Studiwerk App, Third-party Funding, and Corporate Benefits
There were insights into various aspects of student representation on June 20, 2024. At its eighth meeting, the Student Parliament 2023/24 discussed the following topics.
Preview of the Studiwerk app
In conversation with the Studierendenwerk, some students had the pleasure of meeting the new Managing Director of the Studierendenwerk for the first time. Dominik Kampf took over the job from Michael Ullrich in May. And even if the exchange format remains the same for the time being, many student representatives are hoping that this change will bring a breath of fresh air from Würzburg.
Initially, however, the focus was on questions from Bamberg. For example, the procedures for calculating canteen prices will soon be available on the Studierendenwerk website. The ketchup dispensers demanded by the student parliament are also to be installed. Finally, there was a short demo of the Studierendenwerk’s upcoming app. Once further features have been finalized, it will be released in a few months. The application is intended to bundle various services of the Studierendenwerk, from the canteen meal plan to the defect report in the dorms, in one place.
Open studio and Mandarin courses
There were a pleasing number of reports from the Student Parliament’s working groups – partly because the rules of procedure require them to do so at least once a semester, otherwise their funding could be cut. The threat of this possibility alone was enough to persuade numerous delegates to talk about their various activities.
There were reports from the working groups on sports, music, culture, social affairs and anti-fascism/anti-racism. The freie uni bamberg presented its regular lecture program. The arts working group talked about nude drawing workshops and their open studio. And the ecology working group gave insights into its talks with the Chancellor on a more sustainable canteen.
The Advisory Board of the Language Center reported that the language exchange program with the University of Passau was a success. After Arabic and Thai were recently opened up to each other, Japanese and Mandarin will be offered to students from both universities this winter.
Another change concerns foreign business languages and is intended to emphasize language training. The language level will now be certified in two examinations (written and oral). This will suffice as proof of language proficiency for the semester abroad within the EU. The current language certificate for a semester abroad will cost 15 euros starting in October. This money will be used to finance an additional language course.
Sustainable corporate benefits
The Bamberg Green-Left Student Initiative (BAGLS) opened the evening’s round of motions. It invited the university management to work together to examine the university’s range of corporate benefits in terms of sustainability and social justice. The proposal defines corporate benefits as “additional benefits that companies offer their employees alongside their regular salary”.
The lack of transparency of the offers – only employees can view them and they are also obliged to maintain confidentiality – and the categories from which employees can choose are met with criticism. Travel companies and manufacturers of consumer goods are seen by the applicants as “emblematic of precisely the kind of consumption and capitalism that […] destroys our livelihoods and robs people of their dignity”.
At the request of the Juso university group, the staff council was also invited to the discussion group. After a debate on how the abolition of corporate benefits could harm employees, a vote was finally taken: the motion was passed with 14 votes in favor and 11 against.
Transparency in third-party funding
The second motion also came from the BAGLS. In it, they called for the disclosure of third-party funding providers and amounts for research at the University of Bamberg. The motion was drafted independently of Correctiv’s research into the “bling-bling professors from Aachen”, which became public at the same time. There was great unanimity among the parliamentarians. The motion was passed with 27 votes in favor and none against.
A name for the campus tool
Most recently, the WIAI Student Council suggested that the student body could contribute to this development with a name proposal for the integrated campus management system. A URL was specifically sought, as the precursor projects have already started – even if it will still take some time before UnivIS, FlexNow and co. are replaced.
After the proposal was approved, the Speakers’ Council collected suggestions. The following (unsorted) shortlist has now been forwarded to IT Services:
- There were several proposals with “campus” in the name. The most promising were mycampus.uni-bamberg.de, the Franconian version meigambus.uni-bamberg.de or the very short and international-suitable mei.uni-bamberg.de. Entertaining but more complex suggestions such as aufaanblick.uni-bamberg.de and ordnunggschafft.uni-bamberg.de were rejected.
- Then there was a proposal that made the acronym “UFO” its own. The idea behind this was that it is the reverse acronym of Otto-Friedrich-Universität (OFU) and can also be used internationally.
- Finally, consideration was given to using the occasion to honor relatively unknown scientific personalities. In reference to Emmy Noether (important mathematician) and Ada Lovelace (pioneer of computer science), the system could therefore be found at emmy.uni-bamberg.de or ada.uni-bamberg.de.
We will see whether these suggestions are used. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who contributed to the naming process!
Transparency note: The author was also the initiator of the proposal.
