Student union

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Schuelerunionlogoneu.jpg
Basic data
Establishment date: September 29, 1973, Vienna as UHS;
since 1994 student union
Motto: Action, service, representation
Structure: The federal organization,
state organizations in all federal states,
and regional groups in districts
LSV mandates:
140/159
BSV mandates:
25/29

The student union is an Austrian student organization. It is close to the Mittelschüler-Kartell-Verband (MKV) and the ÖVP and is registered as a non-profit association . The declared aim is to improve the conditions in schools . Since August 2019, Federal Chairman Sebastian Stark, who succeeded Tobias Hofstätter from Vienna , has been at the head of the federal organization . His predecessors include the ÖVP politicians Othmar Karas and Silvia Grünberger .

history

The student union was founded on September 29, 1973 at the initiative of the young ÖVP and the Mittelschüler-Kartell-Verband as the Union of Higher Students (UHS). In 1994 the organization was renamed the Student Union to open up to middle schools and vocational schools. This was achieved with a two-thirds majority, but the Upper Austrian regional organization did not take this step and is still called the Union of Higher Students to this day .

structure

The student union is headed by the federal executive board, which is elected once a year at the Bundestag. The nine state organizations are structured under the federal organization, under which in turn there are regional, district or action groups.

The party affiliation of the student union to the ÖVP is controversial. As a separate association, the student union is structurally independent of the ÖVP, but it was financed by the ÖVP from 1995 to 1997. The former ÖVP general secretary Fritz Kaltenegger named the members of the student union ÖVP student representatives.

The student union was a member of the European student umbrella organization OBESSU until 2004 .

Positions

According to its own statements, the student union sees its area of ​​responsibility and competence exclusively in the school policy sector and is based on three pillars: action , service and representation .

Representation: As a non-profit association, the Schülerunion feels obliged to only serve the interests of the pupils and sees itself as a representative of their rights and interests. Through seats in the elected student councils (LSV, BSV), she has direct hearing rights in state and city school councils as well as in the ministry .

Action: According to its own statement, the Schülerunion tries to reach the students as well as the responsible and competent bodies through various actions and campaigns and to point out and combat grievances and mistakes in schools and school policy .

Service: According to its own information, the student union provides all students in Austria with various services. These services range from a so-called school rights emergency call to action days for rhetoric , communication and other topics. There are also various seminars to choose from, with the annual student congress being the largest.

In terms of content, the student union calls for a strengthening of school autonomy and the school partnership and thus the participation of the students. In addition, she advocates the nationwide introduction of the subject of political education and a so-called transparent note. In the basic principle of the student union, the focus is on the student.

The student union opposes the comprehensive school and supports a voluntary all-day school , but calls for an expansion of voluntary afternoon care.

Student council and school policy

The student union takes part in the elections for the state student councils (LSV) and the federal student council (BSV) itself or with its own lists . The biggest competitor is the left-wing school organization Aktion Kritischer Schülerinnen und AKS (AKS). In the 2007/08 school year, the student union with Martin Schneider provided the Austrian federal school spokesman and held the majority with 20 of 29 BSV mandates. After the state student representative elections in June / July 2008, the student union continued to hold its mandate majority of 20 mandates and provided the national school spokesman, Nico Marchetti . In the elections in June / July 2009, the student union was able to expand its mandate majority and held 23 of 29 mandates in the federal student council, which on September 27, 2009, elected the Viennese state school spokeswoman in the AHS area, Pia Bauer, as the new federal school spokeswoman.

In the elections for the state student council in July 2010, the student union won the majority of seats in the federal student council. On September 19, 2010, the AHS regional school spokesman for Burgenland, Philipp Pinter, was elected federal school spokesperson by the student union with 21 votes out of 29 eligible voters. For the school year 2011/12, the student union won 23 of the 29 mandates in the federal student council. On September 25, 2011, the Vienna BMHS state school spokesperson Conny Kolmann was elected national school spokesperson with 20: 5 votes. In that year, she was particularly committed to the postponement of the central school-leaving certificate, which was announced by Education Minister Claudia Schmied in June 2012. In the 2012/13 school year, the student union again made up the majority in the federal student council with 27 of 29 mandates, and Felix Wagner from Lower Austria was elected as the new federal school spokesman. Since the state student council elections in June / July 2013, the student union has had 149 out of 156 mandates in the nine state student councils throughout Austria and holds 28 out of 29 possible mandates in the federal student council for the first time. In 2018, the Student Union lost some of these mandates again and provided 129 of 156 mandates in the state student councils and 22 of 29 in the national student council and with Timo Steyer the national school spokesman for the 14th time in a row. In the 2019 state student council elections, the student union was able to improve its result to 140 out of 159 possible mandates in the state student councils and 25 out of 29 possible mandates in the federal student council. This means that the student union with Jennifer Uzodike will provide the federal school spokeswoman for the 2019/20 school year for the 15th time in a row.

Others

Some former members of the Student Union remained politically active after their school days, such as Othmar Karas , Lukas Mandl , Nico Marchetti , Silvia Grünberger , Philipp Maderthaner (campaign manager and advisor to Sebastian Kurz ), Reinhold Lopatka , Christopher Drexler (all ÖVP) and the Graz municipal councilor Stefan Schneider (first ÖVP, now Greens) and the long-time NEOS chairman and founder Matthias Strolz . Armin Wolf was also active in the student union during his school days.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of the student union
  2. ^ Special report of the Court of Auditors: Financing of political parties and parliamentary clubs ( Memento of April 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Court of Auditors , Vienna 2000, p. 9 (PDF; 132 kB).
  3. ^ ÖVP Federal Party, Press and Media Department: Kaltenegger congratulates the Austrian Student Union on its election victory. Austria Press Agency , June 25, 2009, accessed on June 29, 2009 .
  4. ↑ Andreas Kastner: The Austrian Federal School Students' Representation from the perspective of association research. Diploma thesis, University of Vienna 2011, p. 35, digitized online at univie.ac.at (PDF; 760 kB).
  5. ^ New election: Federal school spokesman from Lower Austria. In: The press . September 16, 2007, accessed August 27, 2019 .
  6. ^ Nico Marchetti from the student union new federal school spokesman. In: derstandard.at . September 14, 2008, accessed August 27, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Student Union majority in student representation elections. In: kleinezeitung.at . June 10, 2009, archived from the original ; Retrieved August 28, 2009 .
  8. ↑ Pia Bauer, close to the ÖVP, becomes federal school spokesperson. In: derstandard.at . September 27, 2009, archived from the original ; Retrieved October 5, 2009 .
  9. ↑ Burgenländer is the new federal school spokesman. In: orf.at . September 19, 2010, accessed August 27, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Schülerunion: Schülerunion again provides federal school spokeswoman. ( Memento of September 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) September 25, 2011.
  11. ↑ Timo Steyer is the new federal school spokesman. September 23, 2018, accessed January 31, 2019 .
  12. ^ Resumee LSV elections 2019: Student Union continues to expand mandates. In: ots.at . July 5, 2019, accessed July 6, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Jennifer Uzodike becomes the new federal school representative. In: derstandard.at . September 15, 2019, accessed October 28, 2019 .
  14. ^ Judith E. Innerhofer: Election campaign in Austria: "He is a total charmer". In: zeit.de . December 18, 2017, accessed June 26, 2018 .
  15. ^ GR Stefan Schneider ( Memento from October 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ). In: graz.at .
  16. ↑ Who once started as a student representative. In: diepresse.com . October 21, 2012, accessed January 31, 2019 .

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