HSRW ELECTIONS – RESULTS ARE IN

After five days of elections last week, finally today results are out.

The student parliament (StuPa) has 37 seats, of which eight are reserved to the faculty-wide elections. The remaining 29 seats are distributed between the candidates who get the most votes.

This year the polls saw a big turnout of 20% of the electorate – compared to last years` 8%.

The seat distribution between the parties is quite balanced, meaning that the diversity of the campus is fairly represented in the parliament.

Obviously this is only the beginning of the year ahead that our new representatives during which they will face obstacles, issues and prove that they practice what they preach.

We at the Campus 107 want to congratulate the winners and wish them a successfully productive term of office.

For the Faculty Students Representatives (FSR) winners both at parliament and faculty level, check the link on Moodle http://moodle.hochschule-rhein-waal.de/pluginfile.php/181407/mod_resource/content/1/Wahlergebnisse.pdf

Study Trip to Frankfurt

The Faculty of Society and Economics organized a study trip to the German Federal Bank (Deutsche Bundesbank) and the Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt am Main.

This was a two-day study trip (7th-8th December) planned by the Head of Economics&Finance program, Prof. Dr. Jörn Sickmann, and the Coordinator of Economics&Finance Master program, Tobias Buse. Participants of the trip were 51 students from the second semester of Master Economics and Finance.

 

This excursion was a good opportunity to visit important financial institutions in Germany. The visit included two presentations in English, “Deutsche Bank – A Global Player” and “The role of the Deutsche Bundesbank within the Eurosystem“, concerning history of the institutions, money politics and the actual financial situation in Europe, and future intentions especially aimed at making the German Bank less risky and better capitalized.

Afterwards, there were discussions where the students had the opportunity to ask questions and have information about internship and job opportunities.

The postgraduates stayed overnight at an A&O Hostel, offered by the university itself.

However the trip was not conferences only, but also fun time: students had the chance to visit Frankfurt and its landmarks, such as the Römerberg -the city`s old town centre-, the Main river and tower, and the Senckenberg natural history museum. Moreover they stopped by the big Christmas market with its beautiful decorations where the alumni enjoyed the festive atmosphere and drank Gluhwein.

Winterball 2015 – THE INTERVIEW

Every year the Winterball is the highlight event for HSRW. On Thursday 17th, “The Show Night” took place as always at the Wunderland Kalkar. There was a race for tickets and all was sold-out in short time. Buffet, drinks, good music, professional entertainers, and even a tombola for charity were offered. Campus 107 interviewed the chief in command, Tina Hafner.

Campus107: How long has the Winterball been on? And who organises it?

Miss Hafner: This was the 7th Winterball at our Hochschule. Each event is organised by few AStA members. The body plays the juridical person role while the actual organisation is done by volunteers. I`ve been in the process for 3 editions now and this year I organised it by myself in cooperation with AStA, FSR, and Eventbüro Bettray. To set it all up, I had lots of students (freshers & seniors) who volunteered their free time to help me.

Sincere thanks go to Steffen Bettray, Sarah Walter, Iman Hammon, Jasmin Borgert, Laura Schirmer, Lea Schiffers, Lukas Hendricks, Marie Kempkens, Richard Menning, Theresa Faßbänder, Tobias Wahlers, Sani Wahjudi, Tobi Hauck, Selina Maas, Nina Tiedemann, Sebastian Schneller, Nora Ruscher, Madeleine Bentgens, Marina Stienecker, Mareike Müller, Kira Petig, Lara Khedher, Felipe Moroder-Bendyk, Jessica Jung, Cora Klockenbusch, King Wong, Felix Heinz (19, Ersti), Marius Köhler, Ann-Kathrin Effertz, Raoul Brüntgens, Freddy Friedsam, Chris Gassel, Caro Rösner, Thomas Lasinski, Matt Anton, Selin and Merve Keles – you guys made this event such a success!

Campus107: How long did it take this year to put together? And how did you choose the theme?

Miss Hafner: It started in May 2015 and went on till the very last day. We wanted to make something special and improve the show part of the Winterball. We have so many parties at our Hochschule so I thought that we needed something different: a bigger show with a lot of entertainment that you don’t see every day.

Campus107: Was it harder to manage than previous years? And how was participation compared to previous years (since tickets were more expensive)?

Miss Hafner: I can’t really tell if it was harder or easier. Being in charge makes things easier to manage since you don`t lose time in discussions, but at the same you’re responsible for everything so if something goes wrong it`s up to you to fix it.

The Winterball has been improving year after year, since it first started: we went from 500 participants in 2012 to 1800 this year!

Campus107: Why were tickets more expensive?

Miss Hafner: The event has changed and grown bigger. For the previous years the equipment at the Wunderland location was enough, but this time we needed to rent a lot of extra stuff, for example one chair costs 3.50€ and one small tablecloth is 8€. All the small things like the golden wire wrapped around the bottles, the candles, and the roses. Also insurance was more expensive, and money was needed for security, ambulance, buses. Technical equipment, sound system, the photobox installed at the entrance, all this needed to be paid for. And the list goes on, but that was still cheap- imagine if I had to pay all of the volunteers for their work! It took 15-20 people, one week, 9-12 hours a day to just decorate and set tables and cutlery.

