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Queen Margaret Union

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This page is about one of the students' unions at the University of Glasgow, and not the students' union for Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.

Queen Margaret Union building

The Queen Margaret Union (QMU) is one of two students' unions at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1890 it caters for the social and cultural needs of its Glasgow student members by providing a range of services including, entertainments, catering, shop facilities, bars and games.

1 Facilities
2 History
3 Publications
4 Today
5 External links
- 5.1 Official Sites
- 5.2 References

Facilities

The QMU offers a number of facilities over four floors for students and guests, all of which are renovated on a reasonably frequent basis (in the order of a few years) to allow for increased capacity, and the preferred taste of the current membership. No student facilities are available in the basement, which is host to stock storage, delivery points, and a tunnel which runs the length of the Qudos hall from under the bar to the store, to roughly beneath the main foyer.

Ground Floor

The ground floor of the QMU contains the widest variety of services to its members: it contains a shop, a coffee shop, cash machines and toilets, the porters booth, and the Qudos venue. Qudos is the main venue within the QMU for both club nights and bands, and is an important venue within the Glasgow music scene. With a capacity of 900 for gigs, it often plays host to up-and-coming bands who may later progress to larger venues. One prominent example is Nirvana, who played in the union on 30 November, 1991. It also plays host to new band nights, the QMU's club nights (such as Cheesy Pop or Revolution, commonly referred to as "Rev"), and has also seen popular nights such as Film Nights, and more recently, large pub quizzes. The Coffee shop offers a variety of hot drinks, as well as some snacks, and a number of cold drinks and bottled beers. Tables are available just outside Qudos, and some within Qudos itself, offering a quiet setting in which to relax. The QMU Shop stocks items similar to that of a newsagent, and was renovated in the summer of 2004. The new shop is much larger than its predecessor, allowing for it to carry much more stock.

First Floor

The first floor is home to Jim's Bar. The bar was renovated in 2001. Jim's Bar is a popular drinking venue, and is ideal for drinks before heading down to Qudos on a club night, for example. Many small Union events are run in Jim's Bar, including the Wednesday Night Pub Quiz (described by NME as the best in Glasgow), Unplugged Open-Mic night on a Thursday, small bands, DJs and game-shows. The QMU Games Room offers 6 pool tables, a number of arcade machines and fruit machines, and a small bar (installed in 2004). A number of the tables and chairs once present in the previous incarnation of Jim's Bar can now be found in the Games Room bar. Both Jim's Bar and the Games Room have jukeboxes with an eclectic range of music.

Second Floor

The second floor contains the Food Factory, open during the day within the academic year, and limited hours outwith. This floor is largely seating, with both round tables capable of seating up to around 5 comfortably, and edge tables situated in windows with tall stools for seating. The food factory offers a variety of cold and hot foods, most notably sandwiches and pizzas, and a rotating daily menu offering meat and vegetarian options. Also situated at one end of the second floor is a late night coffee and panini shop by the name of Lacuna (formerly Delice de France Café) which shares the same seating as the Food Factory itself. Free wireless internet access and power sockets mean this space can be used to type up coursework over lunch. The Food Factory became a non-smoking area in the summer of 2005, during which time the kitchens were also fitted with a new extraction and ventilation system due to construction work taking place adjacent to the building.

Third Floor

The third floor is left unvisited by the majority of Union members, due to the design of the building -- the main stairwell does not lead up to this floor; rather, the secondary stairwell and lift are the only routes up to this floor. It houses most of the Unions Offices including:

General Office - for all enquires regarding bookings
Convenors Office - to find out about involvement in the running of the Union
Executive Office - a sure-fire way to make sure your views are heard (also home to the President and Exec Committee)

It also is where you can find:

Laundry Room - with the cheapest washing and drying facilities in the West End
TV Room - a place to relax with other QM members while watching TV
Two 24-Hour Study Rooms
Toilets - the Union's quietest toilets which include baths and showers

