Durham Students' Union

Motto
Established	1899 as Durham Students Representative Council
Institution	Durham University
President	Alex Duncan
Other Sabbatical Officers	Treasurer: Kieren Walters, Education and Welfare Officer: Claire Rasul, DUCK Officer: Natasha Evans
Location	Dunelm House, Durham, England
Members	c. 14,000
Affiliated to	National Union of Students, National Union of Students Services Limited
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Homepage	DSU homepage

The Durham Students' Union is a body, set up as the Durham Colleges Students’ Representative Council in 1899 and renamed in 1969, with the intention of representing and providing welfare and services for the students of the University of Durham in Durham, England. The union is almost universally known by the initialism DSU. Image File history File links DSU_logo. ... Durham University is a university in England. ... Durham (IPA: locally, in RP) is a small city and main settlement of the City of Durham district of County Durham in northeast England. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi   - Water (%) Population... The National Union of Students (NUS) is the main organisation claiming to represent students unions in the United Kingdom. ... Durham University is a university in England. ... Durham (IPA: locally, in RP) is a small city and main settlement of the City of Durham district of County Durham in northeast England. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi   - Water (%) Population... Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letter or letters of words, such as NATO and XHTML, and are pronounced in a way that is distinct from the full pronunciation of what the letters stand for. ...

Location

DSU occupies and manages Dunelm House, a university-owned building in the centre of Durham where a wide variety of student activities take place. The Brutalist, angular concrete building was completed in 1963 under the supervision of architect Sir Ove Arup, whose Kingsgate Bridge, adjacent, opened two years later. Built into the bank of the River Wear, Dunelm House is notable internally for the fact that the main staircase linking all five levels of the building runs in an entirely straight line. Both bridge and building have won Civic Trust awards, though the architecture of Dunelm House is not generally well-liked in the city. Brutalism is an architectural style that spawned from the modernist architectural movement and which flourished from the 1950s to the 1970s. ... Arup is a professional services firm providing engineering, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of the built environment. ... Kingsgate Bridge is a striking, modern reinforced concrete construction footbridge across the River Wear, in Durham, England. ... The River Wear (pronounced Wee-er) is a river in the North East of England. ... The Civic Trust of England and Wales is a charitable organisation founded in 1957. ...

Durham Students' Union's building, Dunelm House

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Ents and Services

Welfare

The union provides a number of student welfare services, in addition to those provided by the University. To that end, it employs full-time trained advisors, runs the DSU Nightbus that ensures students can get home safely, and organises "associations" for specific minority groups of students whose interests are deemed to require additional non-collegiate provision. In the United Kingdom, a collegiate university is a university whose functions are divided between the central departments of the university and a number of colleges. ...

Commercial Services

DSU also runs a number of commercial ventures, including shops, cafés, bars and events. Late night events include Planet of Sound and Revolver every Friday and Saturday; two new events are proposed for alternate Wednesday and Thursday nights.

All of DSU's commercial services are intended to make a profit which can be used to subsidise welfare, support student societies and other student services by DSU. Although DSU is also given a grant by the university, it is much lower than that received by most students unions in the U.K..

Social Events

During the late 1960s and the 1970s Dunelm House was a popular music venue, hosting bands including Pink Floyd and Procol Harum. According to their drummer Simon Kirke, Free's most popular song All Right Now was written by bassist Andy Fraser in their dressing room in Dunelm House, after a set of slower material had failed to excite the audience. Pink Floyd are an English rock band noted for philosophical lyrics, classical rock compositions, sonic experimentation, innovative cover art, and elaborate live shows. ... Procol Harum are an English progressive rock band, formed in the 1960s. ... Free was a British R&B-style rock band which formed in London in 1968 best known for their popular song All Right Now. Lead singer Paul Rodgers went on to become lead singer of the rock band Bad Company along with Simon Kirke on drums, while lead guitarist Paul... Andy Fraser (born on 7 August 1952, in London) is an English musician, best known for his songwriting and bass playing with Free. ...

