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Queen's Students' Union (QSU) is the official representative body for students at
Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...
. Membership of the union is automatic and currently totals 24,560, making it one of the largest unions on the island of Ireland and in the United Kingdom. The Students' Union derives its existence and authority from the University's Statutes, and so is not entirely independent of it. Therefore, it 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 its student members during their time at Queen's. 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 it opened in 1967.Newry Firm Felix O'Hare to build Queen's Students' Union
''Belfast Telegraph''


History

The history of the Students' Union can be traced back to the late nineteenth century and to what was then Queen's College, Belfast, which was founded in 1845 and became a separate university in 1908. Student facilities at the College remained minimal until the establishment of the all-male Students' Union Society (SUS), which began fundraising with the support of the College's management to build a dedicated Students' Union building providing services to the College's 400 students. The SUS was responsible for managing the Students' Union building which was located on University Square and was opened on 19 January 1897 by the
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingdo ...
,
George Cadogan, 5th Earl Cadogan George Henry Cadogan, 5th Earl Cadogan (12 May 1840 – 6 March 1915), styled Viscount Chelsea from 1864 to 1873, was a British Conservative politician. Background and education Cadogan was the eldest son of Henry Cadogan, 4th Earl Cadogan, b ...
during celebrations to mark the College's
Golden Jubilee A golden jubilee marks a 50th anniversary. It variously is applied to people, events, and nations. Bangladesh In Bangladesh, golden jubilee refers the 50th anniversary year of the separation from Pakistan and is called in Bengali ''"সু ...
and had been built at a cost of £8,000. The facilities offered by the Students' Union included a shop, cloakroom, billiards and smoking room and meeting and debating chambers as well as a dining room, which was the only part of building always opened to women students. Women had first been admitted to Queen's in September 1889 and in response to the male make-up of the SUS, the Women Students' Hall Society (WSH) was established in 1927 and became based in numbers 20 and 21 on the opposite side of University Square to the Students' Union building. In 1900, the students' representative council (SRC) was established to provide representation to the institution's students in relations with management and staff, this was in contrast to the mainly social activities of the SUS and the WSH, who were both recognised societies of the SRC. The SRC had offices on University Square, close to the WSH premises and held its meetings in the Union building. These three student organisations came together in 1965 to address ways that they could work better and be more inclusive of all students at the University, in advance of the opening of a new Union building opposite the main Lanyon Building on University Road. This resulted in the establishment of a combined constitution for the three which were to be known as the students' representative council of the Students' Union, which took effect from 1 October 1966. Its name was shortened to the Students' Union in 1975, with the SRC renamed the Students' Union Council in the early 2000s. 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
Belfast City Hospital The Belfast City Hospital ( ga, Ospidéal Chathair Bhéal Feirste) in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is a 900-bed modern university teaching hospital providing local acute services and key regional specialities. Its distinctive orange tower block d ...
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. 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. 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. In 2018, the Students' Union building was closed in order to make way for construction of a brand new state-of-the-art building which combines both the Student Guidance Centre and the Students' Union under one roof. Interim facilities were provided in the Elmwood Teaching Centre whilst construction was taking place. The new building, officially named One Elmwood, opened on 5 September 2022.


Environment & the Climate Crisis

In 2015, the Fossil Free QUB group occupied the university Administration Building to protest against the university's continued investments in fossil fuels. This group, led by QSU President Seán Fearon, succeeded in securing commitment from Queen's University that they would divest from fossil fuels by the year 2025.


Governance


Students' Union Council (SUC)

Currently, the Union is governed by an Executive Committee who are aided by a number of full-time staff, and answerable to the Students' Union Council (SUC). Elections for the SUC take place in October and seats are filled through proportional representation (PR), with constituencies representing each faculty. The Union existed as "Queen's Elms" in 1859 was followed by a replacement building in 1965.


Executive

The Executive Management Committee (EMC) of the Union comprises the six
sabbatical A sabbatical (from the Hebrew: (i.e., Sabbath); in Latin ; Greek: ) is a rest or break from work. The concept of the sabbatical is based on the Biblical practice of ''shmita'' (sabbatical year), which is related to agriculture. According to ...
(full-time) officers, which was reduced from seven from the 2016/17 academic year, and the director and deputy director. In addition to this, there are 16 non-sabbatical (part-time) officers, including the Union Speaker, who also sit on the EMC. The EMC is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day work of the Union and works with the management board in setting strategy and measuring outputs, with the management board also having a number of external 'trustees' and representatives from the University. The sabbatical officers are elected in March every year, take office from 1 July and represent the students in dealings with the University and other groups. In November 2018, the Students' Union Council voted to create two new non-sabbatical officer positions: the Trans Students' Officer and the Irish Language Officer.


