Student Parliament meeting: public canteen situation, incentive scholarships and other issues

On October 8, members of the Student Parliament of Vytautas the Great University (VDU) gathered for the last remote meeting of this term. During the meeting, issues related to the VMU public canteen, incentive scholarships, student representatives in the VMU Senate, VMU Student Representation (SA) Statutes and the implementation of the Work Program were discussed. Also, the question regarding the procedure for organizing the upcoming VMU Student Parliament elections was included.

First of all, members of parliament discussed the public canteen of VDU. VDU SA president Paulius Vaitiekus and parliamentarians belonging to the canteen working group presented what was decided in the last meeting with VDU administration director Jonas Okunius. It is proposed to involve the entire VDU community in decision-making regarding the canteen. Monika Višnevska, a representative of the Faculty of Social Sciences, said that it is possible to create several working groups that would work with different models of canteen creation. Finally, it was decided that the current working group of the canteen, consisting of Emil Starodubov (HMF), Benas Baranovskis (SMF), Ieva Vengrovskaja (HMF), Tomas Bacevičius (PMDF), Tadas Juodgudis (MF), Monika Višnevska (SMF) and Paulius Vaitiekus (EVF), will prepare recommendations for further actions and community involvement in the development of the canteen's operating model.

The president of VDU SA, P. Vaitiekus, raised a discussion question regarding incentive scholarships: to what extent and in what size scholarships should be awarded to students. The parliamentarians agreed that the current procedure for awarding scholarships should be changed, because a very small number of students receive them, and the criteria – extremely tall. In the opinion of the representative of the Faculty of Humanities, Ieva Vengrovskaja, in order for a student to make maximum effort, study and not work, the scholarship must be such that he could live freely. It was decided that the president of VDU SA will perform the necessary calculations and collect information about the possibility of receiving more funds and present them to the newly elected parliament.

This year, the powers of the current student representatives in the VMU Senate expire and the election process begins. The Senate is a collegial university academic affairs management institution, where students are represented by 14 persons. The President proposed to extend the mandates of six candidates already serving in the Senate due to their competence and the ability to continue the work they have started. According to his suggestion, Gabrielė Šturmaitė and Kristina Balčiūnaitė, representatives of the bachelor's level, Greta Šmaižytė, Vytautas Kučinskas and Dominyka Kurklietytė, representatives of the master's level, and Vigilija Žiūraitė, the representative of the doctoral level should continue to represent the Senate. Parliamentarians will express their opinion about each candidate by electronic voting. Also, they are invited to submit their proposed candidacies to the president for the remaining student seats in the Senate.

The further process of editing the current VDU SA Statutes was also discussed at the meeting. There are errors in the Statutes adopted by the Parliament that are not in accordance with the legislation. President P. Vaitiekus asked the parliament to grant him a power of attorney, which would allow him to correct correction errors in the Statutes of VDU SA together with the notary. Parliamentarians will express their opinion by electronic voting.

During the meeting, the Chairperson of the Audit Commission of VDU SA, Solveiga Skaisgirytė, presented the report and recommendations on the implementation of the Student Work Program prepared by the Audit Commission. The first recommendation was to assemble a working group to edit the document and suspend its implementation until the document is updated, the second was to cancel and refuse the implementation of the Student Work Program. After the discussion, it was agreed by a joint resolution that members of parliament will express their opinion by electronic voting: it will be decided whether to approve the Work Program implementation report submitted by the Audit Commission.

At the end of the meeting, the procedure for organizing the elections of the new VDU Student Parliament was discussed. According to the proposal of President P. Vaitiekus, the VDU SA Board should prepare a temporary parliamentary election procedure (taking into account the situation due to COVID-19) and present it to members of parliament next week. The election process is expected to begin on October 19. Members of Parliament approved such a proposal.

The meeting was attended by 23 student representatives and 3 guests. Paulius Vaitiekus was the chairman, Matas Čepurna was the secretary.