Students' union

A students' union, student government, free student union, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, organizational activities, representation and academic support of the membership.

In the United States, student union many times only refers to a physical building owned by the university with the purpose to provide services for students without a governing body also referred to as a student activity center, although the Association of College Unions International (largely US-based) has hundreds of campus organizational members). Outside the US, student union and students' union refer to a representative body, as distinct from a student activity centre.

Purpose

Depending on the country: the purpose, assembly, method and implementation of the group might vary. Universally the purpose of students' union or student government is to represent fellow students in some fashion.

Student center

A student center is a type of building found on university campuses. In the United States, such a building may be called a student union, student commons, union or student center. The term "student union" refers most often in the United States to a building, while in other nations a "students' union" is the student government. Nevertheless, the Association of College Unions International (largely US-based) has several hundred campus organizational members in the US; there is no sharp dichotomy in interpretation of union in this context. The US usage in reference to a location is simply a shortened form of student union building.

The first student union built at a public university in the United States was the Ohio Union (1910) at the Ohio State University. The largest student union is at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

History

The first student union in America was Houston Hall, at the University of Pennsylvania, which opened January 2, 1896 and remains in operation to this day. The first Ohio Union at Ohio State University was Enarson Hall. The building opened in 1911 and was the first student union to be built at a state university and the fourth of its kind in the United States.Oklahoma State University's student center opened in 1950. Subsequent additions, and renovations in 2010, have made the building one of the largest student activity centers in the world at 611,000 sq ft (56,800 m²).

Union

Union is the state of being united or joined.

Union may also refer to:

Labor

Education

History and politics

University

A university (Latin: universitas, "a whole") is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which grants academic degrees in various subjects and typically provides undergraduate education and postgraduate education. The word "university" is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars."

History

Definition

The original Latin word "universitas" refers in general to "a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc." At the time of the emergence of urban town life and medieval guilds, specialised "associations of students and teachers with collective legal rights usually guaranteed by charters issued by princes, prelates, or the towns in which they were located" came to be denominated by this general term. Like other guilds, they were self-regulating and determined the qualifications of their members.

In modern usage the word has come to mean "An institution of higher education offering tuition in mainly non-vocational subjects and typically having the power to confer degrees," with the earlier emphasis on its corporate organization considered as applying historically to Medieval universities.

Oxford Union

The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford, England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is Britain's third oldest University Union (after the University of St Andrews Union Debating Society and Cambridge Union Society), and has trained politicians from Britain and other countries.

Status and membership

The Oxford Union is an unincorporated association, holding its property in trust in favour of its objectives and members, and governed by its rules (which form a multi-partite contract between the members).

Since its foundation, it has been independent of the University: historically, this was because the Victorian University restricted junior members from discussing certain issues (for example, theology). Despite such restrictions since being lifted, it has remained entirely separate from the University, and is constitutionally bound to remain so.

Only members of Oxford University are eligible to become life members of the Union, but students at certain other educational institutions are entitled to join for the duration of their time in Oxford. These institutions are: