A recent meeting has revealed that Students’ Union bars have seen a 13% fall in income. Sabbatical officers in attendance were also encouraged to show support for the Union by not socialising in The Bot.
BY CATHERINE WYLIE and BRENDAN HUGHES
The issues arose during a Students’ Union Executive Management Committee meeting. As part of ‘Political Activism Week’, students were invited to attend the meeting to see how the committee works. Two students turned up, both of which were Gown reporters.
The income drop was revealed by Acting Chief Executive, Andrew Dodge. Measures to increase revenue were suggested, including the idea of pints being slashed to £1.50 between the hours of 9 and 11pm.
VP Community Laura Hawthorne became emotional, as she abhorrently opposed any suggestion of a drinks price slash.
“I wouldn’t have a leg to stand on,” she said, referring to her ongoing work with residents groups in the Holylands and Stranmillis areas.
SU President Shane Brogan and VP Paul Courtney agreed that ‘a pound a pint’ idea could not be introduced, while Deputy General Manager Dominic Doherty pointed out that extreme drinks promotions in English Unions have been unsuccessful.
Doherty also raised the issue of the VPs frequently socialising in the Botanic Inn. He said that sabbs should be seen to be supporting the Union, and acting as an example to students.
VP Gareth McGreevy disagreed with this notion, claiming that the free time of sabbs should be spent in whatever way they choose.
“We’re not students,” McGreevy declared, prompting Doherty to remind him of his student-elected position in the Union. McGreevy proceeded to clarify that he had only been on one night out this year, which had been spent in the Students’ Union. He also remarked that the VPs have so much work to do that they don’t have time to party.
The Executive Management Committee meets every Wednesday at 12noon in the Anne Maguire room. Students are welcome to attend.
“He also remarked that the VPs have so much work to do that they don’t have time to party.”
Ha
its true kevin….sometimes you will even find the sabbs up in the office on thursday nights….a real sorry state of affairs for the miserly amounts they get paid. i dont envy them
as for the gaa night in the bot???can someone explain to me how that undermines community relations?and perhaps if the queens student union gave us substantial sponsership to our club every year then perhaps we might consider it….
ps great night by the way, nice to see the 2 pauls and barry being allowed to enjoy themselves for once, they deserve it for all the hard work they do…..
“Also yes we are a highly priced S.U, one of the highest in the UK. But if you look at the S.U bars in the UK alot are struggling to survive, some have shut down completely and they do not have sustainable profit margins.”
Perhaps lowering prices would bring more people in and the increase in business would have a positive effect on the profit margins. The fact is, imo we don’t have a student bar at the moment. We have an expensive bar located in the student unions. A student bar would allow us to get drunk on a tenner.
“a student bar would allow us to get drunk on a tenner,” And, as other contributers have already said, you can already see the headlines if the Union encourages students to get drunk for a tenner, especially if there’s trouble. The Union would lose all credibility as a welfare organisation.
Most other uni’s do it. I’d rather a cheap union than a ‘welfare organisation’…
Danny,
A cheap bar is a fat lot of use to you if you’re struggling to pay your bills, or if you are being disciplined by the University, or end up in a dispute with a Tutor, or if QUB tries to increase fees, or if the much heralded and very expensive New Library turns out to be useless.
As it stands the Union, as a welfare organisation, has the resources to provide representation, advice and help to students.
For example, The Student Advice Centre (on the 2nd floor of the Union) provides financial advice to Students with the student’s interests in mind (even if that is not what QUB would have them do). The Student Advice centre will also assist you to defend disciplinary proceedings, or to take a complaint against the University. That’s just some of what the advice centre does.
The Union Exec has, for all of the criticism it gets (sometimes legitimately) taken serious concerns to the New Library and actually succeeded in expanding the 24 provision during exam times (a small victory, but significant in that it shows that the library are prepared to listen to students if we apply enough pressure). The Union Exec also secured funding for the Night Bus to provide FREE transport for Students in the South Belfast area who are on a night out. Think about how useful that is to most students. Walking home drunk is almost as dangerous as driving home drunk (and, according to a legal article I have just come across when I googled drunk pedestrians, possibly illegal) and Alcohol is, as I’m sure you’re aware, involved in more rapes than any other drug. By taking drunk students off the streets and providing them with a safe, FREE, way of getting home the Union has removed these dangers from those who wish to avail of this service.
Our representatives on the Senate and the Academic board are pledged to resist further cuts in provision and increases in fees. The Union is campaigning to give Students more of a say in how the University is run generally, and has successfully prevented the university from sidelining student representatives on university bodies.
If anything, the Union needs to increase its welfare work, not cut it. Things are tighter than ever financially for students with the cock-up surrounding loans and the increased cost of living. This will be exacerbated by the proposal by Russell Group unis (including QUB) to charge fees of £10,000 per year. It is essential to have a strong Union in place to fight that proposal at every step. It is equally essential that students have access to independent financial and personal advice, currently supplied by the Union.
But if you’d rather get rat-arsed, throw up through your neighbour’s letter box and wake up in a gutter wearing a dress with no recollection of what you did for the last 72 hours while simultaneously depriving the rest of us of sound advice, a strong voice and a good reputation then your option makes sense.
I think the above poster makes some good points. I don’t think that the majority of students really get any benefit from the existance of the union at all except as a place to go out and drink in, but it is good to know that there is someone who can give you advice and support with the sole intention of representating student’s interests rather than those of the university.
