University Senate
University Senate
Meeting from 01 November 2023
The following was reported:
Since 1 October 2023, there have been organisational changes at the Occupational Health and Safety Unit. This is now headed by Dr Johann Meyer and is now called the Occupational Health and Safety-Biological Safety-Radiation Protection Unit (AGBS).
The Day of Teaching and Learning will take place on 30 November 2023 from 9.30-17.00. This year's theme is "AI-teaching without AI? Topics for the future of education". Afterwards, the 2022/2023 Teaching Prize will be awarded in the library hall from 17:00-18:00.
What else happened:
At the last Senate meeting, it was forgotten to say goodbye to Petra Mende, long-standing Chair of the Staff Council. This omission will be made up for at today's meeting.
Our Senate member Nadja Sturm has submitted a proposal on behalf of the ver.di organisation team regarding the current collective bargaining round for the federal states.
The motion reads as follows:
"The University of Oldenburg Senate supports the demands of ver.di, GEW and the German Civil Service Association for the current round of collective bargaining to increase the salaries of state employees by at least 500 euros or 10.5% and to conclude a collective agreement for students. It calls on the state of Lower Saxony to advocate such a collective agreement in the collective bargaining community of the federal states so that universities also remain attractive in the competition for skilled labour and do not fall further behind other sectors and the public service of the federal and local governments."
Ms Burwitz points out that the University Senate does not have the right to pass a resolution in this regard, as it is not part of the Senate's remit to pass resolutions on political issues, among other things.
Mr Bruder agrees to use the Presidential Board's channels to communicate that the University of Oldenburg and the University Senate have an interest in negotiating a reasonable collective agreement for state employees.
Meeting from 05/07/2023
The Endfossil group occupied lecture theatre 3 for a week. As the topic of climate change is in everyone's interest, including here at our university, Mr Bruder quickly sought dialogue with the group. In the course of this, the Endfossil group handed over their list of demands to Mr Bruder. The first meeting took place on Monday and the second on Thursday. As a result, the Endfossil group ended its occupation of lecture theatre 3.
At this meeting, the online elections item was discussed once again. In the end, a majority decision was taken to admit online elections (9:4:0). The Stupa election at the beginning of next year will serve as a trial run for online elections. Online voting will be offered as an additional voting option. Ballot box voting and postal voting will still be possible. After the end of the Stupa election, there will be an evaluation of the online election to see whether online elections should be introduced permanently as a third voting option.
Meeting from 24/05/2023
The special dividend from Porsche AG’s initial public offering provides unprecedented financial scope to rethink and restructure the promotion of science and technology in research and teaching. In February 2023, ‘zukunft.niedersachsen’ was launched as the largest science programme in the history of Lower Saxony.
576.3 million euros from the special dividend are available, to be invested in three key priority areas:
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Transformation (of the state)
Energy and mobility transition, resource-efficient management, healthy living, skills and knowledge
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Digitalisation
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Cutting-edge research
These are additional funds and do not form part of the universities’ core budgets. An increase in the core budgets of Lower Saxony’s universities is currently being discussed at the State Higher Education Conference.
Further information is available at: https://www.mwk.niedersachsen.de/zukunft.niedersachsen
At the next Senate meeting on 5 July, the topics of electoral regulations and online voting will be addressed. On the one hand, the electoral regulations are to be amended; on the other, there will be a further discussion on whether online voting should be introduced as an additional voting option. A first reading will take place at the July meeting, with the second reading scheduled for the September meeting.
The former project group, led by Mr Deitermann, has resumed its work.
On 23 May, Diversity Day was held on the topic of first-time university students. Among other things, an event was organised in collaboration with Arbeiterkind.de. According to a survey, 41 per cent of all first-year students at the UOL in the 2022/2023 winter semester were first-time university students. Last year, Diversity Day focused on the topic of racism.
Meeting from 19 April 2023
The new University Senate has been constituted and Nadja Sturm has started work as our representative. One of the first important things she did was to vote on the new members (details https://uol.de/senat/kommissionenausschuesse-des-senats) for commissions and committees. We have members on the Commission for Higher Education Development Planning (HEP), the Commission for Good Academic Practice and the Commission for the Promotion of Research and Early Career Researchers. We are also members of the Commission for the Appointment of Honorary Citizens and Honorary Senators / Award of the University Medal (EEK), the Commission for Research Impact Assessment and Ethics (EK), the "University-Unions" Cooperation Committee and the Arbitration Commission (SchliKo). On 17 April, the Women's Plenary Assembly elected proposals for the members of the Commission for Gender Equality (KFG), which were confirmed.
The next meeting on 24 May will be exciting for all laboratory colleagues when Prof. Theilmeier and Prof. Bräuer will answer the question on laboratory and occupational safety in detail.
The changeover to system accreditation has completed the first round of evaluation, VP-L explained the positive accreditation report.
President Bruder outlined the University Senate's agenda for the next two years. As part of the 50th anniversary of the University of Oldenburg, a mission statement discussion will take place. A website is to be launched before the summer with all the information on the 50th anniversary. A kick-off event will take place on 5 December. The University Senate will also deal with the central equality plan, the diversity strategy and a digitalisation strategy. An excellence strategy will also be discussed, as well as the attractiveness of our degree programmes, the UOL as a place to study and the UOL as an employer.
The topics of climate protection and sustainability will also be on our agenda.
The digitalisation strategy has only included minor changes so far. There is a desire within the university to make major changes. A participatory process using existing expertise is desired. This wish will be taken up and work on the strategy will be carried out in earnest; at the end of the year, the University Senate will be informed about the digitalisation strategy in order to discuss it.
The last committee election was again very bumpy. Changes to the election regulations are being prepared by the Presidential Board, and the possibility of online voting will also have to be discussed again. External experts are to be invited to the University Senate for this purpose.
The ubiquitous ChatGPT AI will have an impact on teaching: E-didactics is looking into the topic and should clarify how to deal with AIs. Two papers are to be prepared for this purpose.