Ką VDU SA nuveikė per pastarąjį pusmetį?

At the report-election conference of the Vytautas Magnus University Student Representation (VDU SA) held in March, a new VDU SA President and office were elected. For almost half a year, the team led by Ieva Vengrovskaja and the organization's volunteers have been fulfilling the goals set at the beginning of the term and representing the interests of VMU students. So, what are the main works that VDU SA managed to do during this semester?

Academic affairs

Intensive work is being done with the creation and editing of documents in the academic field. Editing of the Code of Academic Ethics has begun, with the aim of defining academic norms and avoiding disagreements. Written and adjusted according to the comments of members of the VMU Student Parliament and already approved, the Elders' Activity Regulations - this document will allow for more effective communication between university bodies and students of study programs and improve both the social and academic well-being of students. Also approved are the regulations for the activities of the Student Representatives of Study Program Committees - this document aims to ensure better communication between Student Representatives and Elders, to regulate the procedure for the election of representatives, to define their rights and responsibilities, and to guarantee the provision of the necessary academic knowledge.

The VDU Billing Monitoring Description, which would regulate one of the possibilities to ensure academic integrity, has been completed and will be presented to the university bodies. Also, in cooperation with other higher schools, an academic honesty survey was conducted, based on the answers of which students will be educated about the importance of academic honesty and encouraged not to violate it and not to plagiarize their work. "All these documents and ongoing changes will help students more effectively and easily contribute to the improvement of the quality of studies and maintain mutual communication with the university and faculty administration," says academic affairs committee coordinator Monika Ražauskaitė.

In the exam session of the spring semester, 9 appeal requests were submitted, disagreeing with the assessment of the exams and/or settlement procedures. The representative of the Students' Representation, President Ieva, also participated in the meetings of the Appeals Commission. During them, 7 appeals were satisfied and the grades of the students who wrote them were changed or they could be corrected.

Social affairs

One of the most important works done in this area is the involvement of the social affairs committee, its coordinator Emilija Drabužinskaitė, and the president in the working group for exchange of scholarships. June 23 at the VMU Senate meeting that took place, with the mediation of the Students' Representation, a decision was made to change and supplement the currently valid provisions of the description of the procedure for awarding VMU scholarships. Changes related to increased scholarships and reduced competitive score for scholarship applicants will take effect from September this year. More detailed information about the changes that have occurred is provided in this article.

The president of the organization represented the students by getting involved in the preparation of already approved VMU gender equality and disability policy documents. The latter document highlights how VDU SA can contribute to the implementation of the disability policy at the university. You will find more about this here.

The regular activities of the social and academic affairs committees continue - meetings and maintaining communication with the presidents of the dormitories and course elders, sharing information relevant to the residents of the dormitories, publishing the elders' newsletter with academic and social university news.

Other activities

Information relevant to students is shared on social networks: organize Dynamic dialogues with Visvaldas Legkauskas, associate professor of the Department of General Psychology at VMU, and Lina Jankauskaite, pediatrician, pediatric pulmonologist, associate professor at LSMU, researcher and moderator of the Infocovid platform, during which the current situation in the world and vaccines were discussed, and Dynamic dialogues about creating a healthy relationship with food, together with nutritionist Aušra Jauniškyte-Ingelevičiene; information about blood donation is shared and it is encouraged to become a donor; as well as other university news.

The periodically carried out VDU SA image questionnaire, which was answered by 259 students, was analyzed. The data of this questionnaire will help the organization to improve and act purposefully in order to represent the interests of university students.

VDU SA, which did not take place last year due to the pandemic, has already become a tradition Spring Festival came back with a bang this year. "Self-realization through self-isolation" - this is the slogan of the festival, which invited an almost week-long marathon of events, where open conversations on taboo topics, active sports and logical activities both live and remotely, creative workshops and social actions took place. And the entire festival was crowned by a drive-in concert at the Darius and Girėnos airfield. "I think the Spring Festival was really successful. During the quarantine, we were able to make a mixed festival, both live and remote, and interest a number of participants", says Joana Gasiulytė, coordinator of the Organizational Affairs Committee of VDU SA.

Also, the organizational affairs committee cooperated with Kaunas 2022 and contributed to the events organized by them. In March, the organization's volunteers contributed to the Happiness Day program, and at the Per_kūnija youth festival held in July, discussions could be heard self-realization and body positivity topics.

Although the work had to be started under quarantine conditions, the president of VDU SA is happy that, together with the team, she has done a lot of work that reflects the direction of the organization's activities. At the moment, the volunteers of the representative office are returning to work, rested after the summer vacation and in the mood to prepare for the activities of the fall semester and the arrival of freshmen. "I want to believe that the next semester will be more lively - we miss lively meetings with various governing bodies of the university, student representatives, working groups and all students. Although the pandemic is not over, we have a great opportunity to live in it, so I invite you to ensure your safety and that of others by getting a passport of opportunities and see you in person in the fall semester", wishes Ieva.