VMU Student Parliament: election of the chairman, discussion on issues relevant to students

At the first meeting of the newly elected Vytautas the Great University Student Parliament, student representatives of the faculties elected the president of the parliament, discussed the positions of meeting interpreter and secretary. They discussed the problems raised by doctoral students, the extraordinary climate situation and the meeting schedule.

Two students ran for the position of president of the student parliament: Žygymantas Menčenkovas and Gabrielė Jonuskaitė. G. Jonuskaitė gathered the most support (30 votes) (7 parliamentarians voted for Ž. Menčenkova, 5 abstained from voting). The elected speaker of the parliament said that she is well acquainted with the documents of the university and the Student Representative Office, which she will be guided by during her presidency, and she will also seek to have the members of the parliament debate constructively, based on facts and data, and not on emotions.

The meeting discussed the issue of the positions of translator and secretary. Since the meetings of the Parliament must be translated into English, the first meeting was translated by Paulina Mišaitė, a VMU student, but a permanent translator whose work will be paid is being sought for other meetings. The situation is similar with the secretary of meetings. The secretary of the first meeting was the administrator of VDU SA, Erika Dervinytė, but the question was raised about the search for a permanent secretary of the Parliament, who would not be a member of the parliament. Ž. Menchenkov raised the question that secretarial meetings should also be paid. 

Student representatives also discussed the canteen in Putvinskio st. 23 preparation. In 2020-2021, members of the Student Parliament worked in a working group where they developed the idea and implementation of the canteen. A new working group was assembled from interested student representatives to examine this issue, consisting of: Emilis Starodubov, Ieva Vengrovskaja, Martynas Butkus, Emilija Drabužinskaitė, Raminta Milašiūtė.

Andrius Šmitas, the representative of doctoral students in the VMU Student Parliament, raised a question about the possibility of doctoral students to improve their knowledge of a foreign language. According to state control, it is recommended that students who have completed third-cycle studies have a C1 level of English, but it is difficult to get into the existing lectures of this subject at VMU and they are not fully adapted to the highest level of studies. To solve the problem, it was proposed to create separate English language teaching groups for doctoral students, or open studies could be organized at the university, but they have to be paid for. It is recommended that the representatives of the doctoral students (Andrius Šmitas, Žygymantas Menčenkovas, Martynas Butkus, Aurelija Ramanauskaitė) prepare a letter describing the problem and possible solutions before the next parliamentary session. It is recommended to include the Doctoral Students' Club in this process in order to gather more opinions of third-cycle students.

A question was raised about the Climate Emergency Initiative. Ž. Before the next parliamentary session, Menchenkov should formulate proposals, ways to implement this initiative and contribute to the solution of climate change problems, and present them to parliamentarians.

Parliament meetings will be held once a quarter (counting from November 8). The next parliamentary session is scheduled for January, during which the issues not discussed in this session will be discussed agenda items, the progress of working groups and other issues.