Voting in the Representative Council Elections Off to a Good Start
Voting in the AYY Representative Council Elections begun on Monday the 28th of October. By Thursday, voting was already off to a good start: over 2000 votes had been cast!
AYY also organized a panel for candidates. Candidates from the following groups joined the panel: Freedom to Choose, Våga, Kylterirengas, LUOVA, SCIsma, Greener Aalto, Pro Arte and Voltti. Panel members engaged in active conversation on topics including automatic student union membership, the future of the student centre, AYY’s building projects and membership fees as well as the use of three languages in AYY.
The panel also cast light on the importance of voting in the Representative Council Elections. The Representative Council has a central role in the Student Union’s decision-making process. The Council decides on the Student Union’s strategy, values, rules, line papers and the up to 17-million-euro budget at a guiding level. This year, the Representative Council has decided, for example, on the hiring of the new Executive Director, the future of Aino magazine and changes to the Student Union rules. You can read more about the Representative Council here.
There are 293 candidates up for election. You can get to know the candidates and their stances here or by filling out the candidate matcher.
Voting is open until Tuesday the 5th of November at 4 PM. All AYY members that have paid their membership fee by Sep 15th 2019 are eligible to vote. Vote here: https://vaalit.ayy.fi.
Read more news
The proposal for an overall reform of student financial aid is disappointing
Aalto University Student Union (AYY) made a statement on the legislative proposal of the Ministry of Education and Culture concerning the comprehensive reform of student financial aid. The proposal is disappointing because it does not solve the core problems of student financial aid or improve the livelihoods of students.
A promise of free education is not enough
The Ministry of Education and Culture has published a vision for higher education and research for 2040, which is intended to guide the direction of Finland's higher education policy. Increasing the number of university graduates in the young age group to 60 per cent, as proposed by the vision, requires investments and ambition from decision-makers. In this blog, Totti Korpua, AYY’s Advocacy Specialist, discusses the significance of the vision for students.
Queering Teekkari Village
What is it like to be queer in Teekkari Village and the Aalto community? In honor of Pride Month, Adrian Suvisaari, Ines Saikku, and Camille Fourié have written a blog post reflecting on their experiences and on challenging heteronormativity and binary conceptions of identity within our community.