The current DSU often struggles to match the Durham colleges' abilities to organise 'ents' and socials. However, it runs the successful 'Planet of Sound' club night every Friday, which has become the biggest university-wide event in Durham. Other ents are held most Wednesday evenings, though the success of these is highly variable. In the United Kingdom, a collegiate university is a university whose functions are divided between the central departments of the university and a number of colleges. ...

DSU Societies

DSU is notable for the high number of ratified societies it supports. There are usually between 120 and 150 DSU-ratified societies at any time. A full and up-to-date list of DSU's societies can be found on the DSU website. These societies do not include the University's assorted athletic- and sports-related clubs which are ratified by DSU's "sister" organisation, the Durham University Athletic Union (DUAU), or college-based societies.

'DUCK'

Unlike many Students' Unions, DSU does not have "RAG week", but instead, DUCK - Durham University Charities' Kommittee - organises charitable events and activities throughout the year. It is rumoured that "RAG" was forced to disband after one week when several students broke into the nearby HMP Durham, and left a box of Cadbury's Milk Tray on the desk of the governor. DUCK rose, phœnix-like, from the ashes of Durham "RAG". University Rag societies are student-run charitable fundraising organisations that are widespread in the United Kingdom. ... HM Prison Durham is a prison located in Durham, County Durham, England. ...

A story recently discovered in the DSU archive relates that in 1978 DUCK held a competition to find the most unpopular student in Durham with the intention of throwing them in the river. At the time the story went to print the DSU sabbaticals were the front runners.

Politics

DSU is designed to be truly democratic. To this end every student has a vote in the principal elections and in the sovereign body of DSU, the Union General Meeting - as in most students' unions. DSU holds two major elections a year, and has pioneered the use of electronic voting to increase participation. In the 2003 and 2004 Sabbatical elections it received the highest turnout of any student union in the UK, a fact used by some to show the continued relevance of DSU to the students of Durham.

DSU has succeeded in having a say in national student politics. In 2004 a campaign run by the Union appeared on BBC, ITV and Channel 4 News numerous times throughout the debate over variable tuition charges. A huge number of regional and local TV and radio appearances for Union officers were secured over that period. During this time, DSU won praise from politicians, many within NUS and other Unions in the North-East for its uncharacteristically high-profile impact on the national debate on University funding.

DSU and the colleges

The University of Durham is a collegiate university and therefore the role of the central students' union is different to most other universities. Each of Durham's colleges has its own student representative body, known in most colleges as the Junior Common Room, which provides services and organises events within the college; while most decisions within the central Students' Union are made by JCR representatives. This gives DSU an avenue for encouraging involvement not available to Unions in most universities; but also limits participation, as many people choose to get involved with their JCR, which deals with many of the issues with immediate effects on their lives, instead of the central Union. Durham University is a university in England. ... The term Junior Common Room (JCR) is used in many British universities to refer to the collective of students (similar to a students union) at a constituent college of the university, as well as to a physical room set aside for the college students use. ...

DSU's future

The announcement in early 2005 that DSU has been operating with a large annual loss has prompted serious debate on the future of the organisation and the building in which it is currently based. According to Durham's student newspaper, Palatinate, DSU's debt stood at £303,000 in June 2005. On a number of occasions, suggestions have been made that the DSU might follow Sunderland University's Student Union and disaffiliate from the NUS [1], however these have not proceeded thus far. The University of Sunderland is located in the north-east of England in the City of Sunderland. ... The National Union of Students (NUS) is the main organisation claiming to represent students unions in the United Kingdom. ...

Notable Former Officers

A number of notable figures have been involved in DSU in the past. These include:

• the late Mo Mowlam, former Deputy President (Education and Welfare)
• George Alagiah, former Deputy President (Education and Welfare)
• Alex Standish, former Deputy President (Education and Welfare)

The Right Honourable Marjorie Mo Mowlam (September 18, 1949 - August 19, 2005) was a British politician, former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Labour MP. Her personal charisma, reputation for plain speaking and successful fight against a brain tumour led her to be perceived by many as one of... George Alagiah will present BBC Worlds new programme NewsHour in June 2006. ... Alex Standish (1963 - ) is an intelligence analyst and military expert. ...

External links

• Durham Students' Union
• DUCK Home page