Want to have more of a say on what goes on in FHML? Exercise your right to vote this year from May 8th to 11th for this year’s online student elections.
Remember, you can also vote in university council elections, not just for faculty council elections as a UM student. Nevertheless, here is some information on the lists you can choose from to represent you at FHML.
This year, FHML students have the opportunity to vote for three lists, instead of just two like last year. The new list addition this year is KAN, a party whose commitment to sustainability on the UM campus is undeniable.
List 1- MSRP DOPE
The biggest and oldest student representative party at the university, MSRP Dope has ten candidates on their list this year, in order: Jop Smeets, Julia Goertzen, Thijs Hahn, Hieke van Velden, Luuk van Eupen, Nienke van Berkel, Donna Hilhorst, Jules Schapendonk, Feline Breed, and Fien Blok. DOPE’s goals for FHML are to monitor student well-being, improving study climate and study spaces as well as the distribution of resit weeks, introducing more practice material, improving tutor guidelines, and making food on campus more affordable. Despite outdated information on their website and no apparent overarching goal or mission statement, MSRP DOPE usually fares well in the realm of student politics and takes up quite some seats on the councils with their candidates biggest of their historical size and influence.
List 2- KAN party
KAN is the new addition to the FHML list of choices this year, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been involved in campus life thus far. Together with the Green Office, the KAN party helped to organize the Sustainability Week a couple of weeks ago and also held events at FHML including a panel on food sustainability and a workshop on how to make FPN and FHML faculties more sustainable. KAN’s mission is “Empowering Responsibility”, mainly relating to the idea that their candidates and party, as well as the University, have a commitment to creating positive change. KAN’s hope for the university is that it becomes more socially responsible, inclusive, and diverse, in line with the changing times. KAN has been extremely active at the Sustainability Hub and is working with a few other student organizations with their “Climate Network” hosting events, lectures, and improving the sustainability of the university.
The list for KAN for FHML includes Thomas Giezen in the first slot, Carla De Luca in the second slot, and Pleun Hendricks in the third. The candidates hope to introduce climate change into the curricula at FHML, making the faculty more sustainable, and holding more lectures and events to increase community engagement. Unfortunately, the candidate statements fail to address other potential interests of FHML students, such as housing or quality of the education. To read more about the KAN party and the work they do, check out their Instagram or website which both have a lot of useful information and updates on events and opportunities.
List 3- NovUM
NovUM, a progressive, international and fast-growing party is also gunning for some council spots at FHML. NovUM’s four main pillars are housing, education, sustainability, and internationalism.
This year’s NovUM FHML list features ten candidates: Yasemin Kaya, Mahrukh Akhtar, Olga Kosjakova, Gergely Osztrogonácz, Lotte Pijpers, Carolina Thielemans, Metra Daliry, Julie Verkaar, and Amien Abid
The first two candidates on the list, Yasemin and Mahrukh served on the faculty council this year and are up for reelection.
NovUM’s adopted policies for FHML center on the party’s aforementioned four pillars. At FHML, the party hopes to decrease food waste in the cafeteria by increasing the communication channels between the cafeteria staff and the students and by gathering data on food preferences to adjust the supply. The candidates, if elected, also hope to focus on the quality of contact hours of instruction over quantity and introduce more pre-recorded lecturers, host guest lecturers. In addition, they want to increase the use of practicals as education, and host interactive workshops for professional development. While some of these goals are vague, it is clear that NovUM has various ideas for improving the quality of education at FHML, which the other two parties fail to address. The party’s plan for its housing goal is to improve students’ access to contact information of organizations which help with legal, financial, and housing issues. To increase internationalism at FHML, the party wants to introduce extra classes that tackle issues of intersectionality and diverse backgrounds when diagnosing and treating patients. They also hope to change the format of the diversity workshop in the Biomed bachelor to stimulate discussions. Although some of their plans are vague, NovUM has the most ideas for improving daily life at FHML, and their website and social media are often updated and full of information on their progress and platforms.
If you made it to the end of this article I probably don’t have to convince you to vote. However, Maastricht Univerity student elections have historically had pretty bad voter turnouts. If you complain about aspects of your university life all the time, this may be a good chance to actually do something about it. Besides, democracy only works if the people participate :)
