Talk:Students' union

message: Surely Students' union is the best place for this? A Student council is often just an organ of that. Timrollpickering 10:21, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: [Untitled]

message: Student unions, student governments, and the like are all types of student councils.  The title reflects the broader and more inclusive term, and also avoids any ambiguity with a student center building, which is also often called a "student union".   –radiojon 02:30, 2004 Oct 17 (UTC)
:Students' union is the general catch-all term in use - a student council implies something much narrower, usually just a decision making body of a type which many students' union do not have. Timrollpickering 08:57, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)
replies: text:  The term "students' union" is not in general usage in the Southern or Western United States (to my knowledge).  I think councils is better, based on that fact alone.  Sahrin (talk) 03:57, 1 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Article name 

message: The Act did not initially focus on "voluntary membership".  It was first all about restricting what unions could spend money on.  It was only after the gov backed down from this that they changed it to vol memb.  Also, the Act was fought probably most effectively by the two Oxbridge unions, since the gov put the Act through the House of Lords first, which was/is dominated by their grads.
The article says
"All universities and further education colleges must have a students' union which is independent of the educational institution. All students are automatically members of their students' union unless they resign their membership, and the ultimate purpose of students' unions is to democratically represent the interests of their members. Students who resign their membership may still use Union social facilities provided (often the main or only such facilities available) since they are for the benefit of the students of the institution, not just Union members." 
This is not true. I read the Education Act 1994 (it's quite short) and there is nothing about "must have a Student's Union.
The article implies that, by law, there must be an official SU, of which everyone at a university is automatically a member. Not true. 
91.84.223.128 (talk) 20:53, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  1994 Education Act 

message: I'd like to propose moving the page back there. "Student council" is simply not a clear definition - many, many SUs have no council for one think. SU is the standard term.
If there's no objection, I'll move it next week. Timrollpickering 23:51, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Move to Students' union

message: why is the UK listed first? what's with the ordering of the countries listed here?  (Written by 61.61.254.9)
: Probably just the way the article grew; alphabetical order is just as valid if someone wants to do it. --Daveb 08:54, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: UK listed first?

message: I'm confused. I tried to look up the equivalent of the Dutch word Studentenvereniging, which would translate as Student Union, and indeed my dictionary also gives that translation. What I mean is what I would rather call a student association, a grouping of students for fun basically ('society' might also be a good word). But this article is about something akin to labour unions. The fraternity article is only about the US. Is that article horribly lobsided or did I just get the word wrong? DirkvdM 10:24, 28 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: A students' union is akin to a trade union or proffessional association (and different in many ways). Student organisations and clubs could be described as societies (or "a grouping of students for fun" and shared interests/hobbies/beliefs). A fraternity, inasmuch as I can understand them, are student organisations that perform some of the functions a students' union would perform in other countries. Fraternities (and sorieties) are still often managed/regulated by student unions (or "governments"). --Cyberjunkie | Talk 10:38, 28 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Ah, I now see there is a Student society article, but that isn't linked to either here or in the Fraternities and sororities article. That needs to be fixed, but I have to get some things straight first. On the one hand there seems to be a regional division, with Student Unions in the British Isles (or the UK?), Student societies in northwestern continental Europe and fraternities in North America. Logically, one might say that Student Society is a more generic term, with Student Unions and Fraternities being specific instances. But in practise, you suggest, fraternities are a specific case of student unions. Neither of these is likely to go down well in the Fraternity article, I'm afraid (...what, the US do not provide the standard that other countries follow?... :) ). DirkvdM 07:56, 31 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: To make matters worse, in the United States, 'student union' is usually used to refer to a particular building where most campus activities (i.e. non-academic) take place. They usually contain a number of student-specific offices (e.g. residential support services, career counseling, student development, community service, etc.). sebmol 21:06, 20 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Fraternity? 

