3 thoughts about the ‘individual responsibility’

Individual Responsibility?

From press conferences, to the screens in the bus and increasingly on Instagram-stories — everywhere you can read and hear about the “individual responsibility” that must be taken now more than ever in the ongoing pandemic. But what does that really mean? The concept is a bit tricky in itself, because it’s not just about how your decisions affect your own life.But it’s rather about you as an individual taking the responsibility for all other people around you – from the ICA cashier, to your classmate’s grandmother up tp to your teachers and their nearest and dearest. It is therefore not only about you having to make decisions that regard responsibility towards yourself, but also about solidarity and your individual contribution to protecting others.

It can be quite tough to make the right decision in an everyday life that is as chaotic as it’s now during the pandemic; especially when we get so much information at the same time from different sources – whether it is from Region SkĂ„ne, Anders Tegnell or your conspiratorial uncle who read up on this thing with Corona on Reddit. Still, we must remember that the choices we make are not just about protecting ourselves from getting infected, it is also about protecting all the other people you interact with.

It’s sad to say no when your friends are begging to join the party; and the alternative option of sitting even more hours in front of a screen to have a Zoom-Fika after a full day of digital classes might not be as enticing, but if we do not take the pandemic seriously now, it will take even longer until we get the spread of infection under control. In the worst case, this would mean that important societal functions could collapse and that even more people would lose their lives.

It’s tough and it’s isolating, but what we have to remember is that we still have to collaborate to weather this storm together. Many people feel depressed and lonely right now with less opportunities to meet and socialize physically, but the fact that we can not see each other IRL does not mean that we cannot take care of each other – we have to keep our distance but we still stick together!

Lilli Auginski, President

Why is the Student Pub closed when my favorite pub at Möllan is open?

You might feel it’s ironic that the student pub is currently closed again and all our associations had to cancel or postpone their physical events and trips that were coming up in the next weeks when your favorite bar or restaurant at Möllan is still open and seemingly doing ‘business as usual’. So why is that? 

Questions like these have even been asked at the press conference itself when the new recommendations were presented. “Why do shops and bars, etc. get to stay open when we are not supposed to visit them?” It seemed like no clear answer has been given so therefore making a decision within our own operations was not straightforward and easy. But after a productive discussion with Festmesteriet, who runs the Student Pub, we together decided that we have a responsibility, not only towards our students, but towards society as a whole. There is a reason for these new recommendations being published and we do take them seriously. Right now is (unfortunately) not the time to party. That doesn’t mean that we think everyone should isolate themselves completely because we do believe that the expression ‘physical distance’ is more appropriate than ‘social distance’. On that note, stay updated on our website and look out for all the awesome digital events we within the Union as well as our lovely associations have to offer! And as always, if you have a great idea for a digital event or alternative, feel free to contact us and we will do our best to bring your proposal to life!

Julia Buschmann – Vice President – Study Social

Who takes responsibility for the quality of my education then?

The University has a huge responsibility to offer high-quality education, by hiring skilled and competent teachers and giving those teachers the necessary tools and support required to carry out the high-quality education,  also digitally. The University also needs to ensure that there are conditions for a good working climate for both teachers and students. It is a bigger challenge due to the corona pandemic and the fact that we, students and teachers, cannot be on campus and sit together in the same way we used to do.  All this makes it more difficult for everyone to participate in the education and its quality questions in the best possible way.

Therefore, it is of utmost importance that we students also take both mutual and individual responsibility for the education.

The shared responsibility would mean that we all get involved in quality issues, by using all the ways and channels that exist – no quality can be ensured without the students’ views and thoughts. We need to make the best of the pandemic. We are the students who have experienced the drastic digital transition in the first place and have a great shared responsibility to keep track of and communicate clearly about what works well and what needs to be improved. All these changes will probably affect all prospective students – we must ensure that everything that does not work for us is taken into account and improved but also that all well-functioning components of digital education remain even after the pandemic. University needs to know how we experience all this. Help your teacher understand what works and what does not work, go to your student council, fill in your course evaluations. You can also get in touch with us to express views and complaints about education – we are always here!

It is equally important that one takes individual responsibility for their education. This means that one needs to have an understanding of the circumstances, adapt and do their best under the current conditions. Several parts of the education still need to take place on campus, to ensure the quality in those parts. We all have experienced that it can be boring to sit at home on zoom all day, but now it’s not the time to be on campus if there is no physical part in the course syllabus or if the conditions in the home environment do not allow us to study properly. We must, for the time being, keep physical distance from each other, which means to embrace zoom and all sorts of digital tools and solutions that facilitate digital education.

Yuliyan Konstantinov, Vice-President – Education Monitoring