Vote Green!!

On the 30th - 31st October, the student population of QUB will go to the (online) polls to elect a new student council.

In our first term of existence, the QUB Greens are putting up 5 candidates for the elections.

At present, the council is being somewhat abused - the council is dominated by two 'camps' - nationalists and unionists. Councillors have complained in the past about this - the two sides regularly engage in political 'point-scoring', egging each other on in an immature way, attempting to pass motions to annoy each other - hunger strikers are regularly brought up, as are motions such as one attempting to make all councillors sing God Save The Queen.

Regardless of one's political stance, it should be clear that these kinds of motions aren't just a waste of time or a sectarian headcount, it's also a sign that the council is being abused - the immaturity of the nationalists and unionists is sadly matched by the immaturity of their representatives in the Northern Ireland Assembly. The council is a representative body of the students at Queens. Student councillors should represent all the people in their constituent areas. The council should be used for REAL student's issues - education, finance, welfare, questions to the union executive, etc.

The QUB Greens are standing 5 candidates in the elections - we want to reduce sectarianism, oppose this 'two-camp' governance of the council, and bring a relevant agenda to the council - proposing environmental improvements at the university, and properly representing ALL students. Our councillors promise to be available to ALL students to put motions and questions to the executive - just contact us. The five candidates are:

Mark McCormick – Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Stage 1

Janine Diamond - Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Stage 1

Adam McGibbon - Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Stage 2

Conor Clerkin - Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Stage 2

Petrina Doyle - Postgraduate

We would really appreciate your No. 1 vote or a high preference.

You can vote at http://www.qol.qub.ac.uk/, under 'online voting' - you can only vote under your faculty so this time around only humanities and postgraduates can vote Green... but join us next year and hopefully we can stand many more candidates and make even more of a difference!

Thank you for your support!

Mark and Adam
QUB Greens

Think Green
Act Green
Young Green

QUB Greens in University Challenge!

This is the press release that followed a letter the QUB Greens Vice-Convenor sent to the President/Vice-Chancellor of Queens University:


Queens University, Belfast must improve its environmental performance and increase awareness of environmental responsibility among staff and students according to the newly formed QUB Greens Society.

In a letter to the Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Gregson, the Society, which boosts 134 members, has been particularly critical of the low number of recycling bins available on the campus and have called for the restoration of the Sustainability Advisory Committee.

Spokesperson Mark McCormick said: “Universities can be clean and green and if we need an example of best practice Trinity College, Dublin is leading the race through the e3 project. There is no reason why Queens can’t do something similar here. The affect is amazing, Trinity has managed to reduce its energy consumption by 7.2%, while we’re still arguing about recycle bins here.”

Mr. McCormick said: “If proper recycling facilities were introduced in Elms Village, The Students Union and the Campus we could easily match Trinity Colleges recycling of 44% total waste rather than the QUB figure of 17%.”

The Society’s spokesperson went on to say: “Students go through a lot of materials during a semester, we want all recyclable material to be sorted here before leaving the campus. That includes paper, dry recyclables, card board, glass, beverage cans, packaging, electronic equipment, toners and ink cartridges, batteries, mobile phones, timber and organic waste”.

Congratulating the QUB Greens Society’s initiative, Green Party MLA Brian Wilson said: “I sincerely hope the University listens to these young people who are showing great visions. If young people respect their environment then other social problems will become easier to eradicate.”


We have yet to recieve any reply from the Vice Chancellor regarding the universities environmental performance. Soon we will re-send the letter and if still we recieve no reply we will than take to more public forms of campaigning.

Our Activities So Far

The QUB Greens are a new society at Queens University Belfast. We are still in the process of setting up but already we have been busy!

Freshers Bazaar 2007!

We had our first appearance at the QUB Freshers Bazaar. This proved to be a huge success as we signed up 134 interested QUB students. This shows that Green issues are of high importance to QUB students and thus gives us the mandate to be their voice and work to improve the campuses environmental performance. We also signed up more than any other political society! A sign that young people are tired of the usual politics that has dominated QUB over the years!


Greens March With Pride!

The Green Party with members of the QUB Greens also took part in this year's annual Belfast Pride march on Saturday 4th August in Belfast City Centre. The party joined with a diverse range of participants - from a wide range of businesses and interest groups to the PSNI, to support the message, as participant group Amnesty International put it, that "love is a human right."

QUB Green representative, Adam McGibbon said: "In the wake of homophobic comments by Ian Paisley Junior in Hot Press magazine in May, and with the ongoing problem of abuse and attacks on members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) community, the Green Party views their participation in the Belfast Pride march as a chance to show their solidarity with members of the LGBT community, and to demonstrate that these issues are important, whatever your sexual orientation."

QUB Greens Blog

We have created this blog as a way for those interested in getting involved with the Young Greens and QUB Greens to see what sort of activities we have been involved with. We want to show people how we can make a difference and the different aspects of Green Politics and Activism. So if you feel that you wish to get involved and make a difference please get in contact with us!

www.qubgreens.bebo.com/

qubgreens@hotmail.co.uk

Think Green

Act Green

Young Green