Information on the Teekkari cap process

Participation in Teknologföreningen’s freshman education and other operations was made accessible to all Aalto people when Aalto University was established. Last year, Interior Design was transferred from the Department of Design to the Department of Architecture, as a result of which the responsibility over new Interior Design students transferred to the Guild of Architecture. These facts have led to also other students than those of the technology field participating in both associations’ Teekkari freshman education.

In October 2018, the Guild of Architecture and Teknologföreningen approached AYY and the Teekkari Section with a letter expressing the wish to clarify the possibility of also other students than those of the technology field to receive a Teekkari cap.

Due to the letter, the Board of AYY decided in November 2018 to establish a working group to clarify the community’s views on the matter. The working group consisted of members of the Board and the Teekkari Section.

During the charting process in November–December 2018, eight parties were interviewed:

• Freshman Committee,
• AYY Board,
• Teekkari Section,
• Council,
• Guild of Architecture,
• Teknologföreningen,
• Ikiteekkari (Eternal Teekkari) and
• Guild Eldest of the Guild of the Round Tower.

A unanimous stand on the topic could not be formed based on the interviews, and the Board was presented with multiple solution models.

In December 2018, the AYY Board make the following decision:

“If the Teekkari Section and the Guild of the Round Tower (PTK) are in favour of this, permission to wear the Teekkari cap can in special cases be granted to persons who have completed their freshman education. These concessions are to be treated as individual cases.

The Board authorises the Freshman Major to design a proposal for the concession process in collaboration with Julius Luukkanen and the Chair of the Teekkari Section. The process will be approved by the Teekkari Section and a PTK panel.

This decision stands for the present and will be readdressed after the possible Wappu 2019 in the body in charge of Teekkari matters as defined by the community structures project. The TKY-period Cap Regulations must be updated, if possible, in connection with this.”

The concession process mentioned in the decision was prepared during January 2019. The Teekkari Section and the panel of the Guild of the Round Tower ry approved the process in the beginning of February 2019.

The process enables permission to wear the cap to be granted solely to freshmen who begun their Teekkari freshman education in autumn 2018 and whose degree does not lead to the title of Bachelor of Science (Technology), Master of Science (Technology), Architect or Landscape Architect. The cap must be applied for separately, and both the Teekkari Section and the panel of the Guild of the Round Tower must approve the application in order for a cap to be granted. Through the process, the cap can only be granted to a freshman demonstrating particular Teekkari spirit and interest towards the technology field.

Freshmen have been notified of this opportunity, and the application period is ongoing.

If applications are received, the Teekkari Section and the panel of the Guild of the Round Tower will address them later in the spring and either grant or not grant the permissions to wear the cap in time for the possible Wappu 2019.

This is a temporary operating model designed for use this spring only. Matters regarding the Teekkari cap will be readdressed once AYY’s community structures project is completed after the summer of 2019. The Teekkari Section has expressed the wish that there would be time to have the entire Teekkari community participate more actively in the readdressing.