2023 Cohort
16
edits
Changes
==Fall 2023 Priorities==
===Increase spontaneous, invited student involvement in facilities decision making and vertical connections===
Students, despite being a huge segment of the university ecosystem, could be more actively and directly involved in bureaucracy and co-shaping its future. Student involvement is usually done through student representatives, for example in the university or faculty council, but direct student involvement, especially in terms of non-educational decisions, is lacking. Less than 30% of students fill out the National Student Survey (NSE) within our university.
To solve this issue, we are aiming to create a mobile feedback-collection cart. This cart is called the VoxBox. Vox comes from the Latin word ‘Voice’. With this cart, students can provide either written feedback, drawings, or maybe just simply pressing a button. This tool will be able to be booked by any entity at the UT that wants feedback. This way, students are encouraged to share their perspectives. It is vital to keep the barrier for giving feedback as low as possible, for example by having the VoxBox present in places and at times when lots of students are present, or by making it fun to interact with the VoxBox.
===Improving social & sexual safety in both campus, student, culture, and policy===
Social and sexual safety is an important topic that does not get enough attention at the university and in the wider society. The systems currently in place are very broad and do not cater to the individual struggles. Additionally, these systems are very bureaucratic and do not have the necessary human support that people need.
In order to tackle this we are aiming to set up a Sexual Safety Support Center on campus. The biggest aim of the project is to have a physical space with specialized professionals to help victims of sexual violence. Another function of this center is to be home to a community of people who want to support each other through their healing journey. This would be put in place through support groups and group activities, by holding workshops and other educational activities. This latter part of the strategy is more feasible short term than the actual physical space on campus which is the reason why it is what we will aim to achieve first while still working on the office space.
===Prioritize personal and academic growth over exams===
This priority stems from the issue that university sometimes feels less like an exploration of our personal educational interests and learning but more as a completely pre-set up way of learning/ This is reflected in the emphasis placed on momentary performance measurements, such as exams. These do not reflect learning which is what the university should be all about. How can we promote learning and academic growth?
We would like to foster a shift in education. Instead of training workers, we would like to train creative thinkers. We would like university to be an ecosystem where students can grow and explore educational topics coupled with societal issues that matter to them. A solution for this could be to give students more control over their education, so that the topics they are working on are ones they are passionate about.
===Promoting innovation/community by strengthening transdisciplinary collaboration between academia, industry and government/society===
In the university ecosystem, connections between on the one hand the university (students, faculty, professors, staff) and on the other hand society (government and business in Enschede) is quite disconnected. Connections exist, but these are mostly person-to-person, bordered off like little islands. Next to this, connections between students often only take place within the boundaries of study programs. Overall, a more interdisciplinary, valuable and sustainable connection is needed between on the one hand the university (students, staff, researchers and teachers) and on the other hand, the city of Enschede (business and governance).
To tackle this issue, we aspire to create a city-wide connection platform. Students, project workers or recruiters at the municipality, companies in Kennispark, researchers, professors and staff, could all openly post on this platform. Students can make connections to collaborate with each other or with stakeholders outside of the university, get help on their academic or personal projects, get jobs or internships, or find stakeholders to get feedback from. This open platform could stimulate a huge open learning environment. For this project, it is key that we start small and focus on building community, before focusing on the actual platform. We also aim to use existing platforms, and collaborate with groups that are working on the same issue.
==Fall 2022 Priorities==
===Tinder for Languages===
Our first priority is Tinder for Languages. With this priority we want to encourage students from diverse and alternativng countries and cultures to come together and learn something new while ding it. We want to encourage students to learn new languages whilst also meeting new people in a fun and relaxed environment
===Sleeping Capsules===
The second priority are sleeping capsules. As students we recognise how stressful it can be to spennd a whole day in the library studying and how irritiating it can get when you don't feel you are understanding a specific tadsk. For this, we want to try and build sleeping capsules that would essentially enable students to take a short power nap on campus so that they can preform better and feel better at university.
===Actions of kindness/Ubuntu===
Our third project consist on spreading kindness around campus. We constantly see how many students don't feel/look happpy when they are around campus. To tackle this we want to make sure everyone has a more positive attitude by making them feel good about themselevs by promoting actions of kindness throughout campus to try and make the campus feel like a more happy and vivid environment.
===Campus App===
Our fourth project is the Campus App. We currenty feel that our campus app is still not up to the necessary standard. We want to make sure that the campus app is accessible to everyone, and has enough tools such as upcoming (relevant) events to be on the app and encourages people to want to use the app.
==Fall 2021 Priorities==
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===Create a more interactive environment===