Negotiations are underway

Greetings fellow TIP members and everyone else following our blog and our student party from across the world.

As partiombud of TIP I feel it is my responsibility to let you all know what is going on at the moment.

The Student Union Election results were finalized over a week ago and since Monday the 16th of May the different parties that received seats in the Student Union Council, have been in negotiations for the upcoming year and the upcoming student council meeting that will occur on June 9th. On this student council meeting the 41 seats that define the student union council will be filled with persons that were selected to sit there based on the election results. TIP received 7 seats and will therefore contribute with seven people.

During this student council meeting the Student Union Board will also be formed and this board will exist of at least 7 people. Depending of the size of the board TIP will be represented in it based on the D´hont method, so it will all depend on how many people sit in the board. The President and the Vice-President are also included in the Student Union Board.

However, to select a President and Vice-President, and a Student Union Board, a coalition of at least 21 seats needs to be formed. This 21 or +21 seat coalition is called a majority coalition and will also be the coalition that sits down and works out a strategic plan as well as a budget plan.

As of now negotiations are underway and the different partiombuds’ of each party meet and discuss possible outcomes and possible coalition formations, with different demands and insights, of course.

Do you have any questions about what is going on at the moment? Feel free to send me an email or we can discuss your inquiries further on the upcoming TIP-meeting on May the 30th.

Sebastian Lindholm
Partiombud

Form the future with us

Time flies and as a student of Stockholm University and a member of The International Party (TIP) I have two very exciting weeks ahead of me. On Monday, May the 2nd, campaign week starts and this week is where the different student parties make their presence on campus. Posters are put up, hotdogs are put on the bbq, slogans are written, future promises are stated, pamphlets are given out, and ultimately, the student population start to decide on what party to vote for in the upcoming election.

This brings us to Election Week. On May the 9th you, as a member of the Stockholm University Student Union, can cast your vote in this year’s Stockholm University Student Union Election and you can do so up until May the 13th. You can vote either online on the SUS website, by using your Campus Card (Campuskortet) and the information on it, or you can do it the classical way, in a so called poll both on campus. Regardless of whether you act old school or do vote online I encourage you to vote, I also encourage you to vote for TIP, and these are some of the reasons why:

- We will bring back traditional student pubs as we see this as a fundamental installment of the union and something that has occurred for decades and has become a tradition at Stockholm University.

- We will make sure that the Stockholm University Student Union is a present force on campus and actively interact with the students of our university and becomes a transparent organization that actively takes part in political discussions once again.

-We will make sure that a bilingual newsletter is sent out to all Stockholm University Student Union members. This newsletter will act as a great platform and tool for communication as well as draw more students together towards unified events and activities thus ultimately promoting a better atmosphere with a student population that is engaged in their university also outside of the classroom.

I hope that you will vote for TIP the upcoming election, I know that I will.

Sebastian Lindholm - TIP Representative and student at Stockholm University

Finding Student Housing in Stockholm: A Real Pain in the SSSB

Right, so we all know that finding housing in Stockholm is a pain in the ass even for the employed native. I’m not employed and I’m not a native, so of course I’m struggling to find a place to live after my current lease expires in June. It’s not just me. Many of us international students are in similar positions.

SSSB.se is there to help us, right? Not really.

Take this hypothetical. A Swedish student – let’s call him Anders – graduates from secondary school, gynmasiet, and immediately signs up on a student-housing queue in Stockholm. A foreign student – let’s call her Mary – applies to SU in the winter for admission the following fall, and while she applied to the university, she signs up on the same housing queue as Anders. Well, Anders doesn’t go straight from gymnasiet to university, like many Swedish students: he travels for a bit, or maybe he works a job or two, taking probably an entire school year. By the time Anders applies and is accepted to SU, he’s got well over a year in credit days on his queue (i.e. from his June graduation until his admission for the August of the following year, approximately 15 months). Well, by the time Mary is accepted to SU and arrives in Stockholm, she’ll have only 8 or 9 months of credit days, for the time elapsed between her winter application and autumn admission would be, say, December to August. Both Mary and Anders are equally qualified students and are both afforded the right to live and study in Sweden – Anders by being a Swedish citizen, Mary by earning admission to SU and by being granted a student visa by Migrationsverket – but only one is likely to find student housing.

Does this make any sense?

Sure, SSSB has just announced that only those registered with a student union can queue on its list, limiting Anders and putting him on the same playing field as Mary. But the policy is not retroactive, meaning that Anders’s friend – let’s call him Johan, who began queuing right after high school, took three years off, and is now beginning studies at SU – will have over one thousand SSSB credit days while Mary – and, for that matter, Anders – are still at the bottom of the list. All three began their studies at the same time, all three proved student union membership at the same time, but only one is likely to find student housing.

Does this make any sense?

Andreas Kidane, Representative

Heat

The International Party (TIP) has within only a couple of weeks made a major impact on the political- situation and -discussion at Stockholm University.

When writing this it is less than a month left to the Stockholm University Student Union Elections and things are heating up. Political debate is on the agenda and tomorrow there is an entire conference day dedicated to student governance and later on during the evening there will be a debate session on the use of nuclear energy.

University magazine Gaudeamus will in their next number feature several articles dealing with the upcoming election. Some are more trivial and their purposes are to inform the students of our university, what is going on prior to the election, and how to vote. Other articles are opinion based pieces criticizing the methods of the election board and the chief electoral officer. Earlier this month there was also an article criticizing an advertising campaign that the student union made in cooperation with Kellogg’s among other things.

All in all this is an interesting time to be a student at Stockholm University and I hope that more and more students becomes aware of what is going on, how important this election will be, and ultimately, cast their right to vote on May 9th.
I am proud to be a part of The International Party (TIP) and everything we have done thus far and I am sure that with time come experience and we can only grow stronger from here on now.

Are you interested to become a member of TIP? Do not hesitate, leave a comment on our blog or on Facebook and we will register you. It does not cost you anything but you gain everything.

Sebastian Lindholm