News from the Stuve

With the upcoming start of the winter semester, the welcoming of the new freshmen is the next event that is scheduled across all areas of the student council. In addition to the faculty-specific and department-wide freshers’ introductions, the student representatives will once again have the opportunity to take part in the event in the Heinrich-Lades-Halle. Some departments and university groups will also introduce themselves there. Furthermore, we have taken part in several status group discussions, of which we would like to go into the most important ones here.

Diversity Audit
A small group of students participated in the Diversity Audit and spoke about the good and bad study conditions for diverse groups of people at FAU.
However, the time available was felt to be too short to do justice to the issues involved – so it is to be hoped that more time was left for this in the other follow-ups to the process.

Exchange Bürgermeistersteg
The mayor Florian Janik invited the students’ representation, the pupils’ representation, as well as the district youth ring and the youth parliament to a discussion about the BMS during the Bergzeit. The focus was on the toilet situation, as well as the awareness efforts of the city and various groups and the omnipresent littering problem. Unfortunately, there will not be a permanently built toilet block like the one at Bohlenplatz due to underground problems, but a toilet truck and several large rubbish containers are to be installed next year. The biggest problem identified was not the provision of infrastructure, but the willingness of those present to use it due to longer walking distances, etc. The use of own jukeboxes will remain prohibited until further notice for noise protection and sociability reasons during the mountain time at the BMS. We have been invited back towards the end of September to look at the current state of development for next year.

However, our point that fewer parallel parties would form to the Bergkirchweih itself if the price of beer did not compete with the Oktoberfest will probably not result in any real change.

Handing over the keys to the Siemens campus

FAU/Giulia Iannicelli

A Stuve delegation was present at the handover of Siemens Module 7 in Erlangen to FAU. In the long term, large parts of the technical faculty will be housed here in new buildings. For the time being, the administration will move into the existing buildings next year to bridge the renovation work on the castle until the Raspberry Palace is ready for occupancy. On the sidelines of the event, we were able to talk to Interior Minister Herrmann about the shortage of affordable housing in Erlangen, and although he expressed his understanding for the problems, concrete results or proposals were unfortunately lacking.
We also brought up the discounted Deutschlandticket and the Minister of the Interior confirmed to us that the discount will remain in place for a longer period of time, but that there will be a benefit analysis after one year. However, there are no plans to compensate for price increases of the Deutschlandticket.

Participation in FAU NEWS
We had the chance to present the Student Council and its current work in a short clip from FAU News; we are currently working on ensuring that more of the student council’s work can be seen on FAU channels in the future.

Meeting with the President of the Unibund
The president of the Unibund introduced himself and the organisation to us and would like to promote the Unibund more strongly and thus strengthen identification with FAU. The Unibund is more than an alumni organisation and is also open to students, who thus gain access to the exclusive lectures and tours.

Construction talk

The open space on the south campus will be transformed into a landscaped green space with recreational areas; completion is scheduled for autumn 2024. The administration will move completely to the purchased Siemens Campus next year.

Despite a community survey, the naming of the new lecture halls on the southern campus was handed over to a commission, which will also work out the naming strategy for the entire FAU.

Geography will remain in Tennenlohe for the time being, but will move to the Röthelheim campus in the long term. The current catering situation will not change for the time being, as this is the responsibility of Studiwerk.

Further funding for the anatomy was approved in 2021, with completion scheduled in about 10 years.

There will be no relief for the main library until the new branch library opens in the Raspberry Palace; literature from the closed libraries is available via interlibrary loan from the main library. The canteen in the MCO has been increased to 60 seats.

V – das Studimagazin is looking for new voices!

We are looking for new voices for our blog! Whether you are new to journalism or a veteran at writing articles, we look forward to welcoming you. Here you can try out new things (and maybe collect a few ECTS for your key qualifications 😉 ). We’re kicking off the semester on the 25th of October, at 6:30 p.m at the Turnstraße 7 in Erlangen. Come meet us!
Our Instagram-profile: https://www.instagram.com/vstudimagazin/
Our blog: https://v-magazin.studierende.fau.de/

Student workers beware! Collective agreement now! Bring in your demands!

Dear fellow students, dear student/scientific assistants and tutors (in short: student workers),

We need your help to improve the working conditions of student workers at our university! How? Take part in the digital survey of demands for the collective bargaining round at https://www.tarifrebellion.de/Forderungsfindung_tvstud_2023!

Why? All over Germany, student workers are organising themselves in the TVStud movement [1] and are demanding the improvement of their working conditions through a collective agreement, fair wages, co-determination rights and an improvement in the duration of their employment contracts – because we are selling ourselves far short!
The recently published study “Young, academic, precarious” [2] clearly shows what the working conditions of student workers at German universities are like: Wages at minimum wage level, short contract terms and chain contracts, lack of democratic co-determination…. Bad conditions that exist in almost no other area of the working world. It is not without reason that more and more of these jobs remain unfilled. Even compliance with minimum labour standards such as holiday entitlement, continued payment of wages in case of illness or the ban on unpaid overtime are the exception rather than the rule among student workers.

Our trade unions ver.di and GEW have taken up these problems and want to make the improvement of the working conditions of student workers a demand towards the employers in the upcoming collective bargaining round of the public service of the Länder (TV-L) in autumn. Together with them and other groups of public sector workers, we are preparing a collective bargaining movement and – if necessary – go for strike. The prerequisite for this is that many workers move. So now it’s up to you!

Now it depends on you!
If you have not already done so: Take part in the employee survey in paper form at your local TVStud initiative or digitally at https://www.tarifrebellion.de/Forderungsfindung_tvstud_2023 and forward it to other colleagues.
The demand survey is open to ALL student workers, regardless of employment type and union membership. The only important thing is that you are currently working as a student worker (tutor, assistant without a degree, with a bachelor’s degree, with a master’s degree).
Our target is at least 1,500 student workers taking part in the survey.

Watch out for further announcements. At the end of October and in November, if necessary, we will take to the streets together if negotiations with the employers stall. To keep up to date, join our nationwide Telegram groups (see below) and keep up to date on Twitter and Instagram (@TVStud_bund).

Do you have more questions about the demand survey?
You can always contact your local initiative or mail@tvstud.de.

With your participation, we are a big step closer to a historic event: a nationwide collective agreement for student workers (yes, that has never happened before)! We say: No more precarious working conditions! No more disrespect for our labour rights! Give us the collective agreement! Because without us, the university will stand still!

[1] TVStud = Tarifvertrag für Studentische Beschäftigte/ Collective agreement for student employees. More info at https://tvstud.de/
[2] https://www.iaw.uni-bremen.de/archiv/mitteilungen/detail?news=90#news90