OmniUM Dialogue Centre, City Council, and Elections coming up
Dear members of the UM Community,
As any gardener will know, the work you do when it’s cold and dark outside is the basis for results in the spring. So too at the University Council. Over the past weeks, the Council has been busy with a range of meetings that will hopefully lead to meaningful results in the future.
Firstly, the Council had its regular plenary meeting. Because it was the beginning of the year, the agenda was relatively light. In the speakers’ quarter, the Board for Examination Appeals, which hears appeals from students about decisions taken by the Board of Examiners of their programs (including decisions about exemptions, the binding study advice, and how their exams are graded) announced that they are looking for student members to help review cases. A student from the FHML Faculty Council also pointed out how the current bilingual language policy at UM, which allows meetings to be held in a combination of languages, impacted her. The Executive Board explained that the language policy is currently under review, and this perspective will be included in that process. The Council also discussed the plans for OmniUM, the university’s new dialogue centre, where students and staff will be able to have conversations about all kinds of social and political topics in a safe environment. While the idea was well-received, the Council also was curious about how a truly safe environment could be guaranteed.
The Council also recently had an introductory meeting with the City Council of Maastricht. Discussions focused on how the two Councils could work together in the future, student housing, campus development (including Randwyck) the cultural life in Maastricht, safety, and the economic development of Maastricht. The hope is that the Councils can inform each other, so they can do a better job of representing the interests of their constituents.
Lastly, the preparations for the upcoming elections are underway. This year, there will be elections for the students in the Faculty Councils and the University Council, as well as for staff members of the Service Councils. The nomination period will run from February 19 to 23, and we hope that many UM community members will decide to run for a position. If you have any questions about running for the University Council, please feel free to get in touch with me, via chair-ucouncil@maastrichtuniversity.nl.
Teun Dekker
Chair University Council
T.J. Dekker
Teun J Dekker (1980) is Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences Education at University College Maastricht, where he teaches courses on the intersection of the Social Sciences and the Humanities, including History of Political Thought and Distributive Justice in Contemporary Political Philosophy.
As Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences Education, his main duties are:
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