VMU Student Parliament discussed the upcoming parliamentary elections and student representatives in the VMU Senate
September 15 The parliamentarians gathered for the remote Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) Student Parliament meeting discussed the election of student representatives in the VMU Senate and the new temporary VMU Student Parliament election procedure. 5 new senators were elected by electronic voting and the election procedure was approved.
At the beginning of September, the elections to the VMU Senate were announced publicly. 8 students expressed their desire to apply. The VMU Senate is the highest self-governing body of the university, which currently has 9 student representatives out of 14 possible. The candidates who participated in the parliamentary session had the opportunity to present to the parliamentarians, and all members of the parliament were also able to familiarize themselves with the motivational letters submitted by the candidates. In the electronic voting that took place after the meeting, 5 new members of the Senate were elected from different study levels. Bachelor students Emilija Drabužinskaitė and Monika Ražauskaitė, master students Liucija Daraškaitė and Austėja Kasiliauskaitė and PhD student Aurelija Ramanauskaitė.
During the meeting, VDU SA President Ieva Vengrovskaja presented the provisional procedure for VDU Student Parliament elections. It is almost unchanged from last year: the temporary election procedure introduced during the pandemic, when applications and voting take place online, is much more efficient and simpler than the election procedure described in the statutes, so this practice will be relied on during these elections as well. You can familiarize yourself with the temporary election procedure here.
The meeting also discussed the issue of declaring a state of climate change emergency at the university. Speaker of the Parliament Gabrielė Jonuskaitė shared that the working group assembled to examine this issue was ineffective, and no specific solutions were found to address the issue itself. It was proposed not to raise this issue for the next meeting.
It was the last one in 2021-2022. m. VMU Student Parliament meeting (unless unforeseen and urgent issues arise). Elections of the new parliament are expected in October.