Dear Students,
Dear University members,
Whether at home on the balcony, slouched in bed or in the shared apartment kitchen with a pet, VERSO students continued to work diligently in their own four walls over the past months. In addition to the large-scale campaign on the position paper "Shenzen International School of Design" and the resulting petition, numerous other projects developed. The Sustainability Committee helped to create the Sustainability Week Zurich, the catalogue of deficiencies and measures for the Toni infrastructure was updated and the financial support of various student projects through the VERSO project fund is becoming more and more established.
We see that many people at Toni and Gessnerallee continue to work with great energy and that we are able to connect with one another, realise projects and support each other even when real contact is limited. The community, the approachability and the well-being of the students at the ZHdK is more important than ever in these times of Big_small restructurings.
In this spirit, we wish everyone a good start into a summer in good companionship,
VERSO
CONTENTS:
POSITIONPAPER "SHENZEN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF DESIGN"
VERSO PROJECT FUND
SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION
INFRASTRUCTURE SHORTAGE-LIST
SEMESTER COUNCIL 17 & 18
CHANGES IN THE STUDENT COUNCIL
POSITIONPAPER "SHENZEN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF DESIGN"
On 15 February 2021 VERSO published a position paper, opposing the implementation of the planned cooperation with SISD. At the same time, a collection of signatures was launched to find out how many ZHdK members would support our petition to the university management. Within three weeks, the petition from VERSO on PAUL received 531 signatures from members of the ZHdK.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the petition signatories and supporters once again for their numerous reactions and, of course, also those who have expressed their critical attitude towards the petition. It was extremely interesting and educating for us to enter into dialogue with numerous people with different views. At this point we would also like to point out the SRF podcast format "Einfach Politik" , in which VERSO, among others, takes a stand on the relationship between China and the ZHdK. More about the status of the signatures and the discussions resulting from the petition can be found in a more detailed article on our website.
VERSO PROJECT FUND
Since the launch of the VERSO Project Fund, a number of projects by ZHdK students have already been supported. The first projects have already been realised and will be presented on our website on an ongoing basis.
However, in order to support even more great projects, we would like to continue to draw attention to the VERSO Project Fund: All ZHdK students and their projects can apply to VERSO for funding. Funding is available for events, activities, projects, publications and productions that benefit many ZHdK students. The criteria for a grant, funded projects and information about the process can be found on our website .
SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION
In the past academic year, the Sustainability Commission received a huge growth and a dedicated group was established. The Sustainability Commission deals with sustainability projects at the ZHdK and helps to shape them. The basic concern is to promote the topic of sustainability among the students and throughout the university. The aim is to do this through smaller and larger projects at the Toni and Gessnerallee, but also beyond, such as the climate strike or the Sustainability Week Zurich. The commission is looking forward to motivated and committed new members from all departments. More about the commission, its activism group, contact persons and current meetings can be viewed on our website.
INFRASTRUCTURE SHORTAGE LIST INFRASTRUKTUR
In both the Toni-Areal and the Gessnerallee, ZHdK students repeatedly encounter missing, inadequate or incorrectly designed infrastructure. For this reason, VERSO has been keeping a record of these deficiencies since 2017 and is working systematically with the ZHdK to remedy them and improve the infrastructure. A survey in HS17 with 20-30 students from all departments served as the basis for this document. In the past year, VERSO has taken care of the revision of this catalogue of infrastructure deficiencies and measures. It was checked whether measures had already been taken care of, whether the remedial process was pending and where VERSO had to intervene.
The catalogue was updated to include corrected deficiencies and now also lists department-specific problems. The document for this catalogue of deficiencies and measures can be accessed on our website. Unfortunately, the catalogue is only available in German. Nevertheless are you invited to make additions if something is not included in the list.
SEMESTER COUNCIL 17 AND 18
The seventeenth edition of the VERSO Semester Council took place this March.
It consists of six representatives from each department and is held twice a semester, for the first time under the chairmanship of Fynn Malte Schmitt (DDK) and Soraya Thashima Rutschmann (DFA). The two new chairpersons of the Semester Council successfully gave it a new structure, which led to an increased exchange between the individual departments and made the Council informative and exciting. In addition, a workshop was held on the topic of "How political should VERSO be?" This workshop was opened with guests from Switzerland and abroad who are involved in university politics.
On May 6th, the semester council met again. The main theme of this meeting was to get to know the individual student assemblies of the departments. Current problems, topics and goals as well as the individual structures were presented and discussed. Furthermore, the workgroups "Equal Opportunities" and "Bilingualism", which emerged from the Semester Council, presented their interim status. The conclusions resulting from the working groups will be published on the website soon.
CHANGES IN THE STUDENT COUNCIL
Once again, a member of the Student Council has stepped back from us this semester. Gianna Rovere from DKV has left the Student Council, but will continue to be active at departmental level. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Gianna for her efforts. Laura Gubler will take her place on behalf of the DKV. Together with Iker Sáez Liébana, who replaced Samuel Schmitt from the DMU, she was elected to the Student Council.
Furthermore, Mario Fuchs (DDE) has already been working as an assistant to the VSZHdK office since December 2020. VERSO wishes all newcomers the very best of success.
Don't forget to follow us on Instagram: @verso_zhdk
(dieses Putschblatt wurde im Mai 2021 publiziert)