Campus107: Who were the performers and did you get a feedback from them?

Miss Hafner: At the beginning, Bakerstreet, one of the Hochschule bands, and Lena,the brilliant floor acrobat, gave the guests a warm welcome. Naomi, Tina, and Viren were our lovely singers. Floor and air acrobatic, juggling, and the fireshow were all acted by Circus Jonny Casselly. The fascinating Latin dancers were Tanja Mielke & Kai Mrowinski. Last but not least, the hip-hop act was given by the award-winning OneCrew. And not to be forgotten, this year, for the second time, Susan Albers chanted us with her voice while playing the piano.

All of them enjoyed the evening very much and loved the audience and the atmosphere. Some performers already asked to be part of the event again next year.

Campus107: Can you comment on the ticket resale that took place on Facebook? And on the wardrobe service as well?

Miss Hafner: I’ve been really sad about the resale. The volunteers and I worked for free to keep the prices as low as possible AND some people try to sell the tickets for a higher fee and think that is fair just because they walked all the way to the Mensa or Audimax to buy them… We are all students, from the same university. Nobody should be ripping off their fellows for profit! Aren’t we supposed to be a helpful, understanding, and supporting community?

Regarding the wardrobe service, it was hired. The company has its own system and it failed. I apologize for that- I thought they could handle it.

All things considered, the event was a hit. Everybody had a good time so hat’s off to Tina and her volunteers for making us spend a wonderful show night.

For photos and videos check Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/312072428963016/ and Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeLmq2z7aqk&feature=youtu.be

Election week – time to hit the polling station

 

It`s that time of the year again: elections for the Student Parliament (StuPa) and Faculty Student Representatives (FSR) start today, up until Friday 4th. For those who do not know, the FSR is an organ of student representatives -one for each faculty- who organises events and supports its faculty’s students, while the StuPa has a broader responsibility.

LAST YEAR`S TURNOUT

This is not an exciting topic for most students as only 8% of the electorate voted last year, and FSR candidates for Society& Economics keep growing disproportionally to the other departments. We asked Jenny Mush, a faculty representative, to make a statement about this situation, and she recons that the workload and time required for holding such a position is the main reason why the other faculties may not see much active participation.

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT ME?

Still we must remind ourselves that no matter what the results, the elected students will be representing each one of us and will act on our behalf. If you add the fact that the student bodies organise the campus life and manage the budget –to which each enrolled student contributes with 10 Eur through the semester fee (you do the math!) -that might provide a good reason to at least check your potential representatives’ names and what’s in their mind. We are so technologically advanced that we can actually contact them via Facebook or email!

 

THIS YEAR`S CANDIDATES

A list of office-seekers was sent to all the students, but it was not a complete list. So even if you checked your emails regularly, your knowledge about the potential representatives would still be limited. A chance to get in touch with parties and independent candidates was during last week`s “Meet&Greet”, in which not every applicant participated for various reasons, such as time (it was only from 10 to 11, which is not the most suitable hour to meet students at the Mensa), but many claim that they will try to reach people more effectively during this election week.

 

But do you think it`s fair for the electorate and the candidates to have contact during the same days we are supposed to vote? We believe that each student should make their own choice based on facts and not randomness, even if they decide to not vote. Many voters do in fact choose randomly and this might be both the cause and the consequence of many problems in our everyday university life… If you were a candidate, would you base your chance to be elected on how your name looks next to a tick box? Obviously not.

QUICK INTERVIEWS

Here we give you a taste of candidates, some old and some new: it`s not exhaustive so do your part and start asking questions! The focus is on the StuPa since it represents everyone, including all HSRW faculties.

Let`s start with our previous representatives for the last two years, Die Liste. We interviewed a member, Benjamin Killewald, who to the question what has changed during their term, he answered that they are more professional, they improved parliament discussions, increased payment for Asta members and outsourced the Winterball due to the financial risk. Also the Head of Election Committee, Helge Seefluth, is a member of the party. Another previous member of the StuPa is Cesar Dro, Head of the Budget Committee. He`s running together with ten other students from all over the world. Their list, Make it work, aims to make the student parliament work for example by employing enough representatives for each committee and creating a StuPa website to become more accessible. A new party is the Voice, whose five members come from Pakistan, Russia, Macedonia, Nepal and Germany. They want to improve transparency and support international students by providing services such as a couch surfing program.  The last party we interviewed is Beta Haus, whose member Sairam Damparala is also involved in our newspaper. This party is united by a common mind-set of supporting students and helping solving problems.

In addition to party groups, there are many independent candidates running for elections. We interviewed two of them, Dickson Chinedu Onu and Anna Marko. They both did not join or found a party because lists were full already by the time they applied. However they did not give in, they are motivated: Mr Dickson wishes to use his experience in leadership to help the campus grow, and Miss Marko wants to contribute to the student community as she`s also running for faculty representative. Both candidates are not intimidated  by participating as independents because they have students like us who support them and facilitate the work that has to be done. Nothing is impossible if you have a real goal, in Marko`s words.

As you might know, there is plenty of room to improvement but as long as there is little or no demand from the electorate, things won`t change. Don`t think that your actions or inactions won`t affect the campus and its people – for every action there is a reaction, after all.