Francesco Bruseghini elected CSR chair
Student media and culture Francesco Bruseghini has been elected as the new chair of the Central Student Council. Bruseghini is a member of the Activist Party, which won seats again in the student council elections in May. UvASociaal member Noor Hajra was elected vice-chair.
Italian Francesco Bruseghini is no stranger to student participation at the UvA: last year, he was a member of the Faculty of Humanities student council. Recently, he has been particularly active as co-founder of The New Mensa, a student-led foundation that aims to offer more vegetarian food in the UvA canteens.
The other CSR board members for the coming year have also been announced. In addition to Noor Hajra, they are Pieter van der Plas from the De Vrije Student party, Vaisakh Karuvath from the Inter party and Victor Nieboer, also from the Activistenpartij. Four questions for the new CSR chair:
Francesco, congratulations! What will be the CSR’s main focus for the coming year?
“There won’t be just one priority, but several. In any case, we will focus strongly on the budget cuts that are coming next year, although these may now be hypothetical since the fall of the government. The CSR has no influence on government budget cuts, but we will try to exert as much influence as possible on the cuts that the UvA has to implement. The same applies to the proposed Balanced Internationalisation Act (Wib). The compulsory language test is no longer part of this proposed Act. However, I do believe that international students should be able to integrate better and that the UvA should offer Dutch language courses free of charge to international students. We will continue the discussion about the house rules and our cooperation with external parties.”
Last year was another busy year for demonstrations. How do you see the coming year in that regard?
“We recently supported the encampment, but organising protests is not the CSR’s job, so it is difficult to predict what the situation will look like next year. However, it is clear that many students are still dissatisfied with the Executive Board’s current approach to ethical issues.”
Last May, the turnout for the student council elections suddenly rose. How do you plan to maintain that momentum?
“We will try to reach (even) more students by being present and visible everywhere, including on social media and perhaps by organising events.”
You are co-founder of The New Mensa, which has been a successful presence on campus. Will you continue with that?
“Definitely. We want much more sustainable and vegetarian food on campus and we want the UvA to be accountable for that. Canteens are not there to make a profit, but to sell good, sustainable and affordable food.”
The CSR consists of fourteen members from all faculties; seven members were elected directly in May, and the other seven members are delegates from each of the seven faculty student councils. The new CSR and the new CSR board will start work on 1 September after a period of induction.
