Keele University Students' Union

Keele University Students' Union (KUSU) aims to represent students at Keele University, England.

Overview

The main Students' Union building at the University of Keele was designed by architects Stillman & Eastwick-Field (now part of the tp bennett practice), with some guidance from the university's architect, J.A. Pickavance.

The Student Union holds the student night, Reloaded, every Friday as well as the popular Rewind night on a Wednesday. The Union has several bars - The Lounge, Sam's Bar, K2 (including the area 'The Bubble') and Barista (formerly "BJ's" Bar).

Harveys Coffee Shop and The Kiln (formerly "the Diner") serve hot food throughout the day.

Smoking is now banned.

Kube Radio broadcasts over the internet. Kube is an acronym for the full title of the radio station which is Keele University Broadcasting Enterprises.

KUSU has four Sabbatical Officers commonly known as "Sabbs".
* President
* Vice-President (Communication and Democracy)
* Vice-President (Education and Welfare)
* Vice President (Finance and Activities)

The KUSU Executive is made up of 19 officers. Along with the four sabbaticals, the other 15 partfolios are part time positions elected at the same time and in the same manner as the Sabbaticals.

* Non-Portfolio Officer
* Male Gender Officer
* Female Gender Officer
* LGBT Officer
* Campus Affairs Officer
* Off-Campus Affairs Officer
* Entertainments Officer
* Environmental Officer
* Athletics Union President
* Campus Affairs Officer
* International Students Officer
* Students with Disabilities Officer
* Postgraduate Officer
* Mature Students Officer
* Racial Diversity Officer

The Students' Union also has 3 regulatory officers who form the Constitutional Affairs Committee. These offciers are:
* The General Secretary
* The Constitutional Affairs Secretary
* The Chairman of the Student Council, who also acts as Speaker of the House for the all important UGMs.

The Students' Union also elects representatives of the studernt body to sit on the University Learning and Teaching Committees.

Governance

The Students' Union is currently undergoing a governance review, which has been a cause of both controversy and dissent among the student body. It started because of legislation in Parliament which may affect the union's charitable status, however, it has been claimed that many of the proposals brought forward to amend the governance of the SU goes beyond the stated mandate. In the final Union General Meeting (UGM; a conference of students) the Sabbatical Officers' proposals were rejected by the student body and the review was placed in the hands of the Constitutional Affairs Committee (CAC). However due to the nature of KUSU's constitution the CAC has 3 members and all must be there for their decisions to be quorate, but two of the three members resigned in late 2007 (the General Secretary and the Constitutional Affairs Secretary) and the positions were left unfilled leaving the then Chair of SRC unable to legitimately make any rulings. This situation is now fixed as one of the constitutional amendments made in 2008's first UGM was to change the quorum requirements from "3 members" to "100% of current voting members". This however was criticised as it could potentially leave 1 person in charge of interpreting the union's constitution.

The governing bodies of KUSU are the Student Council (SC) and the Union General Meetings (UGM). Although the UGM is the sovereign body of the Students' Union it only sits 4 times per academic year and therefore the normal day-to-day governing is done through the SRC.

The UGM is open to all full members of KUSU to vote in and may be observed by members who are not officially full members (including guests). At a UGM any two people may together put forward a motion to either amend the KUSU constitution or to add, edit or remove policy motions, which are documents that mandate the union and it's representative to undertake an action or official position on an issue for a maximum of 3 years (unless stated otherwise). Due to the fact the UGM usually meets 4 times a year and is the only body within the union that can enact amendments to the regulations of the constitution the meetings tend to be long and considered "boring". This unfortunately causes unfamilliarity between the students and its own Union's legislation. Thus, small attempts have been made to make certain area's of KUSU's politcal aspect more attractive to the average student.

The SC is a body made up of 50 councillors representing the various aspects of life at Keele. Each hall of residence is represented, as are societies, off-campus students, the Athletics Union, Undergraduates, Postgraduates and members of the Hospital Campus site in Stoke-on-Trent. The SC used to be known as the "Student Representative Council" however as part of the constitutional review it has been renamed to its current name of "Student Council".

tudent Activism and History

Keele University students have a history of particularly left-wing activism, most of which occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. A three day sit in of the University's Registry Office took place in protest against various university rulings of the time mainly centring around accommodation. This included a rule which banned students of the opposite sex in halls after 10pm [http://pawilton.net/keelealumni/KeeleLife/Article1.htm] . Ironically, Keele University would later become the first UK university to offer mixed sex halls. There were subsequent sit ins in various locations around the university for various reasons over the proceeding ten years. The most infamous event however, was Keele students' week long declaration of independence from the UK. However, some less enthusiastic Alumni claim that the effectiveness and popularity of this stunt have been greatly exaggerated [http://pawilton.net/keelealumni/KeeleLife/freerepublic2.htm] .

However, despite the historical reputation for left-wing activism amongst Keele students which once had the campus labelled "The Kremlin on the Hill" by local people, the university has more recently been a centre of apoliticism, with political groups struggling to recruit on campus. In this regard, however, things have begun to change again over the past couple of years.

Membership of the university's Conservative Future branch is known to be one of the largest outside of London and the largest political party on campus by a considerable margin. Every year NKCF as the society is known hold many social and political events with notable visitors including Boris Johnson and Michael Howard. Every summer NKCF hold their "Conservative Ball" in Keele Hall which attracts fellow "Tories" from all across the country, including noteable MPs.

Recent months have seen a resurgence in membership of Labour Students, who have had high profile visits from many Keele Graduates who are Labour MPs. Keele Labour Students is now the largest Labour Students club in the West Midlands in terms of membership, and the group currently occupy four seats on the Newcastle-under-Lyme Constituency Labour Party Executive Committee, a member on the Stoke-on-Trent North Constituency Labour Party Executive Committee and one former Chairman is now a Councillor for Longton North.

tudent Entertainment and Activity

Keele University students have a wide range of musical and non musical societies in which they can partake as part of Keele University Student's Union (KUSU). This is best displayed in some of KUSU's student run societies. Examples are KUBE radio, an award winning student run radio station, KRAP - Keele's very own Rock Society, holding regular fortnightly clubnights of the light and heavy rock persuasion, KDS - the Keele Drama Society, a very active society providing the thespian communitiy within keele with entertainment and a chance to shine on stage. These societies, alongside many MANY more (see Kusu.net) are examples some of the main attractions at Keele. Regardless of student politics, (which grounds are heavily contested with by the Labour Students society and the Conservative Future society) KUSU has many student run Entertainments.

However, it should not be forgotten that there are many nights held by the KUSU Entertaiments department, that enjoys use of The Ballroom, K2, The Outback, and Sam's bar, allowing for huge parties that are the size of the whole Union building or designated themed nights such as Mondays which often involve one room with indie rock, and another with 90's pop. 'KUSU Ents' are known for hosting a variety of live entertainments and the "02 UK's Favourite University Party".

Affiliations

*British Universities Sports Association (BUSA)
*National Union of Students (NUS)
*West Midlands Area National Union of Students (WMANUS)

References

* [http://pawilton.net/keelealumni/KeeleLife/Article1.htm "The Sherry Revolution"] by Malcolm Clarke, "Evening Sentinel", July, 1998, retrieved August 20, 2006
* [http://pawilton.net/keelealumni/KeeleLife/freerepublic2.htm "Revolutionary Keele : The Free Republic of Keele(2)"] by David Williams, "Keele University Alumni Website', retrieved August 20, 2006

External links

* [http://www.kusu.net/ KUSU Webpage]