News in English

Student meal prices may rise

The maximum price for a student meal will go up from 2.35 to 2.60 euros. The rise will take effect in the beginning of August.

Although the maximum price goes up, the state-funded meal subsidy for student restaurants will allegedly not increase. The rise in the maximum price might thus result to a strain to put student meal prices up.

´We strive to cope without hiking prices until a rise takes place in the meal subsidy as well. This will probably happen in the turn of the year´, says Pertti Liljeroos, Managing Director of Juvenes Corporation.

Dot will be the only one of the Juvenes restaurants to possibly hike the prices up. Minerva, owned by Amica, has not yet made a decision on the matter. Food in Sodexho-owned Linna will become a little more expensive, as the prices of the meals have not been raised to the maximum earlier.

Activists´ power glue causes trouble on campus

Several activist posters have lately been glued on the sides of campus rubbish bins. Removing them has caused real estate managers lots of effort. The posters have namely been glued with very powerful adhesive.

´This type of vandalism is simply childish. Advertisements have normally been easy to remove, but these posters criticising meat production only come out in tiny pieces´, says Erkki Launonen, University Service Manager.

However, the University has not required an explanation from Oikeutta eläimille (Justice for Animals), the organisation producing the posters; Launonen does not consider this worthwhile. At any rate, he advises activists to think more carefully of their actions.

´In order to distribute advertisements on campus, one should attain permission from the University Real Estate Department.´

Whatta heck? Why did means test remain?

For years, student unions have been striving to get rid of the problem of partners´ income affecting students´ housing supplement. The abolition of the means test was defeated in the governmental negotiations over spending limits.

Johanna Nuorteva, Social Policy Secretary of SYL (National Union of University Students in Finland): why does partner´s income still affect students´ housing supplement?

´The general attitude seems to be that as the amount of study grant increased this year, students are supposed to be content with that. SYL estimated that abolition of the means test would have cost 1.8 million euros. However, what also causes high expenses is Kela trying to figure out, if a relationship is marriage-like or not. Abolition would therefore have been quite a neutral solution with regard to expenses.´

Will the Government give up the means test at some point?

´I would imagine that it could be possible in the end of the term of office at the latest. The Ministry of Education has understood the problematic nature of the matter for both students and Kela. In a report by HYY (The Student Union of the University of Helsinki) last year, 76% of the students stated that they did not share household expenses with their partners. In practice, the partner with less money will have to work more.´

HYY and TYY to make temporary secretaries permanent

TYY and HYY, the student unions of the universities of Turku and Helsinki, have decided to offer their temporary secretaries permanent positions. This is a result from the course of events in February, when SAMOK (Union of Students in Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences) lost a case on temporary positions in the Labour Court.

´We have consulted our lawyer contacts and all of them have recommended making positions permanent. We intend to offer our temporary employees a chance to become permanent, if they are willing to do it´, says Arto Aniluoto, Secretary General of HYY.

TYY secretaries are planned to become permanent during this spring. The TYY Executive Board also predicts the future state of affairs in its agenda: ´Student unions and SYL will eventually make temporary secretary positions permanent.´

´We will examine the possibility of also giving employees of the TYY magazine permanent jobs, but the whole process will be started from the secretaries due to our Secretary for International Affairs asking for a permanent post. As one of our secretaries actually appealed for this, we are a little ahead of the other student unions in this matter. Making jobs permanent will not affect salaries for the time being´, says Laura Heinonen, Chairperson of the TYY Executive Board.

SYL is working on instructions for student unions in order to inform them about different aspects of both making positions permanent and sticking to the old way. Student unions apart from TYY and HYY will wait until the instructions are ready before making decisions on their employments.

´In Tamy, there are opinions both for and against making posts permanent, but the opinions against have been more passionate. People fear that it would change the nature of Tamy, that it would move further away from students. If temporary employments are not against the law, Tamy may go on as before, regardless of what other student unions are doing´, says Kati Rajala, Secretary General of Tamy. Tamy will examine temporary employees´ job descriptions this spring.

´We do not want to be hasty in this matter. We have to think about our future needs before making any important decisions´, says Anna-Mari Huhtinen, Chairperson of the Tamy Executive Board.

New Secretary for Social Welfare Affairs comes from Jyväskylä

Bachelor of Social Sciences, Antti-Jukka Huovila, is to follow Niina Kiviaho in the post of Tamy Secretary for Social Welfare Affairs. Huovila, born in Anjalankoski and doing his degree in Jyväskylä, will now be taking care of UTA students´ housing, living, and well-being.

The Council of Representatives elected 25-year-old Huovila as new secretary with a clear voting result 32-7. He was also the choice of the Executive Board from 11 other candidates.

Huovila is a fifth-year student in the University of Jyväskylä. In his studies, he has focused on labour and social policy. Last year, Huovinen was responsible for issues concerning social policy and sports in the Executive Board of the Student Union of the University of Jyväskylä.

´I come to Tamy from a similar organisation. Both unions have a lot in common as well as differences. I think that my fresh viewpoint of an outsider can be useful for Tamy´, Huovila says.

Huovinen finds the position of students with families a national challenge for those who look out for students´ interests.

´When two students live together, both of them are entitled to personal housing supplement. If they have a baby, they start receiving general housing allowance instead. This can mean even less money for them´, Huovila says.

Huovila will start in his post on 10 April.

Tamy showed a smaller loss than expected

Last year, Tamy caused a smaller loss than what was budgeted. Tamy budgeted for a deficit of 92,000 euros, but in the end, the deficit turned out to be only 13,700 euros. The loss will be covered with savings from previous years.

The smaller deficit is due to savings in different sectors as well as membership fees and incomes from interest which were greater than expected. However, Secretary General Kati Rajala reminds people that last year, Tamy´s accounting period was a calendar year for the first time. Therefore, the budget was made very cautiously.

´The slack has been picked up for this year. We will see how the money will suffice.´

University administration lacks student representation once more

Around fifth of the University administration seats for student representatives were left unfilled. Thus, some administrative bodies lack student representation completely. Good 200 representatives were sought in the spring to operate in the University Senate, faculty and department councils, and boards of independent institutes.

Translations: Varpu Jutila