Cambridge Union

The Union is legally a self-funded charity that owns and has full control over its private property and buildings in the Cambridge city centre. It enjoys strong relations with the university, and allows other student societies to hire rooms for a nominal cost. Guests are sometimes admitted to Union events for a charge.[1][4]

After more than 200 years, the Cambridge Union is best known for its debates, which receive national and international media attention. The top members of its debating team compete internationally against other top debating societies. The Union also organises talks by visiting speakers and a wide array of events throughout the academic year.[1][4]

The Cambridge Union is sometimes confused with the Cambridge University Students' Union, the student representative body set up in 1971; consequently, the term 'President of the Union' may cause confusion. Although the Cambridge Union has never functioned as a students' union in the modern sense, it did briefly affiliate to the UK's National Union of Students in 1924.[4]

In 2015 the Union celebrated its bicentenary; a committee composed of former and current Officers was put together to organise a range of events to mark the occasion. This included special debates, dinners and parties in Cambridge and, for the first time in its history, in London.[5]

In January 2015 the Union announced a £9.5m refurbishment project to begin in late 2016 to address major structural problems and to expand existing facilities, subject to approval by planners, to include a new Wine Bar on the ground floor and a Jazz & Comedy Club in the basement (in the old home of the Cambridge Footlights). It also announced a plan to use the revenue generated from the new building to reduce membership fees to make the Union more accessible to students from lower income backgrounds, and to increase the size of its competitive debating activities for disadvantaged children and students.[6]

The development was to be partially financed through the leasing of disused parts of its site to Trinity College in a deal worth £4.5 million.[6] Planning permission was received in 2016, and a fundraising campaign to cover the remaining cost was to be launched on 11 March 2017 with a special debate between Jon Snow and Nick Robinson.[7] Construction on the major redevelopment project was scheduled to begin in Michaelmas 2018.[8]

• 
  The Cambridge Union
• 
  The Main Chamber
• 
  The 1815 Bar and Cafe

The union awards honorary memberships to particularly distinguished individuals. Honorary members include:

The Standing Committee (or 'Voting Members') is the Union's primary managerial body of 13 members, which consists of the current President, Vice-President and Officers, the President-Elect and Officers-Elect, and the Debating Officers. All Officers of the Union are elected by its membership on a termly basis, with the exception of the Vice-President and two Debating Officers, who are appointed on an annual basis.

Officers of the Union are elected a term in advance, allowing them to serve one term as an officer-elect to prepare for their following term in office.[24] Termly elected officers serve a term (and its preceding vacation) as "officer-elect", during which time they are members of Standing Committee.[25]

The Michaelmas 2020 Standing Committee:

• President - Emaan Ullah, Homerton
• Vice President - Jungmin Seo, Jesus
• President-Elect - Freddie Fisk, Robinson
• Executive Officer - Jess Molyneux, Jesus
• Speakers Officer - Joel Rosen, Trinity Hall
• Treasurer - Patrick Connolly, Robinson
• Social Events Officer - Tara Bhagat, Sidney Sussex
• Diversity Officer - Kyoka Hadano, Peterhouse
• Debating Officers - Cary Godsal, Peterhouse & Tamkeen Nawab, St John's
• Executive Officer-Elect - James Vitali, Christ's
• Speakers Officer-Elect - Keir Bradwell, Queens'
• Social Events Officer-Elect - Leonardos Markakis, Anglia Ruskin
• Equalities Officer-Elect - Kyoka Hadano, Peterhouse

During every term, the Standing Committee appoints a variety of positions within the Union. These specialized positions range from the Secretary, Head of Event Management, Head of Publicity, Head of Audio-Visual and Head of Press amongst others. Collectively, they are referred to as 'Full Committee' or just 'appointees'.[26]

The Board of Trustees, currently chaired by Lord Chris Smith, is responsible for overseeing the long-term development of the Union's finances and property. Whilst the Trustees are not intimately involved with the day-to-day running of the Union, they maintain ultimate legal responsibility for the organization, its assets and status as a registered charity. To maintain the link between the Student management and the Trustees, the President, the Vice President, and a Debating Officer of the Union are traditionally appointed as Trustees for the duration of their term in office.[24]

The Review Committee of the Cambridge Union is a committee of former Officers appointed by Standing Committee under the guidance of the Vice President. It is responsible for handling all disciplinary matters of the Union and may also be called upon to adjudicate on electoral malpractice. No member of Review Committee may serve as an elected officer for the duration of their term.[24]

In addition to these posts the Union also maintains an employed staff consisting of a Bursar, responsible for overseeing the long-term health of the charity, Office Managers and a Bar Manager. The Union also holds contracts for catering, cleaning, building maintenance, property management, IT services and legal advice.

