CGCU Dinner brings in the engineers
Students turn out in force to celebrate start of term at Café de Paris
The City & Guilds College Union (CGCU) held their Welcome Dinner event along with an afterparty, on Tuesday 25 October at Café De Paris, marking their flagship event. The party attracted over 600 students, testing the 700 capacity of Café De Paris, with a three course dinner starting from 7:30pm.
Dinner tickets sold out before term began but afterparty tickets continued to be sold on the door. The CGCU President, Jacky Kwan, gave a traditional “Boomalaka” rally along with a short speech. The event lasted until 3am, seeing attendees from various disciplines within the Engineering faculty and beyond. Felix covered the event’s photography, which can be seen on the CGCU’s recently created Facebook page.
Attendees included former CGCU president He-in Cheong, various engineering alumni and head of the Faculty of Engineering Jeff Magee, who gave a speech which included comments on Imperial’s decline in the National Student Survey due to student satisfaction levels. The event’s substantial success was largely set in motion by Jacky Kwan and his committee, being important for the CGCU as it begins to report a long-anticipated upward trend in activity, interest and organisation following the various instabilities seen over the last two years.
The event carried an overall sense of elation for freshers giving an opportunity to mingle in the context of a formal dinner with traditions such as the “Queen’s Rules” being applied. One first year Aeronautics student commented to Felix on the event noting, “it was great fun and I met some amazing people”. Others noted that the drinks prices were rather steep.
CGCU Chair James Fan was pleased with the turnout, mentioning “the faculty grant was well spent” and that a “substantial amount of students benefitted from it”. Jacky Kwan said on behalf of his committee that they are “extremely pleased with the tremendous turnout”, thanking them for putting in “so much hard work in organising this spectacular event”, adding that he is “proud to lead the CGCU in this success”.
