Helping organizations reach a new level

For many students JYY can seem like a distant organization but subject and recreational organization working with JYY do an outstanding job to promote student’s well being. The principal idea of the Union of Alvar is to help organizations as much as possible to continue this work on a grassroots level ja with more support from the student union. JYYs board of executives has because of our, P&Ds and naturalists’ council motion started to figure out , together with organizations, how JYY could support organizations besides financial support. In addition we demand that the application process for JYY’s general grants be updated and the total amount of grants be increased.

 

Concrete steps for helping organizations includes improving sectoral meetings, training, improving the seminar for organizations and other tools provided by JYY. JYY has to give more support for organizing events and avoiding their overlapping for example by improving the organization’s shared calendar. JYY has to negotiate with the university’s Facility Services for clear rules on renting university spaces to subject and recreational organizations.

 

Functioning and responsible learning environment

A functioning, safe, healthy and unimpeded learning environment is a prerequisite for studying, research and meeting people. The Union of Alvar wants to affect the development of the campus area so that subject organizations, individual students and staff have the possibility for appropriate working. Subject organizations have to be offered equal chances for their own space where students can meet each other. Even though during the previous student council’s term there has been improvement the situation is still not equal for all organizations. The university campus needs open learning environments, which use all members of the academic society has an equal right. The reachability and unimpeded access of spaces has to be further improved. For example in the coming renovation of the university library these views have to be taken into account.

 

Learning environment also includes a safe city environment outside of the campus. City design has to encourage students to bike and make it even safer and better functioning. Environmental responsibility has to be taken into account in the buildings of JYY. The student village and Student House Ilokivi have to be made more energy efficient and environmental views have to be a priority when constructing new buildings. Energy efficiency also saves money in the long term, which enables the student village’s more comprehensive developments in the future.

 

An equal Council of Representatives also for international students

The Student Council has to invest in issues regarding parity and equality. Free education and a functioning student health care system have to be held on to. The threshold to get involved with the Council of Representatives has to be kept as low as possible and JYY has to be reachable for everyone. Student democracy in the Council of Representatives has to be improved by an electronic system for submitting motions to lower the threshold of participation for all students. Other ways for communication and feedback have to be developed so that individual students have a way to make their voices heard.

 

JYY has made good progress regarding linguistic accessibility – now almost all event descriptions can be found in english as well as in finnish. However this is not enough to integrate international students into Jyväskylä’s student culture, as international students spend time only with other international students. Alvarin unioni wants to promote new possibilities for finnish and international students to meet. Finding all of the international students can be a tough job for subject organizations because of the various degree programs and JYY has to offer more concrete support in this.

 

Events of JYY should be modified to be more inviting for students of all nationalities. For example events typical to the finnish student culture, such as sitsit, could be organized in english. International students have to be made to feel that JYY’s activities are open for them as well. JYY’s event calendar should be translated into english so that linguistic accessibility would come true better than before. The Council of Representatives should also focus their marketing to international organizations working within the university such as ESN and IDESCO.