This decade began as LiverpoolSU were maximizing their potential at the end of 90s. However student needs change and that could be the story for the majority of 2000 onwards: LiverpoolSU understanding that their student needs had changed and how they will change their operations in order to meet these needs. Ex LSU staff have called the early part of the decade a “confusing time” as the society maybe suffered with a lack of direction. LiverpoolSU had been a leader on the 90s but in the early part of the new century they just needed to catch up, the focus had been so heavily on commercial success that perhaps they had been left behind in certain sectors of student unions. They were of course still there for students and during these trickier few years they still delivered on the levels they were expected to while restructuring to become a more suitable student union for this period. The ‘Heyday’ of LSU was over but the fantastic non-commercial work the society engages too still continued.

Matt Robinson who worked at LiverpoolSU from 2004-2006 in the membership office but worked closely with LSU as a regional officer for the NUS from 01 to when he started at LiverpoolSU. Matt stated that while working with NUS as a regional officer for the North West that “LSU was the standout society but had dipped off” and it “had been iconic but it had just dipped off”.

The decade had begun with a challenging time for the student union. While this challenging time of course presented problems, the student union still did excellent work. From 2001 the drive for equality really started picking up and the sabbatical team from 2001 onwards worked extremely hard in the fight for equality. Ex VP for equality Sara Edwards’s achieved so much in her two years at LSU beginning in 2001, including great work promoting Chinese New Year, integrating international students and fighting diversity and how sign language and dyslexia should be considered more of an issue in the student union. While Sara worked excellently with equality, the sabbatical team she was part of really offered great direction in the few years where LSU maybe weren’t quite on track. 
Early in the decade Vicky Hann who was student president from 2001 until 2003 led her sabbatical team in a number of campaigns and helped set up organisations that kept students getting the support they needed. The sabbatical officers were involved in a national campaign against student hardship. Vicky Hann on this subject said “We took coaches of circa 200 students to protests in London. I appeared on Liverpool One television to publicize and also was a panel member on Radio 5 Live debate about tuition fees. We ran a ’Students in the Red’ march with the other 2 Liverpool unions and joined by some others from the Northwest, from the Haigh to the docks – for which there was lots of Echo coverage. I was the student representative at a reception at 10 Downing Street to raise money to alleviate hardship via bursaries. Lobbied MPs in Liverpool and in the Commons”. The Sabbatical team led by Sara and Vicky worked very hard during these transitional years in the slightly unglamorous role of rewriting the constitution, this rewrite included changes to how equality is dealt with and changes to the voting system as part of a “democracy rising” campaign which resulted in increased nominations 4 fold and doubled voter turnout. These changes gained the student union credit from the board of governors. A success that is still appreciated by students today was the successful lobbying of the University about making libraries 24 hours during term times. Without the lobbying led by the sabbatical teams we may not have this excellent and important opportunity that we have today. The social side of university was still important for the student union as really it’s what a lot of students want their SU to arrange, social events from the early part of the decade would involve:

• Wednesday afternoon sports social after all the matches – Chris White ran a weekly “extra time” comedy presentation from the stage with joke awards etc. Then the fabulous Che Burnley would DJ into the night...) 
• Fresher’s week was enormous! Events such as heaven and hell, fresher’s ball, the fayre and the Presidents Pub Crawl (2000 participants in 2003) 
• Redesigned the Cooler was redesigned and the Sanctuary was built (it used to be an outside courtyard before). 
• Theme evenings at the Haigh (valentine’s message board, 70’s nights, karaoke nights) and off site balls (Sports ball, grad balls, Snowballs etc. – usually either at Anfield or Adelphi.)

So socially, LSU still delivered in a brilliant way. The social success meant that 2 more members of staff were hired to help with student welfare. Extra funding was also secured for student sports teams with over 12 new teams launched. So while the union was ‘lost’ it was still doing what it needed to and ensuring that it was in the best possible position to move forward.

By 2004, LSU regardless of all the great work, still needed to catch up. LSU had to close their central gym but with this bad news they worked on a partnership with local gyms for free student use. This resulted in greater access for students. The push towards the future began to an extent when Nick Smith took over as GM of the union, he made the working environment at LSU fun and wanted people to enjoy their work in testing times. He bonded the team and this bond mirrored the great success of the close knit team at the end of the 90s. Today the team at LiverpoolSU still make it a great place to work and Nick coming into LSU and reinstalling this work ethic was a really big step in moving LiverpoolSU forward. LJMU had a great rivalry with Liverpool University and this rivalry was more embraced in these years and used as a motivator according to Matt Robinson who worked at LSU. 2004 was a tough year but a year where problems were, as normal, being successfully dealt with.

