A dialogue has started since the Academic Senate of 18 May to define what will happen in our University next year. For Lista Aperta representatives, this discussion has continued and will continue at all levels: from the Rector to the teachers of the individual Study Programs.
The proposal approved in the Academic Senate shapes a structure that is based on the desire to restart our lectures in the classroom, to bring the whole community back to PoliMi. All the necessary health security and spacing measures, necessary for universities, will obviously be prepared.
The following are some principles on which the organization will be based:
- to guarantee to all students unable to go on campus to follow entirely online teachings;
- to carry out part of the activities in presence, reducing the overcrowding of the classrooms, transferring online the remaining part of the lectures;
- to guarantee autonomy and flexibility to study courses according to individual needs;
- to guarantee, thanks to infrastructures built, flexibility in the possibility of increasing or decreasing hours in attendance according to the health situation.
We are satisfied with the Rector’s proposal and his availability these weeks. For this reason, with some suggestions, we voted in favor of the Rector’s proposal in the Senate, unlike Terna Sinistrorsa, while the President of the Student Council of Svolta Studenti was absent from the discussion and the vote.
Our position is favorable for this reason: in a country and in a city that is starting again, we cannot allow our university, PoliMi, to stand still. We believe that university life, the teacher-student relationship and even more the relationship between students are non-negotiable values for our experience in university. In safety, we can go back living on our campuses.
In all the bodies we asked not to forget that university is not only made up of lectures, but has a much wider scope that includes the whole context of university life: workshops, group projects, study together, meetings, insights, cultural initiatives, libraries, sports, etc.
In this time of economic crisis, the right to study becomes even more central: all students must be capable of attending university in all its aspects.
Returning to fully experience the educational role the university plays is an even greater opportunity if it also tries to retain what has been discovered with the distance teaching of these months.
This is only the beginning of a long work that will continue in the coming weeks and for which we will continue to discuss with study programs’ teachers, deans and the rector. We start from the needs of the students who write to us. Do not hesitate to write to us, give us your contribution too!
In the meantime, good luck with remote exams!
Lista Aperta Team
