chs.chalmers.se FestU's primary job is to arrange big parties for the student union members, their biggest event of the year is Valborgskalaset which is held April 30 every year.

History

The union was founded in 1904, and the first charter of the organisation was adopted in 1906. In 1911 a proposal to start

The Cortège The Cortège ( sv, Cortègen), or The Chalmers Cortège (Swedish: ''Chalmerscortègen'') is an annual carnival parade held on Walpurgis Night (30 April) by students of the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. The Cortège consists of ...

, an annual

carnival parade Carnival is a Catholic Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival typi ...

now seen by 250,000 people each year, was accepted. The union's own

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

''Tofsen'' was first published in 1944, and ChS obtained its first union building ''Lopphuset'' that same year. A new union building was opened in 1952. The union owns several

corporations A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...

, including ''Cremona'', a bookstore which became an

aktiebolag ''Aktiebolag'' (, " stock company") is the Swedish term for "limited company" or "corporation". When used in company names, it is abbreviated AB (in Sweden), Ab (in Finland), or, rarely, A/B (dated), roughly equivalent to the abbreviations ''Ltd ...

in 1988. A new union building was inaugurated in 2001. The building was drawn by

Gert Wingårdh Gert Wingårdh (born 1951) is a Swedish architect whose company, Wingårdh arkitektkontor, maintains an international practice.''Gert Wingårdh; Thirty Years of Architecture'', Mikael Nanfeldt (ed.) (Birkhäuser Publishers for Architecture, 2008 ...

and won the Kasper Salin Prize that year.

Notable pranks

In 1955, a student at the university, Rickard Wilson, held a fake disputation on fatilary calculus, witnessed by many of the larger newspapers in Sweden, fooling many of the journalists, who the day after produced a number of serious articles on the disputation. Three years later, in 1958, a committee at the union, Chalmersspexet, donated 64 öre–corresponding to around 4.5 USD of today–to the Swedish state to "even out the national debt to a whole number of kronor". In 1968, when the Stockholm University Student Union occupied their union building, ChS decided to occupy the brewery Pripps. Before the transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

from the United Kingdom in 1997, the students' union wrote a request to the British Prime Minister asking if they could hire the whole of Hong Kong for a few minutes in connection with the transfer to China.

References

External links

Chalmers Studentkår
- official site
Chalmers International Reception Committee
(CIRC)
BEST
{{Authority control

Student Union A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, ...

Students' unions in Sweden 1904 establishments in Sweden Hisingen

History

Notable pranks

See also

References

External links