Mid-Week Mail, week 13

• CANDIDATE MATCHER NOW UP AND RUNNING
• TYY DISTRIBUTES FIRST PROJECT SUPPORT FOR THE YEAR
• ANNUAL REPORTS AND TYY COMMITTEES’ PLANS OF ACTION AT STUDENT UNION COUNCIL MEETING
• PREPARATION OF TYY POLITICAL AGENDA
• TYY DIVISION ON STUDENT AFFAIRS BEGINS ITS WORK
• STUDENT UNIONS MAKE COMMENT TO EDUCATION AND CULTURE COMMITTEE ON UNIVERSITIES ACT PROPOSAL
• TYY COMMITTEE MEETINGS
• HALF OFF OF UNIVERSITY SPORTS FEE
• FINNISH CHAMPIONSHIP STUDENT FOOTBALL IN JYVÄSKYLÄ 23–24 APRIL 2009
• FINNISH FOR FUN

CANDIDATE MATCHER NOW UP AND RUNNING

The new TYY Student Union Council elections will be held 6 – 7 April 2009. Do you know which candidate to vote for?

Finding the right candidate is easy with the online candidate matcher set up by the National Union of University Students in Finland (SYL). Visit www.edustajistovaalit.fi to get to know and help you find the right candidate!

TYY DISTRIBUTES FIRST PROJECT SUPPORT FOR THE YEAR

TYY has granted the first project support allowances for the year. The support decisions are available on the TYY webpages at

www.tyy.fi/alayhdistykset/palvelut-yhdistyksille/avustukset 

Project support has been granted for one-time events, projects and publications. Due to the reduced project support budget, finical support will not be granted this year for organisation excursions or parties.  

Project support applications are handled four times a year. The next application deadline will be at the end of April. 

ANNUAL REPORTS AND TYY COMMITTEES’ PLANS OF ACTION AT STUDENT UNION COUNCIL MEETING

The Student Union Council’s next meeting will be on Wednesday, 25 March at 18.15 in the Turku-sali meeting room.  

The documents to be discussed at the meeting have been compiled as one file at

www.tyy.fi/sites/tyy.fi/files/Liitteet%20maaliskuu%2009.pdf 

PREPARATION OF TYY POLITICAL AGENDA

Once each term, the Student Union Council, TYY’s highest decision-making body, approves its political agenda. The Student Union’s opinions on key questions concerning the protection of student interests are defined in the political agenda.   

The political agenda is just now being prepared in the TYY Committees and the Executive Board will prepare it for the Student Union Council on the basis of the Committees’ proposals. The Executive Board will also give its own input in the document. For example, there has been a huge discussion in the Executive Board on the different forms of free education. The goal is to have clear viewpoints on what TYY’s opinion is on exporting education, degree studies with fees, Open University studies etc. in the political agenda. 

The current Student Union Council had its political agenda discussion on the new document’s content. However, the next, soon to be elected, Student Union Council will make the final approval on the agenda.  

TYY DIVISION ON STUDENT AFFAIRS BEGINS ITS WORK

The TYY division on student affairs will have its first meeting and discuss the feedback systems and how they are working out as well as the new University of Turku Regulations. The objective of the division is to work as a peer support group for sub-organisation actors and student representatives in university administration. Meetings will be held three to four times a year where current issues and objectives on the work will be discussed.

The first meeting will be held on Tuesday, 31 March form 16.00 to 19.00 at Educarium in the Edu 3 lecture hall with the following schedule: 

16.15–17.20 Feedback systems

17.20–17.30 Break: refreshments

17.30–18.30 Regulations

The themes to be discussed can be read at http://tyy.fi/tapahtumat/2009/506 

STUDENT UNIONS GIVE COMMENT TO EDUCATION AND CULTURE COMMITTEE ON UNIVERSITIES ACT PROPOSAL

TYY, together with other student unions, delivered a comment to the Education and Culture Committee of Parliament concerning the Universities Act. This comment stated the demand that the proposal for trial tuition fees for non-EU/EEA citizens be removed from the draft of the new act. Furthermore, the comment stated the demand for the majority of representatives in university boards to be internal members of the university. Also stated was that the university boards must thrive on the trust of the collegial body of the university and the members of the university community must be equally represented in the collegial body.  

TYY COMMITTEE MEETINGS

TYY Committee on International Affairs: Thursday, 26 March at 15.30, Turku-Sali
TYY Student Cafeteria Committee: Monday, 30 March at 12.00, Macciavelli (cabinet 2) 

Agendas can be found in the events calendar on the TYY webpages. 

HALF OFF OF UNIVERSITY SPORTS FEE  

University Sports is offering the sports fee at a discounted price of €15 (normal price €26) for the end of the 2008–2009 season.

There are also one time passes available at the Sports Office (Rehtorinpellonkatu 4 B) for one free session at a University Sports class (not at a class requiring an additional course fee). 

We welcome you to take a University Sports fitness class!  

FINNISH CHAMPIONSHIP STUDENT FOOTBALL IN JYVÄSKYLÄ 23–24 APRIL 2009

The two-day football OSM2009 tournament will be held at the end of April in Jyväskylä. Teams made up from university students will go against each other in a tournament in three different series.  

The tournament is being organised by the university football team in Jyväskylä, sports and health sciences subject association Sporticus and the Student Union of the University of Jyväskylä (JYY) 

For further information about the tournament and registration is available on the OSM2009 webpages at www.jyy.fi/osm. Registration ends on Saturday, 28 March. 

FINNISH FOR FUN

Many Finnish names are either direct common nouns, such as the female name Satu ‘fairytale’ or male name Toivo ‘hope, or derivations such as the female name Tuulikki (diminutive of tuuli ‘wind’) or the male name Ilmari (derivative of ilma ‘air’). Due to the vast foreign influence in Finland over the centuries, many Germanic, Latin and Greek based names have come into the Finnish onomasticon. Many of these names have had Fennicised nicknames which eventually became standard Finnish variants of commonly worldwide known names such as: 

Eero from Airik (Scand. ‘alone (or always) ruling’), Eric in English

Lauri from Laurentius (Lat. ‘the one given a bay laurel wreath’), Lawrence, Larry in English

Pekka, Pekko from Petrus (Lat. ‘cliff’), Peter in English

Kaisa comes from Aikatherinee (Gk. ‘always pure’) Catherine, Kate in English 

Pirjo, Pirkka from Brigantia (Lat. ‘high, raised’), Bridgette in English

Teija from Dorothea (Gk. ‘gift from God’), Dorothy in English