Durham Students' Union, operating as Durham SU, is the students' union of Durham University in Durham, England. It is an organisation, originally 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.

Location

The Students' Union occupies and manages

Dunelm House Dunelm House is a Grade II listed university building in Durham, England, built in 1966 in the brutalist style. It belongs to Durham University and houses Durham Students' Union. Its listing entry cites, among other factors, that it is "a sign ...

, a university-owned building in the centre of Durham where a wide variety of student activities take place. Designed by
Architects Co-Partnership
', the Brutalist, angular concrete building was completed in 1966 under the supervision of architect Sir Ove Arup, whose

Kingsgate Bridge Kingsgate Bridge is a striking, modern reinforced concrete construction footbridge across the River Wear, in Durham, England. It is a Grade I listed building. It was personally designed in 1963 by Ove Arup, the last structure he ever designed. K ...

, adjacent, opened two years earlier. Built into the steeply sloping 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. This was intended by the building's architects to create the feeling of an interior street. Pevsner, Nikolaus, ''The Buildings of England: County Durham'' (2nd ed. 1983, revised by Elizabeth Williamson),

Harmondsworth Harmondsworth is a village in the London Borough of Hillingdon in the county of Greater London with a short border to the south onto London Heathrow Airport. The village has no railway stations, but adjoins the M4 motorway and the A4 road (the ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

: Penguin Books Ltd, pp.233-234 In 1968 Dunelm House won a Civic Trust award, though it has been described by students as "The ugliest building in Durham". On the other hand, Sir

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

, the noted architecture historian, considered the building, "Brutalist by tradition but not brutal to the landscape ... the elements, though bold, resensitively composed." Durham City Council's Local Plan notes that the "powerful" building, together with Kingsgate Bridge, "provides an exhilarating pedestrian route ... out into open space over the river gorge".

Social events

During the late 1960s and the 1970s Dunelm House was a popular music venue, hosting bands including Pink Floyd, Wishbone Ash and

Procol Harum Procol Harum () were an English rock band formed in Southend-on-Sea, Essex in 1967. Their best-known recording is the 1967 hit single " A Whiter Shade of Pale", one of the few singles to have sold over 10 million copies. Although noted for ...

. According to their drummer Simon Kirke, Free's most popular song ''

All Right Now "All Right Now" is a song by English rock band Free. It originally appeared on the band's third album '' Fire and Water'' (1970), which Free recorded on the Island Records label, formed by Chris Blackwell. Released as the album's second single ...

'' was written by bassist

Andy Fraser Andrew McIan Fraser (3 July 1952 – 16 March 2015) was a British musician and songwriter, best known as the bassist and co-composer for the rock band Free, which he helped found in 1968 when he was 15. He also founded the rock band Sharks ...

and singer Paul Rodgers in their dressing room in Dunelm House, after a set of slower material had failed to excite the audience.

Relation to colleges

Durham University is a

collegiate university A collegiate university is a university in which functions are divided between a central administration and a number of constituent colleges. Historically, the first collegiate university was the University of Paris and its first college was the C ...

and therefore the role of the central students' union is different from most other universities. Each of Durham's colleges has its own student representative body, known in most colleges as the

Junior Common Room A common room is a group into which students and the academic body are organised in some universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland—particularly collegiate universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, as well as the University of Bristol ...

, which provides services and organises events within the college; while many decisions within the central Students' Union are made with the involvement of JCR SU Representatives. Recently, a small number of the JCRs have opted to disaffiliate from the students' union - including

University College In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies ...

Luke Power, https://www.palatinate.org.uk/castle-jcr-votes-to-disaffiliate-from-the-su/ and Hild BedeToby Donegan-Cross, https://www.palatinate.org.uk/hild-bede-src-votes-to-disaffiliate-from-dsu/ - following the controversial 2020 officer and trustee elections.