Facilities


Clubs and Societies

There are more than 50 sporting clubs, including
Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
( QUB AFC),
hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...
( QUB Hockey),
boating Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether Motorboat, powerboats, Sailing, sailboats, or man-powered vessels (such as rowing and paddle boats), focused on the travel itself, as well as sp ...
( QUB Boat Club) and
Gaelic games Gaelic games ( ga, Cluichí Gaelacha) are a set of sports played worldwide, though they are particularly popular in Ireland, where they originated. They include Gaelic football, hurling, Gaelic handball and rounders. Football and hurling, the ...
. As well as this there are more than one hundred non-sporting
societies A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societi ...
, including cultural groups like An Cumann Gaelach and the
Ulster-Scots Ulster Scots, may refer to: * Ulster Scots people The Ulster Scots ( Ulster-Scots: ''Ulstèr-Scotch''; ga, Albanaigh Ultach), also called Ulster Scots people (''Ulstèr-Scotch fowk'') or (in North America) Scotch-Irish (''Scotch-Airisch'') ...
Society, gaming societies such as the
Dragonslayers A dragonslayer is a person or being that slays dragons. Dragonslayers and the creatures they hunt have been popular in traditional stories from around the world: they are a type of story classified as type 300 in the Aarne–Thompson classificat ...
, activism societies like the Belfast chapter of
oikos International oikos International is an international student organization focusing on economics and management education. Oikos International has 45 Local Chapters in 23 countries around the world. History The first oikos chapter, today known as oikos ...
, Amnesty International and debating groups such as the Literary and Scientific Society (Literific) and QUB
Model UN Model United Nations, also known as Model UN or MUN, is an educational simulation in which students can learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the United Nations. At a MUN conference, students work as the representative of a count ...
, while most of the University's schools and departments also have a corresponding society such as the Law Society and the Belfast Medical Students Association (BMSA). There are also multiple societies serving international students, such as the International Students Society (QISS) and the Malaysian Students Society (MSSNI). Clubs and societies receive annual grants from the University via the VP Student Activities to carry out their educational roles; however, although political clubs and religious societies (such as the Christian Union and the Humanist Society) receive official recognition from the SU Council, they do not receive money from the Union. Most of the main political groups on the island are present at Queen's including:
Labour Students Labour Students is a student organisation within the Labour Party of the United Kingdom. It is a network of affiliated college and university clubs, known as Labour Clubs, who campaign in their campuses and communities for Labour's values of e ...
(the student wing of the
British Labour Party The Labour Party is a List of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of Social democracy, social democrats, Democratic socialism, democratic socialists and trade u ...
), Northern Ireland Conservative Future (the youth movement of the
British Conservative Party The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party and also known colloquially as the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party. It is the current governing party, ...
), the Young Greens, Queens's Alliance (part of
Alliance Youth The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI), or simply Alliance, is a liberal and centrist political party in Northern Ireland. As of the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, it is the third-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly ...
),
Ógra Fianna Fáil Ógra Fianna Fáil(; meaning "Youth of Fianna Fáil") is the youth wing of Fianna Fáil. The organisation was founded in 1975 by party leader Jack Lynch under the guidance of party general secretary, Séamus Brennan. It is active on an all-Ir ...
(the first branch in
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
), the Democratic Unionist Association, the Young Unionists,
SDLP Youth SDLP Youth is the youth wing of the social democratic and Irish nationalist political party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Membership of the organisation is entitled to SDLP party members of the age 30 and under. It is organised ...
, Sinn Féin Republican Youth, the
Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...
and the Socialist Workers Party. Queen's Students' Union is the long term venue of
Q-Con Queen's Students' Union (QSU) is the official representative body for students at Queen's University Belfast. Membership of the union is automatic and currently totals 24,560, making it one of the largest unions on the island of Ireland and in ...
, a gaming convention in the UK. It is an event critically acclaimed by members of the gaming industry, in particular because it is organised exclusively by the members of the Queen's University Dragonslayers society.


Notable former officers

Until the establishment of the Students' Union in 1966, there were three main student organisations at Queen's. The first of these was the students' representative council which was located on University Square and was responsible for representing all students to the University's management. There were also two other groups who served a more social function in student life, the Students' Union Society was based in the Union building and was for male students only, while the Women Students' Hall provided some of the same services to female students and was located on University Square. In 1966 these three were merged to form Queen's University Belfast Students' Union. *
Alex Attwood Alexander Gerard Attwood (born 26 April 1959) is an Irish Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) politician, who served as Minister for Environment in the Northern Ireland Executive from 2011 to 2013. Atwood served as a Member of the Leg ...
, President, 1982-1983 * Pol Callaghan, Vice President 1999-2000, President 2000-2001 *
Mark Durkan Mark Durkan (born 26 June 1960) is a retired Irish nationalist politician from Northern Ireland. Durkan was the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from November 2001 to October 2002, and the Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Pa ...
, Deputy President, 1981-82 *
Emma Little-Pengelly Emma Little-Pengelly (born 31 December 1979) is a Northern Irish barrister and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician. She has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly (Northern Ireland), Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Laga ...
, Deputy President, 1998-1999 * Adam McGibbon, Vice President, 2010-12 *
Nick Ross Nicholas David Ross (born 7 August 1947) is a British radio and television presenter. During the 1980s and 1990s he was one of the most ubiquitous of British broadcasters but is best known for hosting the BBC TV programme ''Crimewatch'', whic ...
, Deputy President, 1968-69


References


External links


QUBSU Homepage

NUS-USI Homepage
{{Coord, 54, 35, 4, N, 5, 56, 13, W, display=title, type:edu Students' unions in Northern Ireland
Students' 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, ...
Buildings and structures in Belfast Concert halls in Northern Ireland Music venues in Belfast Nightclubs in Belfast Student organizations established in 1900 Student organizations established in 1966