Cambridge Union Society
The Cambridge Union Society (CUS for short), also known as The Cambridge Union or simply Cambridge Union , is a debating club in Cambridge, UK, and the oldest student association at Cambridge University . The club was founded in 1815, making it the oldest student debating club in the world. It thus served as a template for numerous other foundations, including the Oxford Union in 1823 and the Yale Political Union in 1934. Membership is open to students of Cambridge University and Anglia Ruskin University .
Many of the debates held here attracted international attention. The CUS currently has over 70,000 lifelong members.
history
The Cambridge Union Society was founded on February 13, 1815. Two years later it was closed by the university and reopened in 1921 under strict conditions. The premises on Bridge Street were planned by Alfred Waterhouse , who later also designed buildings for the Oxford Union. They were built in 1866 and expanded a few years later.
Guest speaker (selection)
Well-known speakers from the Cambridge Union Society include British Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher , US Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, and other politicians such as Jawaharlal Nehru , Helmut Kohl , Muammar al-Gaddafi and Frederik Willem de Klerk . Other guest speakers included the Dalai Lama , Julian Assange , Dominique Strauss-Kahn , Pamela Anderson , Stephen Hawking and Clint Eastwood .