Future

The announcement in early 2005 that Durham SU had 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, Durham SU's debt to the bank and its parent institution stood at £303,000 in June 2005. Restructuring of the organisation followed and resulted in a small surplus being posted for the year 2005/06. In 2007/08 a reorganisation took place, which resulted in the adoption of a new constitution. Governance of Durham SU was also updated with the introduction of a Board of Trustees consisting of the five student officers, four elected student trustees and five co-opted trustees. On a number of occasions, some have suggested have that Durham SU might disaffiliate from the NUS, however until 2009 none of those opposed to affiliation had pushed the issue to a full student debate and vote. In 2009 however, a referendum took place proposing that Durham SU should stay affiliated to the NUS. Students voted convincingly in favour of affiliation with 80% (2564) of students who voted voting to stay affiliated and 20% (624) voting to disaffiliate. Shortly after this, controversy arose regarding a planned debate, "Multiculturalism in Britain", at the Durham Union Society, which was to involve a recently elected BNP MEP, and which was subsequently cancelled over alleged fears for student safety, reopened the issue of NUS affiliation. A petition for a second referendum was put before the Union and on 12 March 2010, the referendum concluded with a majority of voting students voting to disaffiliate from the NUS, meaning that Durham Students' Union disaffiliated from the NUS after the end of the 2009-2010 academic year. A third referendum on NUS affiliation was held in January 2011 with 60% of students voting to reaffiliate with NUS. In 2020, there was a controversy surrounding the results of the 2020 election, with 58% of votes for Re-Open Nominations being cast aside as a result of alleged rule breaches by the Re-Open Nominations campaign. The Re-Open Nominations campaign faced accusations of racism and after the election has been cited as the cause of a spike in racist online abuse. Several college Common Rooms have chosen to 'disaffiliate', 'disassociate' or 'disengage' from the Students Union citing the decision to dismiss Re-Open Nominations. In 2022, Durham university's student newspaper Palatinate's editorial board voted 97% in favour of becoming an independent newspaper, and leaving Durham Students Union.

Notable former officers

A number of notable figures have been involved in Durham Students' Union in the past. These include: * Andrew McFarlane (judge), former President * Michael Izza, former President *

Mo Mowlam Dr Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam (18 September 1949 – 19 August 2005) was a British Labour Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Redcar from 1987 to 2001 and served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mini ...

, former Deputy President (Education and Welfare) *

Jeremy Vine Jeremy Guy Vine (born 17 May 1965) is an English television and radio personality, presenter, broadcaster and journalist. He is best known as the host of his BBC Radio 2 lunchtime programme which presents news, views, interviews with live guest ...

, former Editor of Palatinate *

George Alagiah George Maxwell Alagiah ( born 22 November 1955) is a British newsreader, journalist and television news presenter. Since 3 December 2007, he has been the presenter of the ''BBC News at Six'' and was previously the main presenter of '' GMT'' o ...

, former Editor of Palatinate

Former Presidents

This list includes all presidents of the Durham Students' Union since being re-named in 1969/70. 1970-71 Richard J. Ayre, University 1971-72 Michael Eccles, St Cuthbert's 1972-73 Patrick Wolfe, St Chad's 1973-74 John Spens, Collingwood 1974-75 Adrian Dorber, St John's 1975-76 Andrew McFarlane, Collingwood 1976-77 John McGahan, University 1977-78 David J. Smith, Ushaw 1978-79 A.C. Jenkins, Van Mildert 1979-80 S.P.S. Weatherseed, St Cuthbert's 1980-81 Peter G. Gray, University 1981-82 Robert J. Beckley, University 1982-83 Michael D.M. Izza, St Cuthbert's 1983-84 Jacqui Mellor, Trevelyan 1984-85 Simon Pottinger, University 1985-86 Patrick J. Martin, Collingwood 1986-87 Katherine M. Ross, Van Mildert 1987-88 Nicholas V. Thorne, Grey 1988-89 Graeme N. Rainey, Van Mildert 1989-90 Jonathan S. Rich, Hild Bede 1990-91 Aidan W.G. Poole, St Aidan's 1991-92 Robert W. Groves, St John's 1992-93 Daniel Redford, St Cuthbert's 1993-94 Jon Walsh, Van Mildert 1994-95 Richard Taylor, Van Mildert 1995-96 Emily Baldock, Van Mildert 1996-97 Ewan Jenkins, St Cuthbert's 1997-98 Charlotte Nash-Wanklin, Collingwood 1998-99 Brian Ahearne, Hatfield 1999-00 Dave Park, Trevelyan 2000-01 Eddie Moore, Grey 2001-02 Emily Fieran-Reed, St Mary's 2002-03 Ben Wood 2003-04 Craig Jones 2004-05 Tom Page 2005-06 Nick Pickles 2006-07 Alex Duncan 2007-08 Flo Herbert, Van Mildert 2008-09 Andrew Welch, Van Mildert 2009-10 Natalie Crisp, Grey 2010-11 Samuel Roseveare, Van Mildert 2011-12 Mike King 2012-13 Archie Dallas 2013-15 Dan Slavin, Stephenson 2015-16 Millie Tanner, St Cuthbert's 2016-17 Alice Dee, St Aidan's 2017-18 Megan Croll, St Cuthbert's 2018-19 George Walker, Van Mildert 2019-20 Kate McIntosh, St Cuthbert's 2020-21 Seun Twins, Hild Bede 2021-22 Joe McGarry, St Aidan's

References

External links

Durham Students' Union

DUCK Home page
{{University of Durham Students' unions in England Students' Union