Activities
The Society organises a variety of events during term-time, including weekly informal Thursday debates at the Queen Margaret Union. In October, the Society holds a New Members' Dinner, followed in March by the Annual Dinner(this year it will be held on 25 February as a special Anniversary Celebration), held shortly before the AGM. There is also an Inter-Board Debate, held between the boards of the four major student bodies (Glasgow University Union, Queen Margaret Union, Students' Representative Council and Glasgow University Sports Association), and the Honorary President's Debate, as well as a St Andrews-tide football game and a Sports Day, the Dialectic Olympics. The Society holds a number of more informal events, especially during Freshers' Week, to attract new members.
Three internal competitions are organised by the Society: the Reftable, for new speakers; the Intra-Varsity, a pro-am competition; and the John Duncan Debate, between incoming and outgoing club leaders of the Glasgow University Union's Parliamentary Clubs.
The Dialectic Society, along with the Glasgow University Medico-Chirurgical Society and Glasgow University Athletic Club, helped drive the formation of the Glasgow University Union in 1885, as well as being instrumental in establishing the Glasgow University Students' Representative Council the following year, and remains an active contributor to the activities of both organisations. The GUU was originally an all-male organisation, having been established before the admission of women to the University in 1892. At this time, women were educated at Queen Margaret College, and opportunities for women students to debate existed at the Queen Margaret Union. This activity largely ceased following the admission of women to the GUU in 1980, however the Dialectic Society has recently been involved in a number of events aimed at its revival.
Read more about this topic: Glasgow University Dialectic Society
Famous quotes containing the word activities:
“Both gossip and joking are intrinsically valuable activities. Both are essentially social activities that strengthen interpersonal bonds—we do not tell jokes and gossip to ourselves. As popular activities that evade social restrictions, they often refer to topics that are inaccessible to serious public discussion. Gossip and joking often appear together: when we gossip we usually tell jokes and when we are joking we often gossip as well.”
—Aaron Ben-Ze’Ev, Israeli philosopher. “The Vindication of Gossip,” Good Gossip, University Press of Kansas (1994)
“There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than its emphasis upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his activities in the learning process, just as there is no defect in traditional education greater than its failure to secure the active cooperation of the pupil in construction of the purposes involved in his studying.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)
“The old, subjective, stagnant, indolent and wretched life for woman has gone. She has as many resources as men, as many activities beckon her on. As large possibilities swell and inspire her heart.”
—Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)