[3] The history of the Students' Union can be traced back to the late nineteenth century and to what was then Queen's College, Belfast, which was founded in 1845 and became a separate university in 1908.
The SUS was responsible for managing the Students' Union building which was located on University Square and was opened on 19 January 1897 by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, George Cadogan, 5th Earl Cadogan during celebrations to mark the College's Golden Jubilee and had been built at a cost of £8,000.
The SRC had offices on University Square, close to the WSH premises and held its meetings in the Union building.
[8] As student numbers grew throughout the twentieth century (reaching 2,500 by the 1950s), the University tried to procure a new location for the Union and purchased a premises adjacent to Belfast City Hospital which had formally been the Deaf and Blind Institution, but the state of the building meant that another alternative had to be found.
The work had been funded through donations from the University and Alumni, but the bulk came in the form of large loans being taken out by the Union.
[11] This group, led by QSU President Seán Fearon, succeeded in securing commitment from Queen's University that they would divest from fossil fuels by the year 2025.
Elections for the SUC take place in October and seats are filled through proportional representation (PR), with constituencies representing each faculty.
Most of the main political groups on the island are present at Queen's including: Labour Students (the student wing of the British Labour Party), Northern Ireland Conservative Future (the youth movement of the British Conservative Party), the Young Greens, Queens's Alliance (part of Alliance Youth), Ógra Fianna Fáil (the first branch in Northern Ireland), the Democratic Unionist Association, the Young Unionists, SDLP Youth, Sinn Féin Republican Youth, the Socialist Party and the Socialist Workers Party.
[16] Queen's Students' Union is the long term venue of Q-Con, a gaming convention in the UK.