Sitoutumaton vasemmisto

HYY’s Representative Council

What is HYY?

  • HYY, i.e. the Student Union of the University of Helsinki, is a statutory public entity to which all undergraduate students of the University of Helsinki belong (for international students its voluntary)
  • Postgraduate students may choose to join the student union if they wish
  • Represents 26,000 students
  • In addition to advocacy, HYY organizes events and training, offers organizations – expert help, facilities and a wide range of support, selects student representatives for the administration etc.
  • HYY owns Ylva which is a company that owns restaurants (Unicafe), both Student Houses, hotels and other properties.
  • Ylva is HYY’s main source of income and the money to be recognized from it covers more than ⅔ of the annual budget. The rest of the income comes through membership fees (which will be waived by 2025)
  • HYY’s annual budget is approximately 3.5 million euros, and Ylva’s market value is hundreds of millions
  • Member of the National Union of University Students in Finland SYL

What is the representative council?

  • HYY’s highest decision-making organ; In practice, HYY’s Board members make a large part of the decisions, but the Board of Representatives influences the broad lines and emphases
  • Monitor HYY’s finances and operations
  • 60 seats for representatives, power relations are determined by elections. There are two vice-editors for each representative, but in practice both the actual and vice-editors are equal and are not divided.
  • The period lasts 2 years
  • The meetings are chaired by the Chairman of HYY and accompanied by a secretary
  • The Representative Council submits proposals for changes and / or approves – documents guiding HYY’s operations
  • Appoints, for example, HYY’s Board of Directors and its Chairman, HYY’s Presidium, Editor-in-Chief of Ylioppilaslehti
  • The Representative Council consists of various political and non-political (“sitters”, non-attached) groups, in which a large part of the actual activities take place
    •  The groups are organized internally into chairs and committee members; in addition, there are various positions of trust (e.g., negotiators) and working group positions to which the group nominates individuals
  • HYY operates largely on the basis of various documents, all of which have their own purpose; The following is a list of the most important:
  1.  HYY’s rules
    • direct all HYY’s operations
  2.  The Administrative Instructions Rule
    • with particular emphasis on the administrative side
  3. Description of HYY’s continuing operations
    • this describes the activities that are carried out in the office in any case by the so-called in addition, a target program appears
  4. HYY’s strategy
    • valid for 5 years; a document outlining HYY’s core values ​​and goals
  5. HYY’s line paper or “lipa”
    • it contains HYY’s political lines, ie it tells what HYY thinks about something
  6. target program
    • it defines the priorities of HYY’s Board of Directors for the coming year, eg municipal elections and influencing them
  7. Medium-term financial plan or “KTS”
    • provides the lines on the basis of which the student union’s finances are directed
    • made for four years at a time, but dealt with once during each parliamentary term

 

Groups currently operating at HYY, in order of number of places: (in figures the actual representatives, each with two vice representatives)

  • Maailmanpyörä “Ferris wheel”, 20 seats; Helsinki University Greens (HyVi) 11, Sitvas (Independent Left) 9
  • HYAL, i.e. subject organizations, 16 seats
  • HELP, i.e. law  and medical students, 9 seats
  • SNÄf or Swedish-speaking (Svenska Nationer och Ämnesföreningar), 6 seats
  • Edistykselliset, i.e. National Coalition Students and Centre Students, 5 places
  • Student nations, 4 seats

In addition, the following groups were left in HYY’s House of Representatives elections and were left without seats:

  • OSY, the Social Democratic Association of Students
  • HAPSU or Academic Finns of Helsinki
  • Pirates
  • For Freedom, i.e. the Blues and KD
  • Liberal Electoral Alliance

How does the Representative Council work?

  • The Board of Representatives meets approximately once a month during the semesters to decide and discuss the issues to be discussed.
  • Board meetings are structured events where speeches must be requested in writing (now in electronic form)
  • The Edar chairmen together with HYY’s Board of Directors and HYY’s Chairman decide on the dates of the matters to be discussed.
  • Works in three languages, provides interpretation services
  • The activities of the Representative Council and HYY are guided by HYY’s rules and administrative regulations
  • For reasons of efficiency and division of labor, there are various committees to which members are appointed by the groups; pests are one year old (with the exception of 1.5-year-old Hane)

 

  • Preparatory committee
    • The agenda is always the agenda of the Representative Council meeting
    • Always meets before the edar to think and prepare the edar’s affairs
    • The so-called political twist
  • Financial Board
    • Approves new organizations and dismisses them as needed
    • Distribute an operating grant and develop an operating grant distribution model
    • Prepares the Board’s proposal for HYY’s budget, which goes to the Board through the Preparatory Committee for decision by the Representative Council
    • Monitors HYY’s financial situation
    • The Supervisory Board
    • Central Selection Committee
      • Prepares proposals for persons to be appointed to different institutions, e.g. student representatives in the administration

How is the Representative Council formed?

60 representatives and 120 vice-representatives will be elected to the Representative Council in the biennial autumn parliamentary elections

– Alliances between groups possible: for example, the Independent Left and HYY’s Greens together form the Ferris Wheel and the Coalition and Center form the Progressive

– Voting takes place electronically and there is a proportional electoral system

– All HYY members are entitled to vote and stand for election

– Some groups have campus-specific lists, some common

– After the elections, government negotiations will begin, in which the current practice is for each group to have one person on the board for about five of its own editors. The Board is always elected for one calendar year at a time

– If people leave the group, for example due to graduation, a new person can be replaced in the order of the election results list

How can I act to make a difference in the HYY Representative Council?

Single representative:

  • Acting in a committee or other position of trust
  • Preparing your own initiative; Every editor can come up with an idea and take the initiative in his own way, but it is certainly most effective to work in groups and involve other groups behind the initiative.
  • Participating in meetings of the representative council where one can make a difference
  • voting; the group often has a position on the most important issues, but at least we don’t have group discipline, ie you can vote according to your conscience share / no / empty
  • giving speeches; in principle, speeches can be made at any meeting of the Assembly; good to think about what is relevant at any given time

The Representative Group:

  • Initiatives prepared jointly as Independent Left or as Maailmanpyörä “Ferris Wheel” (Independent Left + HYY Greens)
  • The groups think about what emphases / guidelines are wanted in the documents → suggest changes are made
  • Some groups support negotiations and push things through it, but the Ferris wheel is in favor of non-negotiation
  • By lobbying, for example, other groups or HYY’s board members