Your vote against the 25€ price increase

Yesterday we listed reasons why voting in university elections is important. Today we present one reason using an unfortunately very real and very current example. At the same time, we would like to draw your attention to a special session of the student parliament next Wednesday, 6 July, starting at 2:30 pm on the Vaihingen campus (Pfaffenwaldring 57, 8th floor, room 8.122), which will deal with this topic.

Recently, the Studierendenwerk Stuttgart announced that, in addition to various price increases, including for the rent in the halls of residence and in the canteens, it also wants to increase the semester fee. Currently, we students pay €74 to the Studierendenwerk every semester. Now it wants to increase this fee by 25 €, so that we students would have to pay 99 € to the Studierendenwerk every semester from the summer semester 2023.

Due to further deadlines, it was necessary to take a preliminary position. On 30 June, the stuvus board decided on the following positioning: “The student body of the University of Stuttgart rejects the planned increase of the student union fee for the summer semester 2023.” A detailed position has already been drafted and will be decided by the student parliament in an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday. The meeting is open to the public and you are welcome to attend.

What can you specifically do against the increase in the Studierendenwerk fee?

A position taken by the student parliament carries much more weight if the students of the University of Stuttgart show that they stand behind their elected representatives. Although the people who were already elected last year will make the decision on Wednesday, it is possible that the fee increase will be an issue again or still be an issue in the autumn. Then it really helps a lot if the student parliament can point to a very high voter turnout and is thus strengthened on the part of the students to stand up for student interests towards the Studierendenwerk and politics.