ELECTION PROGRAM OF THE ALLIANCE OF INDEPENDENT STUDENTS AIS

Preamble:

We, the Alliance of Independent Students (AIS), were created through the act of students taking responsibility to represent ourselves in the new political context CEU was forced into by expulsion from Hungary. Consequently, the highest value we hold is community: we have a history of taking responsibility to care for everybody that is a part of CEU. The Alliance of Independent Students has, over the course of the past 4 years, gained critical experience and knowledge of CEU’s institutional governance mechanisms – we have established working relationships with all crucial stakeholders within the community. We have consistently advocated for a future CEU whose internal governance structures reflect the democratic values we at the AIS, and members of the CEU community, hold dear. CEU is currently in a critical transitory phase, moving from provisional to permanent statutes, seeking a new rector, reforming disciplinary proceedings, restructuring of young B.A. programs, finding and securing funding for a new campus – the list of critical decisions which will be made now to shape CEU’s future trajectory seems to have no end. When CEU itself is being restructured from the ground up, students need the Alliance of Independent Students to continue championing the values of our community through increased student political representation. The Alliance of Independent Students will not allow this transitory phase to diminish the value of active student contribution to our community!

Policy Positions:

The Alliance of Independent Students is committed to strengthening the position of the CEU Student Union through consistent reference to and exercising of our legal rights. We call upon CEU to fully comply with the Student Union Act, the Universities Act and all other relevant legislation to ensure that all commitments and obligations towards students are upheld!

Our Student Rights: enact and ensure complete compliance with the student union act, university law, and private university law!

○ AIS successfully drafted + passed of the new Student Union constitution in spite of numerous pushback from SLT

○ We have at numerous times advocated for students interests and rights towards the Administration

○ We have enhanced the amount of student representation on multiple Senate

SU CAMPAIGN STATEMENT

Committees as well as working groups, to ensure that students have a seat at the table where critical decisions are being made

○ Student representation within working groups working for accreditation agencies (Accreditation Austria + MSCHE)

○ Consistently referring to specific clauses when engaging with administration: we have specialized knowledge of our legal rights, and we raise awareness on an institutional level at every opportunity

The Alliance of Independent Students firmly believes that CEU should be at the forefront in ensuring that we can function in the most sustainable and climate conscious manner. Universities have a responsibility towards its students, and as such we believe in continuously pushing the administration in becoming more climate friendly. Universities must lead by example and demonstrate the feasibility of operating in a climate conscious manner

○ Signatory of the Plant Based University Initiative (highlight just how historically significant this is), cooperation with the environmental front on clothes swaps etc, cooperation with the environmental front to get environmentally conscious student representatives into bodies like the new campus committee

○ We supported student initiatives of the Millenium Fellowship Program which were focusing on sustainability

○ At the Intercultural Festival, we tried to make it as sustainable as possible. We increased our funding to not use single-use plastic but reusable plates and cutlery. Numerous steps were taken to ensure that this ICF would be the most sustainable one.

○ We believe that CEU should not engage with a privately owned cafeteria service

■ PBUI support

■ The Austrian Federal Student Union should buy into the Menza Gmbh, to be able to have a say and a vote for all Austrian students.

We believe and advocate for a future in which CEU becomes truly accessible to students of all backgrounds. We believe that the university should provide the support necessary to support students disadvantaged by financial inequalities.

o Over the course of our two year term, we have increased the funding we allocate directly towards students experiencing hardship through CEU’s Emergency Fund and the ÖH Social Fund

o We will advocate for the contractual hiring of PhD students to ensure they are fairly compensated for their critical contributions to the university

o We will increase our calls for adequate compensation and fair allocation of TAships to graduate students

o Covered the costs of travel to and from conferences students wished to participate in

o When organizing the Intercultural Festival, we allocated funds to reimburse volunteers or all costs incurred by their contribution to ensure that there is no financial barrier to cultural production within the CEU community

o We will advocate for and facilitate a cooperation between CEU and the Mensa GmbH, the caterer which provides healthy low-cost meals at public higher education institutions across Austria

We strongly believe that community building events constitute a crucial part of the student experience. By hosting or supporting a variety of events, such as the Intercultural Festival, we always strove to make extracurricular activities and cultural production accessible and enjoyable for all members of our community. We strive to hear the concerns of all members of the community to contribute to the student community as best we can.

o We organized the incoming students’ party to make new students feel welcome and give new students the opportunity to meet members of their cohort

o Contributed our budget to support catering at the Graduation Ceremony of 2024

o Unequivocally supported club events and student initiatives, worked closely with funding applicants even in cases of late document submissions to ensure that all initiatives remain successful

o Instituted the anonymous feedback form to create an easily accessible and comfortable feedback channel

o Successfully advocated for the lowered cost of physical diplomas for AY2024-20205

We at the Alliance of Independent Students firmly believes in supporting students financially through different means. Whether these are initiatives or allowing the possibility of attending conferences, we believe that these events should always be possible for all students and largely benefit in creating a stronger student community engagement. Through the initiative started by Ukrainian students we have advocated for financial aid to be available for all students coming from conflict zones (regarding ideological position)

○ To increase support available to all students, including those coming from conflict zones, we chose to dedicate part of our budget to the CEU Emergency Fund to increase the amount of financial support available to students experiencing hardship.

○ We continuously made sure that students are informed and aware of the different financial support that is available to them - OEH Social fund and Emergency Fund.

When the CEU administration did not have enough funding to pay for large scale events which are an essential part of the CEU student community experience, the Alliance of Independent Students chose to support these events to ensure the student experience is not diminished. Events we have contributed to include the Intercultural Festival and the Graduation of the Class 2024

○ To maintain transparency and ensure that these expenditures remained in line with the expectations of the community, all of our major budget allocation is voted on and approved by members of the General Assembly

○ We believed that it was vital to ensure that these large scale events should not be worsened due to financial strain upon the university as they largely benefit the student experience

○ As a result of CEU’s financial difficulties, departments have also had to deal with financial cuts. As a result events such as field trips, data stories, or support for research trips/conferences have been supported by us. We believe that students at CEU should still have the ability to pursue such extracurricular ambitions without incurring financial hardship.

We believe that the student-right to self expression is crucial to the maintenance of a healthy university community. One part of the many transitions CEU is currently undergoing is a revision of the Code of Ethics and the disciplinary procedures outlined within it. We have advocated at every step and turn for disciplinary procedures that continue to have student representation on sanctioning bodies.

o We have produced two position papers addressed to members of the Senate Committee on the Review of the Code of Ethics and met with the committee chair to push for student inclusion at all levels of the disciplinary proceedings

o Through student representation challenged the memo detailing proposed changes, including delegating the exclusive power to sanction to the rector’s office, presented at the most recent Academic Forum

o Circulated our most recent position paper through our Student Senators to other members of the Senate