"If we didn’t speak our minds as students…I don’t where we would be standing today"

20/10/2016

How would you define the University Senate?
 
It is the place where university groups of all kinds meet: administrative and service staff, teaching and research staff, PhDs, students participating in the CAF (Coordination of Faculty Assemblies), other students and postgraduate students, the rector and so on. I divide the students into two different groups because we even sit separately. Most Senate members are also CAF members. This means that they participate in assemblies at their faculty. Our ideologies (which differ among members of the same assembly) are very different from those of the minority of students sitting across the Senate room.
 
Why did you stand as a candidate for the University Senate? (For ideological reasons, recommendation of a classmate, etc.)

I did it because I wanted to have a deeper knowledge about the functioning of our university and to form my own opinion instead of simply trusting everyone else’s. I like to see political movements, people’s outrage and understand why some things can make people really angry. Yet, I am a University Senate member and at this point nobody has given me an explanation of why money is being managed so poorly in a public university such as ours.

Why did you stand as a candidate for the University Senate as a group?

I usually agree with the CAF’s position so I have no problems joining forces with them. Moreover, we are stronger together, in much the same way that pro-independence supporters must unite if they want to achieve independence for good.

Can you tell us about any proposals or actions carried out by your group?
 
Last year we managed to make the UAB be declared an Apartheid-free Space and we fought until we eventually stopped the 3+2 scheme.

What would you say to encourage those who are thinking about joining the University Senate?
 
First of all, I would tell them not to worry about time because it shouldn’t take more than 2 or 3 days a year (many hours, of course). On the one hand, I also would like to tell them that if they really want to make a difference in our university, they shouldn’t think twice about it and join us. On the other hand, I would tell them not to get discouraged if they don’t see visible changes right away. In the university, improvements are slow (way too slow maybe), but it is important to remind ourselves that if there were no University Senate members, no student assemblies, no faculty board members, if we didn’t speak our minds as students…I don’t where we would be standing today.