SYL General Assembly in Hyvinkää – guest speaker Prime Minister Katainen

Press release 14 November 2011

The two-day General Assembly of the National Union of University Students in Finland (SYL) will be held at Hotel Rantasipi Sveitsi in Hyvinkää on 18–19 November. SYL represents all of Finland’s around 135,000 university students. The meeting elects the new President and executive board members of the union, and outlines its objectives and activities for the forthcoming year.

The General Assembly commences Friday at 10:00. Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen’s address will start at approximately 14:15. The meeting continues on Saturday at 9:30, and culminates in the election of SYL’s new President and executive board at around 17:00. After the formal part of the General Assembly, SYL and the student unions will together celebrate the successful campaign, in connection with last spring’s parliamentary elections, for linking the study grant to an index.

The General Assembly is the highest decision-making body of SYL, with representatives of all 17 university student unions in Finland. The student unions nominate a total of 145 delegates for the General Assembly, and all in all there are around three hundred persons present at the meeting. The statutory items on the agenda for the meeting include the plan of work and budget for 2012. The meeting is also expected to deal with, among other topics, SYL’s standpoint on developing the study loan and the objectives of the student movement in next year’s municipal elections. The present executive board proposes that the student movement should work in the municipal elections to make every university city a more genuine student-friendly place, where students are taken into account and actively included in municipal decision-making.

So far there are 10 candidates for the election of the 2012 executive board. Two candidates are running for President: Jarno Lappalainen from the Aalto University Student Union (AYY) and Jouni Markkanen from the Student Union of University of Tampere (Tamy). The other candidates for the executive board are:

Eveliina Heinäluoma (Student Union of the University of Lapland LYY)
Tapio Heiskari (Student Union of the University of Helsinki HYY)
Milja Henttonen (Student Union of the University of Turku TYY)
Aaro Häkkinen (Student Union of the University of Helsinki HYY)
Lauri Jurvanen (Student Union of the University of Eastern Finland ISYY)
Marina Lampinen (Student Union of the University of Helsinki HYY)
Kim Rantala (Student Union of the University of Oulu OYY)
Jan Rosenström (Student Union of the University of Helsinki HYY)

The media is very welcome on both days of the meeting to follow this yearly high point of student politics. The elections of officials will take place on Saturday afternoon and the media will be informed of the results as soon as possible thereafter. The preferred times for interviews are during lunch (Fri 12–13 and Sat 13–14) and after the conclusion of the assembly. For inquiries about interviews, please contact SYL’s Information Officer Riitta Käppi (riitta.kappi@syl.fi, tel. +358 41 515 2228).

The SYL General Assembly will be broadcast live online. The link to the live broadcast will be available during the meeting on http://www.syl.fi/liittokokous. The latest news from the General Assembly will also be continuously updated on SYL’s Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/SYL.FIN) and on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/SYL_FIN).

Additional information:

Secretary general Matti Parpala, tel. +358 41 515 2225, matti.parpala(at)syl.fi
President Katri Korolainen-Virkajärvi, tel. +358 44 906 5007, katri.korolainen-virkajarvi(at)syl.fi

The person easiest to get hold of during the actual meeting is Information Officer Riitta Käppi, +358 41 515 2228, riitta.kappi(at)syl.fi

The documents for the General Assembly (mainly in Finnish, partly also in Swedish) are available online: http://www.syl.fi/materiaalit/liittokokous/

For directions to the venue, see: http://www.rantasipi.fi/hotellit/sveitsi/en_GB/directions/

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