Council meeting minutes from 2024-11-13

minutes of the students' representative council for study programs of computer science

SE Lab Improvement Suggestions

Anon1 proposes to escalate the issue to the Dean of Studies and open the dialogue between the SE chair and the Dean of Studies. They maintain that it is not the students' responsibility to come up with concrete ways to improve the course. Manuel explains that we will talk to the Deans and the SE chair soon(tm). Anon1 states that they disliked our focus on solutions in our last meeting as this might lead to a misguided discussion instead of it being completely open.
Anon2 describes their experience, that in their iteration of SE-Lab there were severe issues as well. They have the feeling that in the following iterations there were little to no tangible improvements although students did complain. They state that they heard about identical issues that they had been in their one as well.
Manuel describes the issue that there are only few members affected by current issues of SE-Lab, so we have limited insight and can only hear through proxies about issues with it.
Although understanding Mona's explanation on how the council operates, they highlighted that they are unsatisfied with the - from their perspective - little progress in terms of improving SE-Lab.
Mona gave some insight into a legal perspective into the issue but we've postponed talking about this in detail.
Alex asked Anon2 whether they are really under the impression that issues in SE-Lab from several iterations ago are still present. As counter-examples the prerequisites of SoPra/SE-Lab were mentioned.
Mona has doubts whether not allowing a re-attempt in the same iteration for SE-Lab is lawful, nevertheless, Manu firmly believes that the current study/exam regulations clearly exempt SE-Lab from the requirement to offer a re-attempt. Anon1 is under the impression that Manu's believe is incorrect. Manu offers to re-confirm with the Deans.
We talked about the possibility of legal actions. Mona highlights that we can in any case ask for advise from university's legal office. However, Manu highlights that this could harm our relation with the department. Tarik suggests that one could also highlight issues during programmes' accreditation process.

Strasbourg

Manu had discussions about details with third-parties and was told by an expert on train stuff that SNCF has the nasty habit of doing all they can to pay for Fahrgastrechte - thus leaving the risk of being stranded in France in case there are issues with the last train back home.
Thus, only bus transport is really feasible. He received an offer of 1380 € - i.e. 28 € per PAX - kinda expensive in his opinion. Another company quoted 1050 € for 45 PAX - plus roughly 50 € for parking - during the week. They also offered a date on Sunday that would be more expensive.
Mona suggests approaching ZIS given that they have experience with bus travel. Abigail corrects that ZIS usually travels by train. But cooperation might be worthwhile anyway. Manu suggests making a survey on Discord to get a feel about interest in this event.

We voted on Whether we want to have this survey. We agreed unanimously (8/0/0).

RindPhi LAN Party

Currently, we have 5 orders. Manu expected more but was told by friends that the news haven't really reached people yet. Manu wants to prepare Kundenstopper. Mona and Simon suggest advertising in lectures. Simon specifically pinged Alex for this.
Daniel suggests having a poll on which games to offer. Daniel will make a Discord post.

The test run for the LAN party is most likely going to be this Sunday.

Talks with Triathlon

Lukas had a chat with Triathlon. Triathlon is interested in cooperating with us.
There was a general discussion. One point was Triathlon's Career Day: Manu shared that has was at one of their events and shared his hate sparked by their "Lecture Hall". Triathlon would like to mediate company sponsorships for Breakfasts but from our side there was no interest. Second point: Triathlon would like to have an event collaboratively advertised.
Mona does not see the need for having Triathlon acting as a mediator as we already have contact with select companies.

Lukas suggests pursuing this possibility for cooperation and thinks that the person he spoke to is committed to having a good and fair cooperation.
Daniel highlights that we should only advertise events actually of interest to students which we all agreed to.

Triathlon: Buddy Programme / DAAD

Triathlon is planning to open an "International Career Center" branch. They observed that international students tend to stay with fellows from their cultural circle. To address this they'd like to implement a buddy system supported by DAAD. Members stated that there are already buddy programmes. They'd like to connect with councils regarding this.
Abigail noticed that Triathlon is having quite many programmes in parallel so a buddy programme on top might be excessive.
Daniel is under the impression from being a buddy that buddy programmes are not that well-received.
Alex is furious about having yet another buddy programme. He is of the believe that a fourth one will not help students is very much opposed to having it implemented.

Another idea from them was to support one of our events under the premiss that it connects national with international students. One idea would be the LAN party. However, Manu has reservations since he can't estimate yet how successful this event is going to be and would like to avoid the possibility of disappointing Triathlon as a partner. The Strasbourg tour might be another candidate, or Abigail suggested a potluck event. Lukas will present the Strasbourg excursion to Triathlon.

Christmas Party

Manu suggests acquiring a reusable cream whipper thingy. It needs nitrogen capsules but nevertheless drastically reduce the amount of trash we produce.
Daniel has a friend that uses this thing regularly and loves it.
Qianhao points out that misuse of this can be problematic, but we believe in the reasonability.
Lukas has heard that it can be used for beer as well.

We voted on whether we want to purchase the cream whipper. We voted in favour (4/0/1).

Breakfast

Lukas found a date for another breakfast where sufficient people have time to volunteer. He suggests next week Friday with hotdogs as lunch option.
He will poll for volunteers after the meeting; fill it out as soon as possible.

FSR retreat

Lukas will create a poll for the retreat.

Waffle Iron

One of our waffle irons is broken. It will be replaced soon.