History

The Queen Margaret Union (QM Union) was founded in 1890 by students of the Queen Margaret College in the West End of Glasgow, to provide an outlet for their social and cultural needs. QM Union originated in the basement rooms of the College until in 1906 the expansion of the College meant that the space was needed for teaching. A Bazaar was held by the Board of Management (all elected students) to raise money to erect, furnish and provide for a Union Building to house QM Union. The Bazaar was held over four days and featured a number of stalls selling many different items from clothes to pieces of furniture. After a few years of trying to decide how best to spend the money, a house at 31 Buckingham Terrace. In 1912, the College Club went into liquidation and the QM Union took over the premises at 67 Ann Street (now Southpark Terrance) until 1922 when it moved across the road from the old Men’s Union to be based at 1 University Gardens. During this period, QM Union mostly provided space for its members to study, discuss and eat. As the Glasgow University Union grew in size and had a building built at the bottom of Gilmorehill, the QM Union was given the old Men’s Union building in the John MacIntyre building (1932). At this time in its history the QM Union was beginning to delve, rather successfully, in the world of University Debating. Men and other delegates were allowed to attend but only as Distinguished Strangers, who sat in a separate Gallery. Other facilities included a library, dining room, study space and cubicles so that members who lived at home outwith the city centre could stay over after public transport had ended. Although popular amongst its members, the building quickly became inadequate to provide for the University of Glasgow’s growing femaile population. In 1968 a building at 22 University Gardens was built to accommodate the so-called, Q-Emma’s. A victim of the horrid architecture of the 1960’s, the new and current home of Queen Margaret Union resembles a car-park more than a Students’ Union. As politics took the student population by storm, the women of QM were making sure their voices were heard, often getting strongly involved in the debating circuit and especially in Rectorial Elections and Campaigns at the University. When the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 came into effect in the UK, many students both male and female, began to question the division of the sexes at Glasgow. For a number of years throughout the 1970’s, the QM Union had allowed males into it’s various facilities throughout different periods of the day, however women were generally forbidden from all aspects of the GU Union. The ‘Mixing Debate’ was started in the mid-1970’s, but neither Union seemed willing to budge. As the decade came to a close, several males had requested to join QM. Ever the progressive Union, QM held a General Meeting in 1979 and changed its Constitution to allow males to become members. The other Union would take two more years to follow suit. The 1980’s were plagued with problems for QM; a serious fire in 1982 shut the building for several months and sparked nearly a decade of financial problems for the Union. However, between 1989 and 1992, effective management and prudent financial control saw the Union become financially solvent once again. The early 1990’s allowed QM Union to cement it’s status as one of Glasgow’s best Live Music Venues. Nirvana, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, Garbage among many others graced the main stage. Since then recent acts including Biffy Clyro, Franz Ferdinand, The Dykeenies, Primal Scream and many more have played at QM Union. Recent developments in the Union from the late 1990’s until the early 2000’s allowed QM Union to redevelop many of it’s social areas, including all of its bars. Although there are still two Unions on campus at the University of Glasgow, they are now both mixed sex. However, students still need to choose one to join. In 2003-2004, both Unions attempted to change their Constitutions to allow for Automatic Joint Student Membership. QM Union successful made the changes but the GU Union did not, due to a technicality. Recent events at QM Union have included playing a large part in the No to NUS campaign at the University of Glasgow.

Publications

The Union has a rich history in publications. Throughout its existence, the Union's Board of Management and members alike have helped to produce magazines and newsletters to inform the general membership of current events. Unfortunately only a handful of publications remain (mostly from recent years), so the following is a mere summary.

In its early days, the Union published a magazine called, "Pass It On". Produced when the Union was still Queen Margaret College, the only remaining copy is from a special edition in 1935 featuring news on the closure of the college itself and a history of landmarks in women's education.
The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the creation of the QM Broadsheet. Having gone through many different incarnations between 1987 and 1993 (insofar as can be determined from remaining copies), it is difficult to sum up what the Broadsheet was. From reviewing Union gigs, to entire editions devoted to Union elections, the Broadsheet quite possibly stands as the Unions longest running (but highly infrequent) publication to date.
1998: the Publications Committee produced the rather stylised Q DUP. Only one photocopy of this magazine remains, which appears to be incomplete. It is unclear whether or not Q DUP actually went to print.
1999: QM² (Queen Margaret Magazine) was the last termly publication during the 1990s. It offered a clearer presentation and more information relating directly to the Union members.
2001 saw the release of "CUM" (pronounced cu-M), a smaller, more magazine-like newsletter. CUM continued in the direction previous publications had headed in the past.
2003 saw the creation of the magazine's current incarnation "qmunicate." The initial two issues were completely re-designed to created a much more readable and informative publication.
2004: qmunicate was developed into a more newspaper-like format and worked to a more demanding schedule, releasing an issue of qmunicate every fortnight (including one every day in Freshers' Week 2004 onwards). During this time, qmunicate became a recognisable voice on campus expanding from a union newsletter to compete with other campus media by featuring exclusive investigative stories from across the University. qmunicate was given a page in the 05/06 GUSRC guide alongside the main University of Glasgow student media groups.
2005: The magazine was expanded to include separate sections for News, Film, Music, Sport and Features and included many ground breaking stories involving cross campus scandal . During this academic year, the publication's editorial and proofreading procedures were questioned twice: once when an edition went to print containing an anti-semitic joke; once when another edition went to print containing a film quote, which out of context appeared like a homophobic comment.
March 2006: qmunicate's newspaper-style front cover was abandoned in favour of a magazine-style full colour photo front page . In 2006, the magazine covered topics including students in the 2005 French riots and the lacking internet set-up in halls of residence.
June 2007: qmunicate's efforts were rewarded at The Herald Scottish Student Press Awards 2007 by winning Best Magazine Award, having been shortlisted the previous year.

Today

As of 2006, the QMU, with approximately 7,800 members, is based at the end of University Gardens, near to the rear entrance of the Boyd Orr building. Membership is split fairly equally among the sexes, and the members of the QMU now outnumber those of the GUU at student level, however it remains dwarfed by the GUU's 9,000 life members.