Council meeting minutes from 2025-08-11

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

Busy Beaver Award

---- INFO ------

We received the QUALIS data for WS25/25, our Busy Beaver task force will start working on it now. After the top 5 in each bracket are determined we will reach out and collect some more opinions from you (CS students) about what you like / dislike about the course.

New Appointment Committees

---- INTRO ------

We have three new appointment committees that need student representatives.

---- DISCUSSION ------

Normally we go over them internally first since we are already strongly involved in making the study better for students and to some extend this matches well with the representing responsibility of being elected.

If we can not find enough volunteers, we will further extend this into the FSR open group. If there are still volunteers needed we will do another meeting to decide if we want to publicly advertise this even more.

Current committees in need of volunteers:

Quantum Algorithms, Complexity and Information Theory (W2ttW3, Brückenprof. M+I)
(Jonas), (Anton)

Quantum Software Systems (W2ttW3, Informatik)
Mona, (Anton)

Quantum Bioinformatics (W1 ohne tt, Informatik)
Anton, Abigail (interested, would like to know more)

---- CONCLUSION ------

Deadline is 25.08, then this will be open to the general FSR group.

Hermanns shredding NP exam

---- INTRO ------

During the NP exam one student wrote longer then allowed and the exam got shredded in front of everyone (with an actual shredder).

---- DISCUSSION ------

First we voted if we wanted to discuss this publicly:

Yes: 3
No: 1
Abs: 4

We heard different opinions and rumors around this the days before, this discussion is about our stance on this and how to proceed.

Looking into the uni regulations we found out that shredding a real student written exam is against uni regulations (exams need to be preserved for 5 years*).

*"Richtlinie über Aufbewahrungsfristen, Aussonderung und Vernichten von Akten vom 25.10.1979 (S. 525 Dienstblatt der Universität)..."

However we heard though some anonymous sources that this was most likely definitely staged and therefore no uni regulations were violated in this case.

But even the implications that this was a real exam and this therefore went over the regulations has impact for students that believed this to be true. It was also never clarified afterwards (as of today). Students already have exam stress and this will fuel this even more.

It was noted in the discussion that Prof. Hermanns also did more extreme things before. He was said to have a bit of a dark humor. It is important to note here, that putting this incident in relation to past potentially more extreme actions does not make this instance better.

We generally agreed that we will contact Prof. Hermanns regarding this. We want to talk about why this was done with him and try to communicate openly about how to handle this better. Before this contact, which could also lead to an in person talk, the council should already have an opinion, so the persons present in the discussion can have a stance.

We voted on the stance "We do not agree how this situation was handled - staged or not - and are against such behavior, since this leads to additional exam stress to some students."

Yes: 7
No: 0
Abs: 1

---- CONCLUSION ------

We will contact Prof. Hermanns for a meeting with some of our council members.

After this meeting, we will again talk in a council meeting about this and put out a public update on the situation.

Data Networks — Make Tutorials harder

---- INTRO ------

There were differences in difficulties in the last Data Networks exam. Tutorials were easier than the exam which mislead students studying for the exam.

---- DISCUSSION ------

The difference in difficulty is explained by the tutorials sheets being made by tutors and the exam being written by the TA and Prof. Feldmann.

A different CS council before us had a similar situation with a different course and it was then decided to make the tutorials harder.

Tutorial sheets do not go into grades and are (optional), so there is not much draw back for students if they are harder. They are the majority of the exercise material, so making them harder gives a better guidance than just a harder mock exam. Adding additional harder questions to tutorial sheets would also be an option (there are other courses that have bigger tutorial sheets with difficulty ratings for each exercise).

Adding exam sheets on top of the tutorials sheets would probably be not a feasible option here, since they need to be corrected and this would not scale well with the large amount of students attending this course.

We also realized that thought protocols also include exams from 2019, where exams were a bit easier because of COVID. We will add a warning on our side to better make aware of this.

One opinion was that it seems that Data Networks is perceived as an easy lecture. This leads to the course being overcrowded which is why the course is made harder.

This was counterpointed to be just an assumption for the higher attendance.

Off topic: If this course becomes harder and students did take this course because it was the easiest for them to take, this will result in another course being then targeted the next time, potentially again leading to problems.

We voted on contacting Prof. Feldmann about making the tutorial sheets harder with the input above:

Yes: 6
No: 1
Abs: 1

---- CONCLUSION ------

We will contact Prof. Feldmann about making the tutorial sheets harder.

ATOSE#2: Excursion to Bostalsee — Announcement

---- INFO ------

ATOSE is back with an announcement.

Bostalsee is nice. Let’s go there! We can go swimming there on Friday 29.08.

There will be more announcements and posters and stuff.

It is on the same day as the SoPra exam but will start afterwards, so it is a great way to unwind.

Discontinuation of SIC IT’s Nextcloud for Students

---- INTRO ------

The SIC IT's Nextcloud is switched to an instance of Seahorse with lacking communication.

---- DISCUSSION ------

Apparently, SIC IT’s Nextcloud for students (oc.cs.uni-saarland.de) will be discontinued by the end of this August and superseded by an instance of Seahorse (cloud.studcs.uni-saarland.de). Apart from messages in the login screen and web pages’ titles this has not been proactively communicated to students (or the CS students' council).

---- CONCLUSION ------

We will contact the SIC to suggest them to send out a general email to all students so it does not fly past them.

CIP Pool Conditions - there’s progress to this

---- INTRO ------

There were some problems with the CIP pool with students leaving trash behind and unplugging equipment.

See meeting minutes from 25.07.2025
(https://cs.fs.uni-saarland.de/uber-uns/protokolle/?prot_id=20250725)

---- DISCUSSION ------

One of our members contacted the responsible person for the CIP pool and there will be a meeting. In this meeting the possible steps to solve the issues will be discussed.

It was also mentioned by the contacted person that the possibility of a HiWi position to overlook the CIP pool exists.

---- CONCLUSION ------

Some of the council members will attend a meeting with the responsible person for the CIP pool.

Student Council Motivation — Low Motivation

---- INTRO ------

We have a low attendance at our meetings and some events for some time. We try to find out why and how to solve this.

---- DISCUSSION ------

Less attendance also means more work for the attending council members, which will lead to a burn out in the long run. Also adding to this, that this topic is now reoccurring.

Regarding the meetings it is crucial for council members to attend, since we vote on decisions that are most of the time time crucial. The topic list for a meeting should also not be a reason to skip a meeting, even if input can not be giving. It is a fixed date were all members can be in a room together which is a huge factor for positive team building.

There is also the fact that a lot of older members that used to be a core of the active members for multiple years now ended their terms for good (since they finished being a student).


One opinion was that the current low motivation is not because summer break.

Another opinion was that the reason people are not attending some events is, that they feel the structure is wrong (to much infrastructure / work for the scope of the event). This should be discussed separately and handled by the event responsible persons.

One idea was to specifically ask related members why their attendance is low to sort out issues. Another one was to do an anonymous questionnaire.


There is also one council person who is not reachable since the beginning of terms and rudely ghosting contact. It was asked what to do there. We will try again to contact that person to suggest signing down from the role, since this affects our quorum. Also no credit points will be eligible anyway without doing council work.

On a side note, there is some template in the works for the examination board, which states acknowledgement of the other council members regarding contribution during the elected period. Since sometimes people put themself up for vote but then never show up.

We voted on writing an email to the corresponding person to suggest resigning:

Yes: 8
No: 0
Abs: 0

---- CONCLUSION ------

We will further work on this and also write one person ghosting us to suggest resigning.