The election panel spoke about the position of international students and the feeling of belonging
In the absence of major controversies, the panellists spoke about the differences of their lists.
Original text and pictures: Iikka Sorvali
Translation: Oskari Koski
TREY’s council election panel was held in good spirits. Visiiri was present on Thursday’s English language panel discussion, which was held to an almost empty hall at the centre campus.
The panel had representatives from political as well as association backgrounds. Altogether, there were candidates from six lists.
Unlike in HYY’s elections that ended yesterday, TREY’s elections do not have a clear theme. TREY’s finances are on a solid basis and there is no pressure to make savings.
In the absence of major controversies, the differences between the lists were seen especially in the question of what concrete goals the lists have for the 2025 term.
The panellists spoke about the position of international students and the feeling of belonging in the university community.
Lists make their targets known
“I’d like to concentrate on reducing loneliness and increasing the sense of belonging in TREY. It could be done by holding events and supporting member associations,” said Alex Siira of the Green List.
According to TREY’s equality survey published last week, almost half of all students do not feel like they are a part of any student association’s community.
Mira Kokko of Kontakti, the list for students of languages, communication and social sciences, mentioned increasing the resources of the Language Centre and increasing the offering of language courses. The International Representatives Group (IRG), that represents the international students, also brought up advocacy.
“For us, the main thing is that the voice of the international students is heard in the decision making,” said the representative of IRG, Renganayaki Venkatakrishnan
The lists were largely unanimous that the representation of international students should be improved, both in the Council of Representatives as well as in the decision-making at the University. At the moment, many student representative posts at the University require a knowledge of Finnish.
“The associations have rebuilt their international activities after COVID, and there is a need for support. At the moment, there is a barrier between Finnish and international students,” described Aapo Johansson of Hallintotieteiden liitto.
Otto Koppanen from the Green Left (also known as ViVa) took issue with the board of the university.
“In our opinion, the board of the foundation-based university is undemocratic, and we should get some representation from the university on it,” Koppanen argued.
Joona Paija from Oikeisto-opiskelijat told that the goals of his list include reducing TREY’s membership fee and disbanding Visiiri.
“We want TREY not to be an intersectionally feminist student union, because we think that it does not increase equality. We want that TREY would also serve meat.”
TREY declared itself as an intersectionally feminist organisation in the Policy Paper accepted in 2021. TREY’s board made a decision to start serving exclusively vegan food in the autumn of 2023, and the council accepted the position into TREY’s Policy Paper in February this year.
Early voting starts next week
TREY’s representative elections have 272 candidates from 15 lists. The Council of Representatives decides about the Student Union’s matters, such as the make-up of the Executive Board of TREY, as well as the strategy and finances of the Student Union.
Usually, the council is selected for a two-year term, but in these elections, the representatives are exceptionally selected for only one year. Both TREY as well as HYY of Helsinki will hold extra elections next year, so that the student unions can synchronise their election schedule with other student unions in Finland.
The voting in TREY’s elections will be electronic. Advance voting will be from 30 October to 1 November and the actual election days will be from 4 to 6 November.
The full panel is available on Youtube.
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