message: So that everyone is aware, a substantial, seemingly interminable dispute about what to call the current modus operandi of Australian student unions. The matter was resolved by shifting from the name of that MO to the more neutral Student unionism in Australia. At the moment it essentially consists of a lift from the former sub-entry in this article. Because of that, and because there is now a more detailed page available, I compacted the Australian section of this article. El T 08:00, 9 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Australian part 

message: Further to the discussion above, (and from which I pretty much agree with everything which has been said in favour of including the lists), I feel that at the very least any list of Presidents of student Union's is worthy of inclusion. In any year the President is the highest ranked student at any university. That is out of anything up to 25,000 or more students in any one case. Evil Eye 22:24, 20 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: This is possibly Off-Topic a bit, but thought I'd point out that this is not always the case. The Students' Union at the University of Nottingham, for example, has a 'flat level' executive - the President is on a par with the other officers, and doesn't "out rank" them. (In fact this extends to the fact that the Non-Sabbs are on a level with the Sabbs - they are all counted as Major Officers for the purposes of the Act). I apprecitate that this varies from Union to Union, but I thought I'd point out that you can't assume that the president is necessarily always higher ranked. Jamse 11:43, 21 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: While for the purpose of the Education Act 1994, & union's constitution, several of the office at the top are equal. President are the de facto head of the executive in people's mind. And sabbs in general are also de facto rank higher than non-sabbs in people mind. -- KTC 20:03, 21 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Presidents inclusion

message: While I'm aware editor can be aware at times, especially during the holiday season, it's been long enough time with no response from the major editor on the other side of the debate. I've decided to Be Bold and offer and implemented a compromise to part of this situation. I've made an infobox for students' union Template:Infobox Students Union which contain various (some optional) fields.
I have tested this at Edinburgh University Students' Association and am planning to implement it at the other unions after I have time to find out the necessarily info. -- KTC 03:38, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Compromise

message: User:Boxendine has re-capitalised "Student Government" - I feel this is not correct usage in English - typically only proper nouns are capitalised in English (I believe this is not the case in German). "Student government" is not a proper noun; there exist many student governments. Conversely, the name of any given such organisation is likely to be a proper noun (e.g. "MIT Student Government"), as will be the name of the unifying organisation ("American Student Government Association"). This is equally applicable to other countries, viz:
"The University of Warwick Students' Union is the students' union of the University of Warwick."
I hope this clarifies matters. If you feel the need to revert back, please explain the justification here. Jamse 09:50, 13 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Capitalisation of "Student Government" 

message: The following information was at the above page, which I've redirected here. I believe all of the information is already included within this article, but I'm copying this stuff here in case anyone can spot anything else that needs to be merged in. Jamse 10:30, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Content from [[Student Government Association]] 

message: Most of the 'External Links' were just links to American students' unions; I've shifted these under the US section. We have articles on some of the other things that were under the 'External Links' section, so I've moved those to 'See Also' and linked to the correct articles accordingly.
I'm not entirely happy with this yet - I'm proposing a List of students' unions page, which would list umbrella organisations (National Unions of Students) as well as individual students' unions; where we have articles on the organisation it would link to our article, where we don't it could link to their site. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Jamse 21:33, 18 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  List of Students' Unions 

message: I have been writing the SOAS Students' Union page. Yet most users want to delete it on the grounds that it is not notable. However there are a number of students' unions on this site. Most of them could easily be described not being notable. They include deptmental students' unions. City and Guilds College Union which is just really part of Imperial College Union and Barts and The London Students' Association which is just really part of Queen Mary Students' Union. Also it would be hard to argue that the following are notable students' unions:
Thames Valley University Students' Union 
MMUnion
Union of UEA Students 
University of Plymouth Students' Union 
University of Kent Students' Union 
Keele University Students' Union 
Coventry University Students' Union 
University of Chichester Students' Union 
The Wiki community clearly hasn't resolved whether students' unions are notable themselves just by being a students' union. --ExULstudent 12:13, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: As we've been discussing on RHUL's talk page, many of these Students' Unions are simply generic, and have little notability outside the context of the universities in which they based, although I recognise that they maintain independence from the university itself. As such, is it not possible to incorporate the SU articles into those of their host institutions? Zverzia 15:55, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Are Students' Unions notable?

message: Oklahoma is listed as having the largest student union building, is that including the Indiana Memorial Union building in Bloomington, Indiana?  At the time I attended (fairly recently) it was billed by the university as the world's largest.  Anyone know for sure?
:Yes, The OSU (OKState) Student Union still remains as the largest Student Union.
::On what qualifications?  the OSU's claim?   has a independent 3rd-party made a determination?  see further comments on this talk page below at section "image of Oklahome State University building"--71.183.238.134 (talk) 23:04, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  indiana university 

message: The opening paragraphs of this article are frightfully muddled and US-centric. They seem to assume that the US arrangement of student unions being mainly social bodies is the norm, and that other countries, where they are political or campaigning organisations, is a variant. Any suggestions for cleaning this up and making it a bit more global? DWaterson 13:52, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: In a moment of slight inspiration, I've been bold and rearranged it somewhat. Thoughts? DWaterson 14:02, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Opening paragraphs

