FPN 2023/2024

You have elected Alexander Lemberg, Dominik Martinez, Emma Kourilova and Claudia Infante to represent you in the FPN Council for the academic year 2023-2024. Cheers to a year of improving student welfare!

Read the manifesto of our elected candidates for the 2023-2024!

Dear fellow FPN Students,

We NovUM candidates are excited to present our manifesto for this years Faculty Council elections. Our party is committed to making our faculty a more sustainable and globally connected community while supporting you to reach your full educational potential. Join us in our mission to create a better future for all students here at FPN.

Housing:

  • Finding housing at the beginning of your studies can be extremely difficult. One rarely has contacts to people in the city and must totally rely on Facebook or other websites. The University sends an e-Mail with information about Housing and help on how to find it around June. This is way too late for most students! We want an eMail notification directly after being accepted, with a variety of actually helpful links to Websites and Facebook groups.
  • Promote the Huurteam Limburg, a non-profit organization that focuses on helping students with any issues/inquiries regarding their accommodation. The promotion would be done by posting flyers and images around the school and making the FPN share information about them in their newsletter and social media.
  • Purchase of software for an AI chatbot to be distributed by UM, that can answer questions regarding housing, furthermore the bot functions as a simple accessible tool. We want to integrate the chatbot into the myUM framework.

Education:

  • We believe that tutors are essential for effective problem based learning. That is why we are committed to ensuring all tutors receive more equal and thorough training to help them excel in their roles. By providing all tutors with the tools and resources they need, we can ensure all students have access to the best possible education.
  • We want to provide students with faster service at the student service center (SSC), currently it feels like the SSC is understaffed and it takes 2-3 weeks for a response, a lot of questions could potentially be answered faster by a chatbot, with more serious issues being handled by humans. With the addition of a chatbot we hope to cut waiting times.
  • Implement that all the course exams in the 1st period of 1st year will be ONLY pass/fail, giving the students more time to get adjusted to the new learning system of PBL and find their way how to study effectively, without having to worry about the grades impacting their GPA.
  • We want to make internships more accessible by working together with the faculty and looking for solutions to make them possible despite the lack of funding of FPN.
  • Mental health initiatives: Holding events promoting self expression via an amateur talent show/open-mic night.

Sustainability:

  • Provide plant-based milk in at least half of the faculty’s coffee machines.
  • Promote the use of Billie cup as an alternative to the plastic coated paper cup and make the FPN implement this concept as soon as possible, selling the cups near the coffee machines with different sizes available and completely abolish the currently available one-use cups.
  • Change the paper bags with plastic front side, used for baked goods, for purely paper bags.
  • Dividing the trash properly is crucial for recycling. What is necessary therefore are separate trash cans which aren’t prevalent everywhere. Oftentimes, one sees one or two trash cans, proper recycling is not possible.
  • Provide instructions directly at the trash cans for how certain items can be recycled, focusing on items that can be purchased at the cafeteria or things students mostly tend to throw away, such as used napkins, used pens, food containers/bags.
  • Create more feedback opportunities for students to decide about the food in the cafeteria and work together with UM to lower the food prices. We believe that lowering prices in the cafeteria is essential to reduce food waste. By making nutritious and affordable food more accessible to students, we can ensure that every meal is eaten and not thrown away.

Internationalism:

  • Connecting individuals with different nationalities and/or languages to allow for students to have a place to engage with one another openly is what NovUM stands for . Social interactions are key for connected and coherent group like students to function. We want to enhance this feeling of belonging and not being alone.
  • We want to hold (e.g., cultural festivals) where students can exchange cultures from their own countries to promote cultural diversity.
  • Encouraging the students to use English as a common language to facilitate understanding is key. A poster of “Let’s communicate effectively and respectfully in English” can be arranged in every tutorial room to promote inclusivity and a positive learning environment. At the same time, free language support (e.g., online/ in-person language courses) is necessary to make student empowered and confident in communication.
  • We want to make FPN more well-known to students around the world who want to study psychology and neuroscience by developing partnerships and hosting academic events with institutions outside of Europe.

Do you want to see these changes? Help us by voting NovUM!

Vote NovUM!

We hope NovUM ́s manifesto resonates with your vision of a better FPN. As a party we believe in the power of student ́s voices and are committed to hearing and representing YOURS! Your input is valuable to us, and we encourage you to share your suggestions and concerns for the faculty with us. If you want to be represented by a team of open-minded, committed and driven students, then vote for NovUM!