Friday 02-12-2016 - 08:00

Today is #loveSUs day. NUS began celebrating #loveSUs day last year after the government announced in their HE green paper, an attack on education and an attack on the great work that Students' Unions do nationally. At Durham, the SU has to gracefully accept that for most students that special place in your heart for your University 'home', will be your college not your Union - and get busy making the most of the strength that brings to Durham. This means our student leaders get to work with great communities, and what we love about the SU is getting to work with, support and celebrate so many unique and brilliant student causes and endeavours. We thought we'd take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to the students that we've worked with over the years and shout out some of things we love about Durham SU. 

We love supporting Common Rooms

 

It wouldn’t be Durham without Common Rooms and we wouldn’t change them for the world. But we’re extremely proud of how we support the Common Rooms – whether it’s providing bespoke training to execs each year or supporting your student leaders to get your issues eg: accomodation fees to the top of the University’s agenda.

 

We love DUCK

 

Durham University Charity Kommittee (yes with a K) is one of the best student fundraising groups in the entire country and we love the work that they do to benefit countless local, national and international charities. Whether it’s students hitchhiking to foreign lands with their blagging skills, running the great north run or climbing Kilimanjaro - we’re quackers about DUCK! Last year they raised over 150k for worthwhile charities. 

 

We love our Associations

 

The job of the Union is to amplify the student voice and it’s so important that we make sure the voices of the people who may be least represented in society to be louder. We’re working with our LGBT+, International, Mature, Students with Disabilities and People of Colour Associations to support the great work and campaigns that they already do.

 

We love helping to de-stress you

 

We know that revision can be stressful so last summer we tried to ease the pain for students – we had free bouncy castles, puppy rooms and gave away countless slices of Domino’s Pizza and gave away over 2000 brownies from Pret. We also gave away free exercises classes and revision planners to make sure that you could break up your work into more manageable chunks.

 

We love Riverside Café

 

Our Riverside Bar and Café has recently had Starbucks installed to warm you up in the winter. We’ve got a HD screen to show any sports matches you want to watch and we’ve got a pool table for you to have a few games with your friends. There’s plenty of space for you to meet your friends and some bean bags if you need a nap between lectures. We also have the cheapest meal deal on campus!

 

We love our Societies

 

There’s over 150 student groups which we support to create amazing opportunities and events for over the 6000 students that are involved in the Union’s groups. Our Electric Motorsport Society has endorsements from Alan Sugar, and our Quidditch Society’s team Durhamstrang is one of the best in the country. Student groups are incredibly fun but we love that they're so much more than that - they make people feel part of a community and in some cases even stop students dropping out of University!

 

We love giving discounts to students

 

£12 a year gets you an NUS Extra Card but 100s of pounds of savings. Our Yo Yo app will give you loyalty points on anything you buy in the café or at our Reception desk. We also sell stamps individually to save you buying an entire book – bargain!

 

We love our elections

 

Each year you get the opportunity to elect who represents you, and whilst it might not gain the same coverage as Clinton vs Trumpton, ensuring that we have great Durham students leading us is the reason for many of our successes.

 

We love making your courses better

 

Everyone came to University for a degree and it’s only right that students are at the heart of your education. We support the election of the course reps and make sure that reps are trained and supported through their time as a rep. Our Faculty Reps sit on high level university committees and work tirelessly to make life better for all students.

 

We love campaigning for a better student experience

 

In 2014, we ran a campaign to stop fees for international students rising at unprecedented levels during the course of their degree. A huge campaign by our officers and reps at the time led to the University fixing international fees!  We’re currently running a three year campaign on alcohol safety and developing a campaign on tackling sexual violence.

 

We love our advice service

 

Our to help out students when they need to appeal a result and also support you with housing issues if they arise and support your welfare/livers out reps to run housing talks in your colleges.  

 

We (kinda) love...our building

 

Despite being frequently referred to as the ugliest building in Durham, we’ve had a huge investment inside of Dunelm House this year– from refurbing our sun trap of a balcony with artificial grass, removing the lime green walls and making additional space for students to meet their friends or do some quiet study. The brutalist architecture will probably never be everyone's cup of tea, but we’re trying our best to make Dunelm House into a home.

 

#loveSUs