NOTE: This page is currently under construction. We may reformulate parts and add further details in the upcoming days and weeks. For transparencies sake, we still make this version available to you.
On the announcements for our Events, as well as on our website, you may have noticed the mentions of “Sponsors” or “Partners”. On this page we want to explain what these terms mean. In detail, we want to explain the following aspects:
- Why do we have Partners and Sponsors?
- What is the difference between a Sponsor and a Partner?
- How do we cooperate with companies?
- What influence do our cooperations have on our work as the Students’ Council?
Why do we have Partners and Sponsors?
As the Students’ Council for Computer Science we are, to our knowledge, one of the most active ones on Campus. We are happy that we have the opportunity to provide our events and services at the current rate and diversity. It is especially important for us that those events can continue to be free or, for the case of our Summer-BBQ, as cheap as possible for students.
However all of our events, which are free for the most part, generate costs. The AStA administers the FS-Etat, which is a limited budget financed by parts of your semester fees. We are allowed to use a part of this budget to organize events. The amount that we are granted each year is based on the number of enrolled students in the Computer Science related courses of study. For 2025 our budget in the FS-Etat is roughly 1900€.
The total cost of all our events however are significantly higher than the budget we can use from the FS-Etat. In 2024 the cost for our events for students were roughly 5000€. On top of that we have additional expenses for e.g. equipment. In the near future we will link a detailed overview of our expenses here.
As a Students Council we are not permitted to make income and expenditures independently. Therefore, the FIS e.V. (German: “Freundeskreis der Fachschaft Informatik Saarbrücken e.V.”) exists. The FIS is a charitable non-profit organization (the proper German term is “gemeinnütziger Verein) which, in simplified terms, serves as a legal entity for the Students Council to incur income and expenses.
In the past, we were able to cover these additional expenses by organizing the campus career fair. This was initially organized entirely by us under the name FIT (Firmen-Informations Tage). Later, the main organizational responsibility was transferred to Triathlon Transfer GmbH (formerly: KWT). However, we continued to be involved in the implementation and organization of the trade fair in the form of a cooperation agreement, which enabled us to continue generating income. Triathlon terminated this cooperation agreement at the end of 2023. In the subsequent negotiations for a follow-up contract, no mutually agreeable terms for further cooperation could be found.
In order not to have to restrict our range of events or charge admission fees or similar, we have therefore taken the step of approaching companies, mostly from the local area. For this reason, you will sometimes see the logo of one or more companies on our website or on event announcements. Companies may also present themselves in person at events. In return, FIS e.V. will invoice the companies for a previously agreed amount. For events, the amount invoiced is usually higher than the actual costs of the event. This enables us to also organize other events without sponsors.
What is the difference between a Sponsor and a Partner?
In our cooperation with companies, we distinguish between two categories: Sponsors and Partners.
We call a company a Sponsor if they cooperate with us for one concrete event. Partners, on the other hand, is a cooperation that is not tied to a specific event but rather a cooperation over a longer time period, usually one or two semesters.
The two categories are mainly distinguished by how, where and when we make the companies visible. A more detailed overview can be found in the following section.
How do we cooperate with companies?
If you break it down to the most important aspects, we offer a service for companies with our sponsoring and partnering. The companies pay a sum of money and in return receive the right to present themselves in a certain way at our events.
In detail, we naturally try to keep an eye on a few important key points. Firstly, the companies should of course always have added value for our students, i.e. the companies’ offers, usually working student positions, internships or even full-time positions, should be of interest to computer scientists. In addition, we cooperate primarily with companies with a local connection to the university or the Saarland. It is also particularly important to us that the placement of the companies is as non-invasive as possible for students, for example through a logo placement or a brief mention in the text announcements. Detailed information on the companies’ specific offers can usually only be found in the full post on the website or on a separate subpage. We also try to keep the frequency of collaborations within a framework that does not “overrun” students and, for example, deliberately plan breaks between events with sponsors.
Depending on whether a company is a Sponsor or a Partner, this will present itself slightly different to you as a student:
With our sponsors you can usually see the following placements for the specific sponsored event:
- Logo on posters & visuals on social media
- Company name, short description and link in the mailing list
- A paragraph describing the company in the full announcement post on our website
Our partners are visible to you during the partnering period for the following placements:
- Logo placement in the sidebar of our website (in the mobile view at the bottom of the page)
- A short company description on a special subpage of our website
- Logo placement in a corner of our physical pinboard
- Logo placement on posters of events that do not have a sponsor
Every decision about a cooperation with a company for a Partnering will be discussed in the student council beforehand and voted upon. In addition the Students’ Council will limit the number of parallel running partnerings to, at most, three.
What influence do our cooperations have on our work as the Students’ Council?
We undertake not to allow our work as a student council to be influenced by cooperation with companies. In particular, we will not make our positions on the student interests of computer science students dependent on whether it could have a positive or negative influence on a possible cooperation with a company.
In particular, we are not currently planning to organize events “for companies”, but rather to integrate interested and interesting companies into our events in a meaningful way. Always with the aim of ensuring that the income generated from these events can benefit the students.
Overall, our aim is to find a moderate middle ground that allows us to continue to offer our wide range of events without giving the impression that we are only cooperating with companies “for the money”. We have the impression that we have succeeded in this so far and have not received any negative feedback from the student body.
However, if you still have any concerns, objections or suggestions on the subject: Talk to us! Either in person, by e-mail or even anonymously by leaving feedback in our (physical) complaint box on our doorstep. We want to consider all thoughts in this regard as far as possible.