Social life in…

edited by Alina Chen and Sadia Sheeraz

cover image illustrated by Vaneeza Jawad

1. Pulse Radio (Sunny O’Neill)

At Pulse, pub-hangs and low-key music meets are where we bond, but it’s at night where we really get our freak on. We throw sell-out parties at some really cool venues around London, and our Whatsapp group chat reads like a how-to guide of London music events and nightlife beyond the sticky floors of Zoo and Egg (disclaimer: the floors are sticky elsewhere), so you can find pals to dance with on unpredictable nights out. Ya might even make it outside of zone 1! 😮 The DJing world can be somewhat of a boys club, but we try super hard to make our parties a space for fun queer and female energy. It’s the main reason I went to a Pulse DJ workshop in my 1st year – and now play on the same lineups as my teacher! I feel more at home with these creative boogieing babes than anywhere else at uni <3.

2. Quiz Soc (Ben Helme)

While we’ve hosted various daytime events, a standard Quiz Soc social is an evening quiz at Tuns! We host them every couple of weeks, and while we have prizes for the winners, it’s very low-key.

In teams of six, you can expect questions such as:

Which titular book character, inspired by Vlad the Impaler, comes ashore to Whitby?

Who sang ‘Oops! I Did It Again’?

Which city’s name is a synonym of ‘satchel father’?

Come along, and test how well your useless trivia knowledge holds up after a few drinks! All dates are advertised on our Instagram, @lsesuquizclub – see you there!

3. 93% club (Sophie Walton)

93% of England’s population went to a state school, yet being a part of the 93% club at LSE seems odd as there doesn’t seem to be that many of us here! I feel being part of the club seems part of a resistance against the bullingdon club culture that this country experiences. And to be honest, it means the socials are pretty good. For example, our ‘Your Local Comprehens-quiz’ event at the Three Tuns, which we hosted with Equality in Education and Social Mobility last term featured iconic rounds like ‘Where’s Blair?’ (picture round) and ‘Which private school tradition is true?’

The best part of course is always the turn out, be it state school students or those interested in mobility – the best kind of people you know. The collective understanding of the pressures of being a state-educated student at LSE, a more relaxed and appreciative environment evolved throughout our time (and the drinks vouchers definitely helped).

4. Nordic society (Alice Aurell)

We have been organising both alcoholic and non-alcoholic events this year to be as inclusive as possible, with a mix of coffee mornings, drink nights at Tuns, and very recently our Boat Party! My favourite event this year was, hands down, our Mamma Mia event in MT, which we hosted with KCL and UCL Nordic Society. It was our first big event of the year and an event that no prior committee had attempted to organise. Naturally, as the President, I was nervous leading up to the night but everything lined up perfectly! The venue was gorgeous with Mediterranean themed decorations. We had our ABBA playlist on cue and people went full out with the 80s disco theme. We managed to make tickets free too to make it more accessible! So people of other nationalities showed up as well. It’s the one event that our members keep referring back to in conversations. As one of the event organisers, those comments are extremely heartwarming, seeing that the members truly enjoyed themselves, which is all you can ask for. 

5. Rag (Michelle Soh)

RAG (‘Raising and Giving’) has been actively contributing to and revitalising social life on campus through many diverse events and collaborations. From the very beginning, the RAG Band brought hundreds of students together to sing, dance, eat, party and meet each other. Through the Movember campaign raising awareness for men’s health through the growing of moustaches, Tube Stop Walk for Homelessness initiative where participants walked 35 miles in a few hours, and Wednesday sports night at Sway, the AU has collectively raised thousands – over £6,000! Drama pulled off a mesmerising Mamma Mia Musical in only 24 hours. Many of our fundraisers encourage small and/or optional donations as well, where students are free to give as much as they can or want, including in our bake sales, Pride Week doughnut and rainbow lanyard collab, second-hand clothing sales, and pie in the face battles. Another big part of RAG is our exciting array of challenges. This summer, we have teams of students who will be skydiving, cycling from London to Paris, ascending Kilimanjaro, and trekking the UK Three Peaks. We’re also bringing back RAG Gets Lost, a RAG classic: participants are shipped to a mystery location and have to work in teams to scramble their way back without spending a dime, all whilst completing a bunch of cheeky challenges. 

#EatSleepRaiseRepeat #NoRAGrets #Putting-the-‘fun’-in-fundraising

6. Somali society (Sara Mohamoud)

LSE Somali Society was founded two years ago by first-year Somali students wanting to create a community of Somali (and non-Somali!) students wanting to connect and learn more about Somali culture. The pandemic, as is the case of most LSE societies, shut most of our activities down. But we have made our comeback this year!  Over the last year, we have had events such as society dinners, bowling, games nights and many more! A favourite for our society members has been the opportunity to go to University of London inter-Somali Society events and be connected with other like-minded people. Though Somalis at LSE are quite a minority, we have the benefit of being more of an intimate and tight-knit network, where everyone has a chance to know all of our members! We love welcoming anyone of non-Somali origin to our events too!