In February 04, LSU presented a really good step for students in regards to housing. Anne-Marie McGarrity, Vice President (Welfare), showed everyone there the new Housing Guide, which was cheaper and of a better quality than the Guide published last year. This month also presented a chance for students to take action. Paul Twigger, Vice President (Education & Community Action), confirmed that as part of the NUS week of action, and following an earlier working group, that on Wednesday, 25 February 2004, there would be a market stall outside the Haigh Building and Byrom Street to raise awareness that the Education Bill can still be defeated. He also confirmed that there would be various events held throughout the week, culminating in a march on Friday through the town. 
In June 2004, the question of good educational materials for students was brought up. The Vice President (Communications & Media) said that a company, which she believed was called Student Computer Deals.com, had approached her and wished to sell computers from £59 at Freshers’ Fair, which represented a good deal at the time. The academic year started in 2004 with the alarming news that even though work had taken place for years on the Haigh that the estimated cost of improvements for the Haigh was £203k. A fresher’s t-shirt was also set to go on sale for £8.99 to help raise some income for LSU. In November 2004, the executive committee declared that Gemma Wright, Vice President (Education & Community Action) confirmed that she had so far recruited 618 course rep and that Darren Mooney, Vice President (Equal Opportunities) confirmed that a National Demonstration Working Group was being set up.

By 2005 the student union had continued to make good strides for LJMU students. In the February, Darren Mooney’s correct approach to the boycott of nestle products was put into place. It was voted for and was successfully introduced by 18 yes votes to 0 no votes. A great source of income for the students union could be advertising and the topic of an advertising policy for LSU was discussed. There were doubts about allowing companies who were direct competition to advertise and other companies for various reasons were banned, such as credit card companies and certain media publications but the idea that this could an income stream for the union was brought up. This is a great step in linking commercial organisations from outside the union with LSU and still today LiverpoolSU has good links with local business to get the best for students. The following month of March LSU worked towards the opening of a bar at grand central that ran until this past year. After President Jack Miller wrote a report on how LSU should be involved, it was agreed that the students union would gain 50% of the net profit the bar at grand central made. Mental health week 2005 took place in the march and LSU had taken steps to prepare events even if it hadn’t quite gone to plan. The Vice President (Equal Opportunities) said that Mental Health Week was on the horizon and that there were various events, but that the week had got ‘kind of lost’. He confirmed that he had 4,000 stickers and wasn’t sure whether or not to wait for a more appropriate week to distribute these. In April 2005, while Liverpool FC were on the road to their fifth European cup success and there was a great buzz around the city, LiverpoolSU were still hard at work. Wireless access for the Haigh building was pressed for by Michael Hogan, Disabled Rights Officer in order to gain better working conditions for the students union. A change to the presidential job description was changed as the president Jack Miller felt that he alone should not take credit for arranging the Christmas social event as all other departments assisted greatly.

2007 marked the end of the Liverpool student, an excellent newspaper that had been the work of Liverpool University, LJMU and Liverpool Hope. While it was a sad day to see the end of the newspaper after 8 years of success it did at least offer the chance for LJMU to have a student paper more focused on their own student issues. Soon after Looprevil press was formed and alongside Looprevil radio it continues to report on student issues to the present day.

Jumping ahead to 2009 ex member LSU member of staff, who now works for Sunderland students union, Gareth Hughes stated that “LSU now wants to be life changing”, the perfect way to summarise the changes from the end of the 90s and the start of the new millennium. In 2009 when he started work at LSU he said the union “were trying hard but not exactly doing a lot” so they had the work ethic and it was all just a matter of time for the pieces to fall in to place. However, like they were throughout the years before 2009 LSU were always brave to ‘do’ things, to set an example to other student unions and to try and achieve in a slightly different way. Other student unions around the country were happy to be static but LiverpoolSU under strong management with good staff would just try out new ideas that would just change LiverpoolSU for the better. Gareth Hughes has good experience with a number of different student unions and he said that “LJMU was the best example” of how student unions should operate from 2009 onwards. In 2009 and prior, LSU had always done sport well, this goes back to the successful structures set in place during the early 90s when LiverpoolSU did really focus on sporting societies. However in 09 Gareth suggested “they did not do loads with students but now they do and now they are used as an NUS template” other societies look at LiverpoolSU and look at how they can improve the way they work.

In 2010, LiverpoolSU started the first teaching awards in England. These awards are very simple, there is no obvious downside. It is the students and the student union saying to their lecturers how great they think LJMU and saying thank you to teachers who really do excel. It creates a good bond between lecturers and the student union and the university really liked the awards too. It is how Gareth Hughes put it “a celebration of how good we are” and is a great example of LiverpoolSU being brave and trying new things and making them work and work well. Shared elections was a great step forward for LSU. The idea suggested by Gareth but supported by LiverpoolSU really enhanced the student elections experience for not just LJMU students but all students attending universities in Liverpool. They still run successfully today. Every year the students of Liverpool University, Liverpool Hope university And LJMU meet at a site at one of the universities and the results are announced at the same time. While introducing the plan at first was not that easy due to the idea that students of one university might not want to go to another university this idea increasing voting turnout by 75%. So it was a great success and continue to platform how important student elections are in the city of Liverpool. The below guidelines show how simple it is to run for a sabbatical officer at LSU, these simple steps mean that all students can look through them and see how simple it is to put their issues forward and how LiverpoolSU can guide students. It just makes elections more accessible and that is an area LSU can be very proud of.

