UvA elections | International students largely take over Student Councils
It is still unclear whether this will have a positive influence on the turnout, but it could give a boost to participation in the Student Council elections. International students have applied in large numbers for a seat on one of the Student Councils. The elections begin on May 13th.
Will international students ensure that the turnout for Student Council elections will finally pick up again? It’s quite possible, given the number of international students who are candidates for one of the parties participating in the elections, scheduled to start in two weeks.
Last year, every faculty recorded relatively high turnout figures, and the turnout at the Central Student Council was as high as 16 percent. It seems low - and it is low - but compared to the years before, it was a substantial increase. This appeared to be mainly due to the participation of international students, who for the last several years have been competing with lists that include mostly international students. That’s the case again this year.
Fuck this Party
Anyone who has been following the demonstrations and protests of activist students at the UvA in recent months will not be surprised to learn that the Activist Party has now gained a foothold at the UvA. In the direct election for the CSR, the party is fielding as many as 33 candidates, with Stefana Feciuc as their list leader. She is already on the CSR but as a delegate of the Faculty of Law’s Student Council. So in two weeks, as list leader, she will be directly eligible for election.
Two of the Activist Party’s current frontrunners, CSR president Noah Pellikaan and CSR treasurer Joaquim Becker, have both turned their backs on the party and are launching one themselves. They call their party “Fuck this Party,” whereas it is unclear which party they are referring to. It is possible that they mean the Activist Party, which, after all, they left.
A total of seven parties are participating in the direct election of the CSR. Besides the Activist Party and Fuck this Party, these include UvASociaal, the liberal De Vrije Student, Inter, Humans are made equal, and the Sefa Student Party. The latter party has its base at the Faculty of Economics & Business but is now also participating at the central level.
FMG and Acta
All but two faculties have enough candidates and parties to actually have candidates to choose from. There are two exceptions to this, the Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences (FMG) and dental faculty Acta. Regarding Acta, only one party traditionally participates in that election, Kies Acta. That party has fielded eight candidates for the eight-seat student council, thus all eight will automatically be appointed. As a result, elections may not take place at Acta.
Something similar is happening at the FMG, which is traditionally split into subdistricts with each program having its own seats in the Faculty Student Council. The FMG Student Council has a total of 12 seats, three of which go to the Communication subdistrict, but in that subdistrict, the only party participating is UvASociaal with eight candidates. So anyone there who would like to vote for any party other than UvASociaal will be in for a rude awakening because they cannot. The Child Development and Education subdistrict has two seats on the council, but no parties or candidates have registered at all, so those students will not be able to vote. The two seats will be divided among the other two subdistricts, Communication and Social Sciences.
PPLE
The Law School Student Council also has 12 seats, four of which will go to the Politics, Psychology, Law, and Economics (PPLE) subdistrict in any case. The four electoral lists at PPLE add up to a total of 19 candidates, consisting almost exclusively of international students. This is despite the fact that 30 percent of PPLE students are from the Netherlands, but who apparently have no desire to participate in student politics. Or perhaps it is also an indication that international students see their candidacy as a necessary social activity.
The participating parties are Inter, Activist Party, UvASociaal, and Partij020.
At the Law School itself, eight seats remain that can be held by two parties: De Vrije Student and The Founding Students. The latter is led by candidates involved in the Amsterdam Law Firm, whose main goal is to help other students get started in their college career. Candidates include Fabian Que, team leader of the Amsterdam Homework Institute, and Hollando Bangun, founder of the Amsterdam Advocacy Association, which helps students develop their speaking and advocacy skills.
Lief and Vrije geest
At the Faculty of Humanities (FGw), six parties are competing for 12 seats. So there is a lot to choose from. Again, Noah Pellikaan is (the only) candidate from Fuck this Party. The Activist Party and UvASociaal have the longest lists. New at FGw is the the party Vrije geest. At the Science Faculty (FNWI), it is traditionally the faculty party Lief that sets the tone with 16 candidates, but the Activist Party is also competing with six candidates. As every year, the election at the Medical School is dominated by the MFAS, running with three separate lists aimed at students in different stages of their studies.
Segmented
The composition of the CSR is segmented. The Council has 14 seats, seven of which are directly elected. The other seven are delegated by the Faculty Student Councils, each one delegating one member to the CSR. And so we arrive at a Council of 14 members, which elects a Board from among its members.
Digital polling stations are open from May 13th-17th. You can check back here. Election results will be announced May 22nd.
