The student union has not always been based at its 2014-2015 location of the John Foster building at Liverpool John Moore’s Mount Pleasant campus. Currently LiverpoolSU operates at 5 sites across the University, with its central base being within the John Foster Building. LiverpoolSU moved from their main base at the Haigh Building to the nearby John Foster Building and a number of hub sites across campus to become better placed for LJMU students. The aim of this move is to ensure that you are able to access our services and opportunities a lot more easily whilst awaiting construction of Copperas Hill, LJMU's new development to replace the IM Marsh campus and base all students within the city Centre. Before the move in May 2014 the students union home was the Haigh Building, which is just behind the John Foster building. This building was the base for activities and events for a very long period. Live music, fresher’s fairs and student operations ran out of the building and of course a student bar. The ‘Haigh’ is named after long serving Union secretary, Sheila Haigh who retired in 1983, the year the building opened. The Haigh is still owned by LJMU and is leased to new proprietors but it offered a platform base for students in the city. For all students there was support, this building hosted Blur in the early 90s and it was always there for students. The home of LiverpoolSU may be temporary at the moment but without the base at the Haigh we might not have the successful union we have today.

In 1970 four Liverpool colleges formed Liverpool Polytechnic and on this day the Liverpool Polytechnic students union began. Before 1970 the main student union presence in the city was the Robert Rippon led College of commerce in the late 60s. It ran out of Tithebarn street and that is where his central office was. In 1970 however the polytechnic union was new and with the college of commerce having a strong union from the late 60s the home of the students union became Tithebarn Street. Apart from one year in 1973/74 when due to demands for 24 hour access the union moved to a central office on the 4th floor of the Chicago building at 13 Whitechapel in town. It carried on at Tithebarn Street until 1986 when it moved to the Haigh building and has been there since the recent change. However this is not a static union, its main office may have been Tithebarn Street, then the Haigh and now the john foster but over the years especially in the late 70s onwards you can see the explosion of the student union because of its influence all over the city. Much like today the student union has not been a centralized entity in the city, it wants to be there for students so the more sites, the easier access for all of the students.

Today they are the mini hubs that are in every campus but while the union was fighting for student rights in the 70s and 80s they had more than one office for students. In 1978 they had a second administration office at Richmond house and in 81 a similar office on Rodney Street to help students find the help they needed. They offered easy access to welfare sites and of course they had a number of hubs similar to what we have today. While they may not have been called hubs and most of the times there were called bars they were still a student access point to the union all over the city. The easy accessibility is an area of the union that hasn’t changed and means that regardless of the years of attendance at the polytechnic or the university you can always find the help you need.

By 1986 when the union was based inside the Haigh, Marc Ramsbottom who was general manager of the union from 1986-1995 describes all the union could offer students...

“When I arrived we operated from The Haigh Building, which was the main building with a bar, venue, shop, travelshop, offices etc. The Polytechnic ran a canteen and also student services in the building. We also operated at quite a few other sites - Byrom Street a shop, bookshop and bar on the top floor; Tithebarn St - a shop and bar; Hope Street - shop; I M Marsh site - a shop and bar; Calder site - shop; C F Mott – shop.”

This was a very similar set up from what the mid 1970’s to today. The sites may have changed but the purpose hasn’t, making life easier for students and always being there and that is a mentality that hasn’t changed and is now deep rooted in LiverpoolSU.