President posts on political matters
What does the President of the Students’ Association at ETH, the VSETH, spend her day doing? This is a question Julia Wysling has often been asked. Now the current VSETH President has found a way of making her work visible to people on the outside.
For a week, Julia Wysling has been posting regularly on her new external pageFacebook page: “On this page, I am going to show you how I spend my days as VSETH President. You will also find updates on all important developments in university policy at the ETH and loads of other information on current events in and around the VSETH,” she writes in the very first post on 14 June.
Personal insights into her work
In terms of content, Wysling does indeed cover a broad range of topics. Alongside her personal views on current political issues such as scholarships, tuition fees and student accommodation, she also provides insights into the typical work of a VSETH board member. This includes signing agreements, giving newspaper interviews, attending meetings and workshops and barbecuing sausages at social events.
“On Facebook, I write about the issues and thoughts that occupy me as VSETH President. Official announcements by the Association are published on the VSETH homepage.” Although Wysling writes about her personal views, the Facebook page is not a private one but is linked with the VSETH presidency.
In addition to insights into her working day and political comments, Wysling also comments on media articles that deal with issues related to higher education policy and has discussions with other students, for instance on the topic of tuition fees.
Fees and scholarships
To the delight of students’ associations, the Council of States on Monday unanimously rejected a National Council external pagemotion to increase student fees for foreign students at ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne. “The topic of ‘tuition fee differentiation’ is therefore pretty much off the agenda (unless there’s a further motion in parliament). But then the ETH Board might go back to discussing a potential increase for everyone!” Wysling commented.
The situation is different when it comes to scholarships, with the two chambers yet to reach an agreement on this issue. For the students, this means continuing to work on their external pagescholarship initiative, which aims to standardize cantonal scholarships across Switzerland.
For Wysling and the VSETH, the next step is to prepare the regional campaign for the initiative together with the students’ associations of the University of Zurich and the Zürcher Fachhochschule. What exactly will this involve? This and more will be revealed in future posts...