A building which can claim to be a nursery for Northern Ireland's politicians is set to be totally re-modeled: proposed changes to Queen's University Students Union's Mandela Hall have been heavily criticised by the union itself.
The paint was hardly dry on the Mandela Hall, formerly the McMordie Hall, when it became the centre for student leaders in the sixties, coming together in support of civil rights. In later days it witnessed wrangle after wrangle over sectarian and non-sectarian issues. Say what you like about the way it looks, it has history.
Now the University has grand intentions for the whole west side of University Avenue where Mandela Hall and other assorted University buildings face the imposing red-brick facade of the university's nineteenth century main building.
"The intention is to bring the whole campus together to the point where University Avenue runs through the campus rather than dividing it," says a spokesman for the University.
As part of this plan, The Mandela Hall will be razed to the ground and replaced, although the university says that what it will be replaced with is far from decided.
Consultants are "due to come back with a plan early in this year".
The Students' Union president, John McAuley is less than impressed and believes that, based on the plans he has seen, the hall would be replaced by a precinct "or some American Gobbldigook name" which would not be of any use to students.
"As things stand now, the students union would be reduced to a couple of offices in a corridor on the third floor," he says.
As well as this, McAuley is concerned that there is no provision for a debating hall and that there is too much stress on wooing private-sector firms into the building. "The Students' Union knows what students need and want because we are run by students," he said.
"My worry is that these plans have a very heavy emphasis on outside commercial interests who naturally will want a return on their investment, and that means they will put little back into student services. He says the union was in favour of the development in principle.
But he adds: "The logic of the plans as they stand now will lead to a change in the ethos at the students' union to a situation where students will be simply consumers."
The university spokesman said that it was "very early in the whole process ... we aren't even at the stage yet where there is a design for the whole building". He said that the university's vice-Chancellor, Professor George Bain, was a strong believer in extracurricular activities such as debating and the students' union.
"It's just crazy to think that those wouldn't be catered for," he says. The union already has tenant shops in the Mandela Hall building and these as well as a post office, book shop and bank would need to be catered for but "there is no way the planners are going to allow large scale commercial development," the spokesman says.
By bringing together all the different student services the development "will mark a quantum leap in the services we can deliver to students", the spokesman says, pointing out that three successive SU presidents have now been consulted about the scheme. McAuley remains unconvinced however and says that although consulted.
"I don't feel the SU has been listened to. . .the plans are about making money from students."
The long-running "Brain Drain" in Northern Ireland, whereby many students took up university places in Britain may coming to an end.
Figures show that there was an eight per cent increase in the number of students taking up courses in the North and a decline of almost ten per cent in the numbers going to study in Scotland - traditionally the most popular place to study.