Members of staff are employed by the Union's subsidiary events company. The President, Vice-President, Bursar and other Trustees appointed on an ad-hoc basis serve as Directors of the company.

Many of the Union's former Officers have gone on to considerable personal success after their time involved in the society. Notable past Presidents and officers include:

In addition to the long list of real life distinguished individuals that served as officers of the Cambridge Union during their time in Cambridge, Will Bailey, a fictional character on The West Wing, a US television drama series, claimed to have been a "former president of the Cambridge Union on a Marshall Scholarship", as well as MacKenzie McHale, a fictional character in the hit US series, The Newsroom.

The Cambridge Union was famous within the University for having a very long and complicated constitution; it is a common rumour that the constitution is longer than the entire Constitution of Canada. This was in fact untrue, but only just: a quick count puts the old Union constitution in question at 31,309 words[28] while the complete Constitution of Canada is 31,575 words long.[29] If the University's rules on Single Transferable Voting are included, then this Constitution was indeed longer than that of Canada. These rules are referenced within this old constitution, but are not contained. By comparison, the rules of the Oxford Union Society total over 45,000 words, not including the Standing Orders and Schedules.

On 9 May 2011, the Union launched its online public video service CUS-Connect, whereby recordings of past events and interviews were uploaded for free viewing. These have since been transferred the Union's YouTube channel titled 'The Cambridge Union'.[30] Before 2014, the Union only occasionally live-streamed popular events, with the first ever live stream held on 12 May 2011, in which Stephen Fry debated Radio 1 DJ Kissy Sell Out on the motion: "This House believes that classical music is irrelevant to today's youth".

As part of its bicentennial celebrations in 2015, the Union launched a permanent live streaming service, to be integrated with a new automatic multi-camera rig in the Main Chamber. The new service includes the ability for "virtual" attendees to contribute to debates via questions and comments to be read out on the floor of the Union. The streaming service is hosted on the Union's website and is available only to members.[31]

The Cambridge Union, like its Oxford counterpart, has faced controversy over its choice of speakers. Protests have been arranged by students against the appearance of Universities Minister David Willetts, Government Minister Eric Pickles,[32] during which the building was broken into, former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, French politician Marine Le Pen[33] and Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange.[34] In January 2015, the hosting of Germaine Greer caused a public row between the Union and the Cambridge Students' Union's LGBT+ group, due to Greer's alleged transmisogyny towards Rachael Padman. [35] In June 2019, the hosting of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad attracted criticism from the Union of Jewish Students, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and several former Cambridge Union members including former President Andrew Cannon due to the former's anti-Semitic remarks.[36][37][38][39]

Responding to these criticisms, the Union is often quoted as upholding the universal right to free speech, against the principles of No Platform passed by the National Union of Students and upheld by a few groups within Cambridge.[40][41][42]

Lobbying by former Union Presidents Lord Deben and Lord Lamont resulted in the specific exclusion of the Cambridge and Oxford Unions from the Government's counter-terrorism bill, amid fears it could restrict free debate. Deben argued that the provisions within the bill would have prevented the hosting of British Union of Fascists' leader Oswald Mosley in the 1950s, concluding that the bill threatened "an essential British value".[43] The National Union of Students used the exclusion to argue that the passage of the Bill was too rapid and ill-thought out, whilst both the Oxford and Cambridge Union reaffirmed that they were not legally part of their respective Universities and thus were never subject to the bill in the first place.[44]

Strong opposition to the bill from Liberal Democrats and senior Conservative peers eventually resulted in the shelving of provisions regarding Universities' until after the 2015 General Election.[45] The Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 eventually clarified that Higher Education institutions must retain particular regard to the duty to ensure freedom of speech and the importance of academic freedom within University societies,[46] although it is unclear whether this applies to the Union.

The union called a referendum on the hosting of Julian Assange on 22 October 2015, arguing that his residency in the Ecuadorian Embassy meant he was outside the jurisdiction of UK law, and thus required the consultation of its members considering a lack of past precedent. The referendum was more widely viewed as an opinion poll on the union's refusal to "no platform" speakers.[47] It passed with 76.9% of the vote. Turnout was 1463.[47]