I have had to seek representation and advice from the Sabbs three times over the last couple of years, and on two of those occasions I felt they were friendly and provided useful information. At the same time, I do think the whole idea of student politics is something that remains completely irrelevant to most students because they are unaware of the actual purpose and processes of it all.
Whilst I think it is quite shocking that the prices in the SU are amongst the highest in the UK, I do realise that I might be willing to sacrifice the allure of cheap drinks in order to ensure the union retains a respectable image in order to give the Saabs some authority when representing students. I mean if someone is helping to defend you from Queens from accusations of unsocial behaviour from neighbours, it’s not really going to help if the union is seen to actively promote drunkenness? It would give out the message that the union is just as “guilty” as student’s neighbours often proclaim them to be.
Although I do think that the cause of the downturn in the union’s trade is more likely to be due to the recession, and the fact that many more students are struggling to manage financially, particularly with ever-escalating fees. Again, I very much doubt that where the Saabs choose to socialise has any impact on the majority of students, who would have difficulty identifying them, and is probably linked more to cost.
Perhaps they should focus on campaigning and energizing the student body to drastically reduce or abolish fees, then we might actually be able to afford to go out and socialise more. Since moving out, I have found it much harder to cover essential expenditure such as rent, electricity, heating etc., never mind having loads left over to drink with. I suspect many students are in this position because a lot of parents are unable to provide the same level of financial support, and particularly those second and third years who have probably run up debts from overdrafts and loans in first year. I’d definitely like to see more being done about such major issues which affect all students (especially given complete lack value for money our £3225 fees represent) rather than on driving down drink prices in the union which will probably attract more non-students and make the queues even longer.
I love the way everyone seemed to take what was said in the original article as gospel! Who knows if all this actually happened as I believe the gown team have been embellishing alot of their stories with fictious material? Maybe we should ask for minutes!
Some people are forgetting that the reasons why there is a students’ union in the first place is to campaign on behalf of student issues and to provide welfare and representative support services.
The provision of bars and shops is simply an “add on” – they’re only only there to fund the good stuff.
Also, those college union bars that are slashing drink prices in GB are the failing union bars – 90p shooters all night does not work as a business model. The students’ union drink market has declined by 50% in the last ten years – fact.
Also, Danny should probably read some newspapers in order to see what reputation students have in the community. His comments are all too typical of the perceived selfish youth stereotype.
Yes the union is there to represent students, and it does this rather adequately, I have no qualms with the system.
I however, do not agree that having cheaper drinks is going to reflect badly on the image of the union. If students are to go out and become inebriated then they will do so. This is why students tend to get carry outs. I’m not suggesting, nor appealing for £1 drinks, but a price cut in drinks would do no harm for the union.
Ultimately, I think we have to accept that the majority of students rarely use the Union as anything more than a place to meet societies, buy a cheap newspaper and get absolutely hammered.
I don’t know about you, but every Thursday night the union is full of drunk students. We will get drunk whether drinks are £1 or £2.70. The only difference is will we have enough money left over for food the next day?
Often, the answer is no. I see no reason why the union shouldn’t provide a cheap venue for a night out so students on a low budget can still afford a good night out.
To Danny above: A lot of people will get drunk regardless of the price of drink, but is that honestly something that should be encouraged? We’re all supposed to adults here, but your comments demonstrate that some people literally cannot be trusted to make the decision about how much they should drink on a night out. Getting drunk is not a harmless social activity; its binge drinking. I’m frequently ashamed to call myself a student because of the abysmal behaviour of my peers who, as you rightly point out, cannot be trusted to stop drinking before they run out of money for food. Making the drink cheaper will only equal drunker students. Alcohol is an addictive drug which in large quantities (i.e. anything more than a couple of drinks) is harmful to your liver, your brain, a massive strain on the health service, leads to widespread antisocial behaviour and is rarely helpful to your degree (which is supposedly the reason we’re all here, at university, no?).
Ultimatly the union bars have to make a profit to fund the good stuff (I liked that phrase) and the union has to maintain its image and the image of students. We’ll get what we ask for more easily and manage to co-exist with our neighbours with less friction if we are not viewed as perpetually drunk and irresponsible being egged on by those who are responsible for putting our case.
Louise says:
November 16, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Using the work ‘emotional’ in regards to Laura is sexist. Was gareth also emotion or is it because he is a man that he therefore wasnt?
Please explain.
Louise, if you’ll notice Catherine Wylie wrote the article, and before you point it out so did Brendan Hughes, but never the less am I to understand that Catherine Wylie is being sexist against women?
I’ll be honest the £2 pints are low enough but why would i rather go to another pub unless im skint? well basically the speakeasy needs to be ran more like a proper pub people, there should be a darts board for one not hard to do would cost £20, there could be pool tournaments, phone line to a bookies behind the bar like most pubs in Ireland have, few papers lying at the bar, pictures on the wall create a bit of character- i could go on. At the minute you walk in during the day and its too open too bright it looks like a canteen that happens to serve drink.
Aye, because a dartboard and bookies hotline are such essential features in a student pub… They’re doing up the pool room for next year (Just ask the snooker club, who are delighted to see the damn thing reopening) but by the sounds of it you’d be better off in the Crown, or your local old man pub!