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» Elected were:
Phoenix Erroukrma, Dániel Gáspár, Akhshar Leitner and Malte Kunold have been appointed to the Außenreferat (Office for External Affairs) , Franziska De Waard and Linnea Fischer to the Kulturreferat (Office for Cultural Affairs) and, last but not least, Benjamin Hellinger to the Studierendenwerksreferat (Office of Student Services). Congratulations!
» We’re looking for:
In the next session offices will be filled, too, because there again were some candidacies in the first reading. However, we are still looking for interested people for numerous tasks – for example for the StuRa-Presidium (Presidency of the StuRa), the Wahlauschuss (election committee), the Referat für Internationale Studierende (Office for international students) – and other Referate. If you are interested, contact the Gremienreferat (Office of Committees) or the Wahlausschuss – or just go to the meetings of the respective committees.
» We had a visitor:
A highlight right at the beginning of the meeting was the visit of Mrs. Modrow, the managing director of the Studierendenwerk Heidelberg with her team – she came with the heads of the Bafögamt and the university catering as well as her personal speaker, who answered the StuRa’s questions. And there was a lot to talk about. Here is a small insight, you can read more detailed information in the minutes.
Rooms were a big topic. The StuWe strives to offer students and student groups as much space as they can – example Campus Bergheim: there the Café Pur was partly made available as a study room. However, Mrs. Modrow also sees the university as having the duty to provide rooms.
After that, it was all about housing. Ms. Modrow explained that the general rent increases are mainly due to increased energy costs. In response to accusations that the rent increases had been communicated too late or even not at all, Mrs. Modrow acknowledged this and promised to communicate such changes more transparently in the future. In addition, after criticism of the allocation of dormitory places and the somewhat reticent communication on the part of the StuWe was expressed, improvements in communication were also promised.
The head of the BAföG-Amt promised flexible responses to the needs of students and at the same time referred to the Härtefallanträge (claim of hardship cases), which can be employed in the event of too long processing times in financial distress. In addition, there is the possibility to send an e-mail to the feedback address (bafoeg.feedback@stw.uni-heidelberg.de) of the BAföG-Amt in case of complaints or inappropriate behavior of the case workers.
In conclusion, Mrs. Modrow and the StuRa thanked each other for the stimulating exchange and promised more straightforward communication and closer cooperation in the future.
Also important:
»Those who have been reading these reports for a long time know the drama when there are amendments to Fachschaftssatzungen (student council statutess) or to the Organisationssatzung (organizational statutes) to vote on, but the necessary quorum is not reached. This is 2/3 of the voting StuRa members – mind you, all members, not just the members present. This meeting was relaxed in that respect: the quorum was 41, more than 50 voters were present – and all changes could be voted on successfully, concretely: the statutes of the Fachschaften Jura, Anglistik, Medizin, Computerlinguistik, Politikwissenschaft and the Organisationssatzung. The StuRa’s Geschäftsordnung (rules of procedure) and other regulations were also successfully voted on.
» As always, you can read the reports in the minutes – this time there were not so many, but many more items and many discussions and motions, which were very discussion-heavy. For example, a motion to commitment to remember the book burnings and a motion to establish a position on anti-racist work at the ZUV, which generated particularly lively discussion.
» Financial applications:
This semester, the StuRa has provided additional funds for the Fachschaften – these funds can also be submitted to the StuRa outside of the regularly scheduled two dates per year for this purpose – and some Fachschaften have already made use of this. Therefore, two motions were passed in this meeting, and another came to its first reading. For example, the FS Jura is happy to receive a grant for a sporting event and the FS Philosophie is happy to receive money for the summer party.
There is also money for an image campaign for the StuRa election. Its goal is to increase the reach and public perception of the StuRa.
Financially final was the decision to terminate the semester ticket contract with the VRN.This means that from the winter semester 2023 onwards, there will also no longer be weekend and evening arrangements (that students can take public transportation inside of the VRN contractual territory after 19:00 and on weekends and holidays). We finally established the wording ofthe contract to the theater flat rate, so you can now definitely go to the theater as often as you want for only 2.50€ a semester.
» Worth mentioning
The StuRa is a place for lively exchange about current developments – a hot topic of the last meeting: There were problems with admissions in many subjects this semester, for which the university’s „HeiCo-Chaos“ is largely responsible.
Responsible for the fact that still some further items went successfully into first reading was the Präsidium, which was able to close the stimulating and successful meeting punctually at 23:59.
We continue on Tuesday, May 23, 2023 starting at 7 p.m., again with exciting discussion and new motions in their second reading.
The meeting documents and minutes of the StuRa can always be found here.
You can find the informal short report from the last StuRa meeting here.
…and if you have something to clarify personally with the presidium: Every Tuesday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Lino, Theo and Thomas offer a consultation hour in the StuRa-Büro.