message: See Talk:Students' association for reasons why students' association should be a part of students' union. OCNative 07:21, 14 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Merge

message: Does anyone know of how SGAs in the U.S. handle disciplinary matters?  I heard of a ratehr large group of 20 some odd students who were recalled in 2001 or "02 somewhere but cant find much information on that incident.  It might be interesting to note the incident as an example of democracy in action in america on the student level.  I would keep it short, tho. 207.43.79.22 21:05, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Recall, impeachment and discipline in U.S.

message: I have moved the K-12 content on this page to a new article entitled student council. The content on this page is almost exclusive to student unions, and the two bodies serve different purposes. • Freechild'sup? 21:04, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Student council

message: I wrote these two articles almost four years ago, and they have not shown much potential since. Thus, I am proposing we merge them both into this article. If there is significant objection to this, I will send them to AfD instead. Lovelac7 04:44, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I merged the info from these 2 articles. In moving the information, I erred on the side of inclusion. Perhaps the info can be trimmed down to fit with the rest of the article.--RedShiftPA (talk) 06:21, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Academic Assembly|Academic]] and [[Student Assembly]]

message: the capiton makes no sense.  it reads "The largest Students' Union building at Oklahoma State University, which doubles as a student activity center ("student union" in the USA)"
1.  which campus?  OSU-Stillwater?  OSU-Oklahoma City?  OSU-Tulsa?  another OSU campus?
2.  on what qualification is the building considered the largest?  square footage?  by whom?  OSU's prounouncement?
3.  http://union.okstate.edu/index.htm refers to the building as "Student Union."  In my experience (age 50+) i've generallhy encountered the student building on various campuses called a "Student Union" (in the singular and non possessive) or "Student Activity Center" or "Student Center" but NOT "Students' Union"; there is always an exception.  I suspect that "Students' Union" is pretty much exclusively used to refer to a political/orgnizational group of a student body and not to a building.--71.183.238.134 (talk) 22:58, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  image of Oklahome State University building 

message: At least the part of this section, without citations, was clearly written by Tory hacks and I've deleted it, because it's an obscene violation of POV and there were no sources. --Jammoe (talk) 08:30, 24 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Canadian section POV 

message: Please help create the page "Student Government in the Philippines". The Philippines has a complex student union, especially in secondary schools, so that I could update it. 112.198.79.5 (talk) 02:10, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Philippines section 

message: The current 5th paragraph, reading "Student Unions are made with the basic aim to educate and guide students to take part in the politics at smaller levels and to learn the basics of politics so that in  future they could pursue their career as politicians and could effectively deal with the running of the nation as well as effectively understand the inner politics involved in the running the state affairs as well as at international level. " strikes me as highly POV, or perhaps just narrow sighted and considering only a subset of Student Unions around the world. Sure, many of them may serve as training grounds for politicians, but arguably any sizable institution with a democratically selected leadership will do that? The primary aim of a Students Union should be to represent the students, and provide governance over assets that have been built up over time for the purpose of supporting students at that institution.
--Sethop (talk) 11:14, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: It could be labelled as a POV but is most likely just a misunderstanding of what Student Unions are all about. "Representing students" and generally making things better for students is what Student Unions are all about. Student Unions were never intended to be incubators for politicians although the experience would be useful for a political career. Nipsonanomhmata (talk) 16:40, 6 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Remove 5th paragraph of summary? Seems highly POV.  

message: This article has gown very large, I would like to propose to create sub articles by continents. This article would provide short explanations and link to articles such as Student unionism in Asia, Student unionism in Europe, Student unionism in North America... and so on. Any thoughts? Pwojdacz (talk) 20:54, 18 May 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  expansion 

message: I do not disbelieve that the Open University has a Student Union, however the text has been stable, and no "proof" has been brought forward. If there is some "proof", please update bring that, and update the text properly, in English.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Notwillywanka (talk • contribs) 17:04, 15 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hong Kong 

message: Why is Student council a separate article to the one this talk is for? Student council appears to have been, many years ago, a redirect to the article this talk is for, but was eventually created. Are these merely for closely related topics, or should the two articles be merged? –Gluonz talk contribs 02:13, 8 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Students' union]] versus [[Student council]]