The Timeline

Now to September

• Think about which position you could run for.
• Find out about Have Your Say process and conferences and get involved.
• Talk to friends, other people on your course, Students’ Union staff and current Sabbatical Officers.
• Think about whether you might run together with other people – each going for different positions. Talk to other students you know about doing this together.

Soon After

• Talk to your friends and other students about what you might include in your manifesto - key points you will want to promote and things you will want to say to persuade people to vote for you.
• Think about how you will brand your campaign and how you might attract attention from student voters when voting opens.
• Ask at LiverpoolSU for some advice on how to go about writing your manifesto.

January / February

• Nominations open.

March

• Candidate’s campaign and students vote..

July

• The new Sabbatical Officers start at LiverpoolSU.


In 2011 during the fresher’s fair an SU idea of how to engage students with the running of their universities worked very successfully. The idea was to ask students to write down a short sentence on what they would say if they met the then Vice Chancellor Nigel Weatherill, if they just popped in to say hello in 2011 when Nigel started his role of Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer of Liverpool John Moore’s University.  Not only did Nigel really like the idea it worked really well to push issues from the student forum on what they would like to help their time at university. Issues such as more parking at the IM Marsh campus and more books in the library. This idea to presented Nigel with these issues on a poster to help the issues become solved.

2014 marked the closure of the Haigh Building aswell as a long term member of staff Phil Jones leaving LSU after 12 years of service, a departure he described as “the most difficult decision I have made in my professional life”. Phil’s association with the students union spanned all the way back to the 1980s. In 2002 upon arrival to work for LSU Phil noticed that “things were looking up from within.” Phil worked as an advisor alongside Paul Norman and worked hard to make students’ lives better. One of the highlights of Phil’s time at LiverpoolSU and a real strong point of any student union was every year new sabbatical officers enter the SU and keep it fresh, Phil said on this “every year 4 new Sabbatical officers were elected and would be indoctrinated into the SU. God there are too many to mention them all.  I loved the start of each academic year when the new blood would be introduced.  The new officers would bring a new, different feeling every year, it kept the place feeling young and fresh”. Phil’s major job role at LSU was working within the advice centre. The advice centre had good investment and really did deliver and assist students. When asked about his highlight and general time at LSU Phil said the following “I guess the career highlight was being made manager of the advice centre but on the flip side of that was, at that point, (the low point) necessarily redundancies had decimated the staff numbers and consequently staff morale. I don’t envy the job the then CEO (Jane) had to do to make the necessary changes to ensure the student union survived after she was brought in at a time when LSU was on the verge of going under. As trade union representative, we crossed swords and had our disagreements but it is to her immense credit that LSU still exists today”. So Phil’s story relates very well to the decade, without the commercial success to support the union it was a tough time however LiverpoolSU did what it had to do and ensured that student lives continued to be the priority. The whole decade regardless of struggles LSU consistently delivered. When looking at the closure of the Haigh it marked the end of the main building of LSU for many years. The Haigh building was the home of LiverpoolSU and to see the building off a huge party was arranged by the student union and people past and present attended. Everyone shared their memories and wrote notes on the wall saying who they were and what they wanted the building to be remembered as, the building meant so much too so many people all for different reasons. The reason the building was special and so many memories were forged was because of one reason, LiverpoolSU. The events that took place, the work stories and the success stories, the fresher’s fairs, they were all down to LiverpoolSU. The building may now be closed but the memories will forever live on and that is testimony to the importance of the History of LiverpoolSU.

In the early part of the decade while still encouraging student engagement, increasing the work towards equality, the union was finding its feet in a new time for student unions. Still great achievements were made that are still important today. Good work in equality and changes to how we study at LJMU. In 2004 the Union started to become more focused with great staff taking up office and offering the direction that the Union had once lost. From 2009 to 2012 LiverpoolSU needed energy, simply painting as corridor yellow to encourage energy did not quite work and during these few years LSU found the energy it needed and set the union on a great track towards the future. It will take hard work but the energy is there to get it achieved and get LiverpoolSU to where they should be. 2009 could be the start of a transitional few years for LiverpoolSU but ultimately leaving the Haigh in 2014, to enter the John Foster building in 2015 and being a few short years away from Copperas Hill shows that the union is on the right track and continues to enhance the day to day lives of students at the University. It is a special student union and over the years has dealt and overcome every single challenge that has been thrown towards it, that won’t change looking to the future as simply reminding ourselves of how LiverpoolSU has fought over the years, it is safe to conclude that it as a union will continue to overcome and succeed.

“Nothing is too much trouble if it makes a difference to student life”

Gareth Hughes – Policy campaign manager LiverpoolSU 2009-2012.