Sunday 15 June 2008

A Tribute to The OBSU Venue

We are here today to say goodbye to a great Venue.

The OBSU Venue was born and reared in the Oxfordshire heartland. The Venue belonged to a student generation that cherishes student rights, a generation that is ambitious and demanding in its quest for learning not only through the world of academia, but through student lead initiatives, a student generation that seeks to express itself through the way it organises its student community. We, students, grew to manhood under the roof of a loving SU Venue - and when times were tough, the Venue offered us safe space, advise, a friend to share a drink with, and part-time jobs to help our student finances, and when times were good we shared more than a drink or two, a dance or two, and a laught or two in The Venue.

In The Venue the students’ community saw the best of Oxford Brookes student experience -- and the Oxford Brookes student experience found a place where leadership skills, strong characters, ambitious talents, sense of social and personal responsibility were shaped.

Long before it was known as The Venue, our students owned space created great talents and leaders. As a student owned and run space it brought people together, established shared values and believes, offered freedom of expression, sheltered equal rights movements, debates, student advocacy, and student politics: campaign strategies – for the fights for better canteen food, tuition fees, the move to semesters, change of exams dates…

The Venue offered social and cultural activities free from severely branded, profit-making commercial management styles, where the student community chose when and how to enjoy their student life and manage their student spaces.

Some would argue that these activities could be potentially outsourced: move clubnights in town, place the debates in lecture rooms, have workshops in local youth centres, have classes in the gym, and perform in the local theatres….But then then the whole purpose of a Students’ Union will be disabled! The community that our activities provide by creating a student-owned, vibrant, non-commercially pressured social space will no longer exists.

The Venue portrayed Oxford Brookes students’ characters through the activities it sheltered. The Venue’s devotion to the Brookes family was remarkable. On the day of its creation it set to serve the students, and only the students’ needs, to represent, support and inspire them and encourage positive social change and personal development.

It is horrendous to know that The Venue might never see the talents and leaders it created again, might never inspire more Brookes talents, and might never offer its floor to debates, or performance, dance and drinks again.

The Venue will not exist in 2011 because The Venue will be destroyed by its own parent organisation Oxford Brookes University. A University which through sheer lack of understanding and appreciation of what The Venue means to the Brookes student community, is ready to abolish what makes the student experience so special here.

I will always cherish the memories of the days spent in the SU Venue, and I believe most strongly that the days at Brookes will not be the same without The Venue. And I am sure many would share my feelings too.

I am equipped with some last remaining optimism, and believe that Brookes University still has time to be reasonable, forward thinking and modern in its understanding of students need, and I will remain positive that Brookes will learn to listen and will hear the student voice instead of shaping independently false perceptions!

So far:


- 424 prospective students said that they will not come to Brookes if we do not provide a student run space like the SU Venue

- 369 existing students believe that we should have a student run venue in 2011

- only 8 students believe otherwisestudent feedback is being received every day

And so, on behalf of a grateful student community, we WILL NOT bid farewell to our Venue!

We thank The Venue for its remarkable service, I ask those that were, still are and/or will become part of the student experience at Brookes to in give their credit back to The Venue, our precious student space, and to become part of the project for our future Vision 2011!

Let’s save our Venue, and Let’s save our Union!You can support and help The Venue…your Venue… by answering this one question and sending us your comments and feedbackhttp://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=KWqEO00PCHzi9EzMpYVwfg_3d_3d

Also visit www.thesu.com/vision2011 , Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8343006767

Comments and stories of your experience in The Venue can be send on obsu.president@brookes.ac.uk and will form part of the Venue Biography

Antoinette Kyuchukova
OBSU President

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