Thursday 18-01-2018 - 16:01

Love Your Union Week is approaching fast! Before we welcome you back to university life with a week of amazing events, we thought we’d take the opportunity to let you know why you should love SMSU in the form of a history lesson about SMSU.

What does a Students’ Union do?

Students’ Unions provide opportunities for students to realise their full potential whilst studying at university. These opportunities come in a variety of forms – they can range from participating in a society to organising university-wide campaigns. If a student wants to become more involved than this, they can even run for a job as a full-time officer within a Union.

The purpose of a Student’s Union is to ensure that all students’ voices to be heard, whether they commute, live on campus, have just come from formal schooling or are returning to education after some years away. Students’ Unions work for everyone!

Elected officers are elected into roles within their unions so that they can represent the views and opinions of their specific student body. As independent institutions, unions are there to represent all students’ interests – even when this goes against the will of the universities that they’re adjoined to.

Through a collectivist approach, unions are able to facilitate the change that students wish to see at their university by consistently highlighting the importance of the student voice and opinion to their respective universities. Students are able to use the platform and support of their SU officers to create the environment that they want to see within their institution. So in effect, a students’ union is able to make positive changes to every student’s university experience.

A bit of history

 

Students’ unions are one of the most cherished aspects of the university system in the UK. The oldest recorded students' union in Britain is Edinburgh University Students' Association, founded in 1884.

St Mary’s is a historically rich university, and SMSU is no exception to this - the oldest record of St Mary’s Students’ Union is a plaque from a cross-country race in 1906, proving that over 100 years ago, we still had strong athletes!

We’ve always had a strong reputation for student representation - over the years, this has mainly happened through the co-ordination of student sports teams and societies, and from the organisation of social events. We also have an illustrious musical history that not many people know about - the Rolling Stones, Cream and Pink Floyd have all played on campus for students over the years.

More recently, SMSU has developed hugely to meet the needs of all of our students. This has led to the SU becoming more involved in decisions at university level, which means that the student voice is heard in every discussion. Historically, SMUC Radio is one of our most illustrious societies which was founded by Eamon McCrystal – he’s now a Grammy Award-winning musician!

In the past few years, we’ve hired lots of new staff to help students create sports clubs and societies, make our events bigger and better and ensure that your welfare is looked after. We hope to grow even more in the next 3-5 years, and who knows what will happen after that?

So why should you love SMSU?

The Students’ Union here at St Mary’s has grown so much recently that whatever it is that you need, we’ve got you covered. We’re bigger and better than ever, so if you haven’t been involved with us previously then now is your chance!

We have over 25 sports teams competing at a range of levels so if you want to get active there’s plenty to do. There is also a massive range of societies on offer, from Afro-Caribbean to FIFA to Creative writing – so whatever your interests might be, there are always new ways to meet people. You can also create your own club or society if our current ones don’t suit you.

When you want to unwind and socialise, there are loads of different events to choose from too. In the evenings, we run events such as the TW1 Sessions, Summer Ball, Welcome Fortnight and nights out at some of London’s biggest clubs. We provide non-drinking based events for students who don’t like loud clubs, too – Home Comforts Café is a fortnightly event we run with the Chaplaincy. In addition to this, during Love Your Union Week we’ll be hosting a Parents’ Day for those with children, and the Puppy Rooms for all of the dog-lovers out there! To find out more about those events, click here.

We pride ourselves on raising thousands of pounds for RAG (Raising And Giving) each year – in the past, we’ve worked with a variety of charities including CALM, Canteen, SPEAR and many more. Those who are more active within the Union and RAG also have a great opportunity to get to know staff at the University and the local community better. During our Christmas Community Festival each year, we take the opportunity to give something back to the local community. Last year we had politicians from all of the major political parties there, including Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable!

Love Your Union Week is just one of a number of opportunities for you to get involved with your Union, and we hope you’ll make the most of it! Find out more about it here.