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The Union
A serene, peaceful morning, the sun streaming through the conservatory roof, which makes up one side of the main bar area. A few quiet early risers dotted around, savouring their (very reasonably priced and apparently drinkable) pints of tea and catching up on their reading or sharing a chat with a couple of friends. A bustling lunchtime just as the 12 - 1ish rush for Beaton's (the onsite canteen type arrangement) hits. An empty table might be hard to come by for a while but plonking your plate of lasagne and chips down next to a friend or vague acquaintance and adding the hum of lively conversation is as good a way to spend your lunch time as any other. Around about this time of day, the 2 American and 3 British style pool tables will probably start to do good business and usually continue to see use all through the afternoon into the evening. If you were to make your entrance in the early afternoon, you might spot the subtle differences from that quiet morning scene. By now some of the Rocksoc collective and their extended social circle will have encamped themselves in their usual alcove and might be trying to monopolise the jukebox with selections of Aerosmith, Culture Club or... well... I'll say Therapy? (Seeing as that's who I'm listening to right now). The piles of 50p's will be stacked high on the pool tables and the air hockey as the punters wait their turn. Conscientious students might arrive to meet friends after finishing lectures earlier in the day; less conscientious students might arrive to meet friends having just got up. All of this adds to a very pleasant friendly atmosphere where you can get on with anything from gossiping to practical work, playing video games to wild, animal sex. Though I've yet to actually see that last one happen. Round about now the bar staff might decide to turn on the TVs which hang from various, precarious (malarious? impervious?) places around the ceiling and switch on one of the music channels or sports channels that provide suitable eye candy to while away a slow few hours. If there's a particularly special event on, especially a big sports match of some kind, one of the big projection screens either in the main bar or in the main events hall, Venue 1, might be pulled down for crowds to gather in front of and shout insults at little people that are many miles away and can't hear them. As afternoon turns into evening, there are lots of things you might come across in this wonderful union of ours. Recently there have been a few new initiatives such as small gigs by student musicians or aspiring student djs trying their hand. If you're particularly unlucky you might wander in on karaoke night. All of these events go on in the main bar area, where a reasonably well-stocked and well priced bar and a games area are also available. Elsewhere in the building there is Venue1, the large hall where the various discos (Cheesy, Dance and Regular varieties are available most weeks) are held on some Thursdays and most Friday and Saturdays. Venue1 also plays host to events like student shows, plays and musicals and sometimes even gigs by more popular (or just downright better) student bands. Poking off at one side of the large venue is the Beer Bar, which opens to serve various forms of alcohol and beverai at appropriate events, just to save you the 30-second walk back to the main bar. On the top floor of the union there are various function rooms and Venue2 (aka Cloud9 aka The Fraser Suite) that can be hired and are generally used for Society events. Venue2 is much smaller than Venue1 but also plays hosts to various discos and events by the many music societies active at the university. Most importantly, it also has a bar- saving you the walk back down 2 flights of stairs for refuelling. The other rooms on the top floor are used by societies for meetings and events ranging from theatre auditions, the weekly Warsoc gaming meet and video screenings by the various TV and film based societies. Also to be found up here in the higher reaches of the Union building are the offices of the student run newspaper, The Saint, where the hacks and gossip merchants can be found sweating over their keyboards to bring you more banal gossip about their friends (you might want to ignore that bit, some people do actually like The Saint. Though they're probably just the banal friends of the people who write it). Well those are the social and entertainment-centric sides of our Union, but there is much more going on within the building itself. The middle floor of the union plays host to the offices of most of the admin and service type things within the organisation that is St Andrews Student Union (as opposed to and as well as the building that is the Student Union Building). The travel service offers cheap deals on holidays and flights around the world and the country, as well as being a convenient place to book any kind of travel ticket be it air, rail, coach or ferry. There's the Student Support Services office, where you'll find the very nice people who's job it is to help you with pretty much anything you ask them to help with. If you're ever stuck with any part of University bureaucracy they're the people who can make the right phone calls to the right people to help you out. They will also lend an understanding ear to any problems not university related that you want to share with someone or get advice with. Also dotted around the middle floor are the offices of the various student elected union officials, who are the people to go to if you want someone to bring your issues to light within university politics. Finally, on the services side of the union building, just inside the main entrance of the union is the union bookshop, provided by James Thin which stocks up on course text books every year and might be the place to go if you've suddenly realised you know nothing about anything and should really be reading something vaguely related to your course. On your way out of the union you find Off Sales which is the union's off licence and snack shop, shop of choice for cheap booze though not sporting a particularly wide range of anything except for low quality wines. So now you know what goes where within the union itself. As for the Union as a venue for a night out that again depends on when you're there and what you're after. For most new students, their very first visit into the union for a night out will be during freshers' week. During this week, the place is usually very lively, very loud and very, very busy. The union on a busy night is not the place to be if you're after a chat with some friends as it gets quite difficult to hear what anyone more that a metre away from you is saying, but for a fun night it's the closest thing we have to a club. With the main bar and Venue1 both open, capacity is quite substantial and the dance floor during even the most popular of 'Bops' rarely gets filled until the very end of the night. As for the events themselves, a big Friday night Bop usually fills the floor with a mixture of chart pop and classic tunes that will keep most people happy for a night of handbag dancing or strutting of one's 'stuff'. And don't worry about making a fool of yourself, the quality of dancing in this town ranges from epileptic to corpse-like, nothing new you can bring to the floor could possibly look worse that some of the styles already there. For when you want a pause to catch your breath the walls of Venue1 have always been lined with seats and the occasional table (as in a few tables rather than just one 'Occasional' table) during Bops and towards the end of last year a new raised seating section was added to one side of the hall. I'm not actually sure that it's a permanent fixture as it strikes me that it might be slightly in the way for some of the uses of the Venue. And it impinges on the dance floor, grrr. But it does provide more seating opportunities on a busy night. As well as the standard Bops there are semi-regular 'Cheesy' Bops which play 80s and 90s pop for all you lovers of that kind of thing. They're rarely as busy as the Friday night Bops but are very enjoyable if you like a good laugh at the same time as a good dance. Finally the other regular style Bop would be of the dance music flavour, which changes its name depending on which radio station, drinks manufacturer or middle eastern dictator happens to have given the union the most money in the last month or two (don't worry that's not really true. The union doesn't really get given money by radio stations or drinks manufacturers). I've never actually been in a Dance music Bop so I can't really comment but you can probably guess what it's like. So, in summary, The Saint - rubbish, Dance music - rubbish, conversation - difficult. Or to look at it another way... So, in summary, the Students union is the prime night spot in St Andrews for anyone wanting a more exciting evening than sitting and drinking and is also the prime night spot for anyone wanting a cheap evening of sitting and drinking. It's a very pleasant and relaxed place to spend a few hours during the day and a very lively place to spend a night out, there's always something to do, even when it is just to play pool or watch MTV2. It also has one of the finest student-styled slogans of all time - Your Union, Do Stuff. Posted 14:54, 17th Aug 2002 by The_Farwall in section Sinner's Guide (suggest an article in this category) Readers' Comments
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The Students' Association, aka The
Union. For a lot of people, the first few times they walked
into St Andrews Student Union probably went a long way towards
setting their opinion of the place for the rest of the stay at
university. And the wide range of opinion on the matter is as
much a testament to the variety of events and atmospheres that
can be found at the Union as it is to the fickle tastes of St
Andrews students. Depending on which time on which day you decide
to make your first foray through those foreboding (I know, I know
but I'm trying to make it sound impressive. It's a tough
assignment) doors of polished glass and cold steel you could be
presented with any number of situations: -
Posted by 
