[dropcap]The DCU Students’ Union want you to help them name the new student centre.[/dropcap]
In a video released on Facebook, SU President Niall Behan asked all students to help them name the new centre, with prizes like vouchers and iPads up for grabs for the best ideas. All applications must be PG and DCU reserve the right to have the final decision.
Names put forward include: NuHub, The Hive, Is DCU a Third Level Institution Centre, Susan Boyle Hall of Fame, Dear Leader Imperial Palace, DCU Den, Daniel O’Donnell Kingdom, and Hubway.
Currently, The Hub, The Anne Louise Gilligan Centre (named after the late St. Pats theologian) and Hub McHubface are the most popular names.
“We thought it would be a nice way to build a buzz and a good way to get students involved in the creation of the centre. It really is a centre by students for students,” said Behan.
The new centre will include:
- An Entrepreneurship and Innovation Hub providing creative work-spaces to support and nurture student innovation.
- A Student Leadership and Life-Skills Centre to provide mentoring and training programmes.
- An Arts and Culture hub for the performing, visual and multimedia arts including a performance space for concerts and festive events with capacity for up to 2500 students.
- A Global Student Centre which will provide a meeting point for all DCU students, representing more than 115 nationalities.
The new centre will have three stories and provide an additional 4,000m2 of modern purpose built space for students’ social, cultural, global engagement and entrepreneurial activities. The target date for its completion is February 28th 2018.
The competition is reminiscent of the famous Boaty McBoatface online poll to name a ship that was eventually called the RRS Sir David Attenborough. Although Boaty McBoatface was the most popular suggestion in the #NameOurShip poll, the suggestion was not used.
Instead it was announced the Boaty McBoatface would be used for the submersibles aboard the Sir David Attenborough instead. The results of the poll inspired similar results in other naming polls including the current naming of the student centre.
Callum Lavery