The time of the year has come once again: students vote the representatives for the University Council and the faculty councils! Voting will be possible from the 8th to the 11th May 2023.
Compared to the other faculty council elections, you might be surprised that the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience only has two lists in the election. Here it is important to note that FPN represents one of the smaller faculties at Maastricht University and has a total of five seats open for student representatives in the faculty council. Unfortunately, in the 2022 elections FPN had the lowest voting turnout among all faculties with only 9.71%. So, we hope that the following information will help you with your vote next week.
Let’s take a look into the two parties:
List 1 - NovUM
This year a total of 16 candidates can be found on the list.
NovUM’s manifesto shows the four main areas the party is interested in for taking action: housing, education, sustainability and internationalism. Every student is probably familiar with the stressful housing situation here in Maastricht, so one proposal by NovUM is the purchase of an AI chatbot which can answer questions regarding housing and help students.
Concerning education, the party wants to improve the training tutors get to ensure the best education for all students. Additionally, NovUM proposes that the first period exams in the first year should be Pass/Fail exams so new students can adjust to the PBL system and exams without the pressure of immediately being graded.
Actions of the party regarding sustainability include the implementation of plant milk as a new option in the faculty’s coffee machines. Lastly, for internationalism, the party wants more partnerships with institutions outside of Europe to create a larger network of connections for the faculty.
For more general information about NovUM check out https://novum-maastricht.nl/ and for the specific goals of NovUM FPN https://novum-maastricht.nl/fpn-2023-2024/
List 2 - KAN
The KAN Party puts forward seven candidates for this year’s election. In general, KAN’s goals are mostly centered around creating a sustainable future at FPN.
One project the party has started is a Sustainability Platform. With the help of this platform students and staff alike are supposed to work together to create new strategies to make the faculty more sustainable by e.g., “decreas[ing] emissions, exchang[ing] knowledge and rais[ing] awareness”.
The elected representative of last year, Hannah Finklenburg, is once again on the list and has in the past been active in the formation of the FPN Green Team and in the creation of an elective about psychology and climate change. Similar goals tackling problems and awareness of sustainability could be expected by the KAN party at FPN.
For more general information about KAN check out their website https://www.kanmaastricht.nl/ and for the specific goals of KAN at FPN check https://www.kanmaastricht.nl/our-fpn-council
Now the only thing left for you to do is … VOTE!
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