The Student Council and its supporting lists secured 4,273 votes, corresponding to 54.1 per cent of the total \u2014 a drop from last year, when they got 58.8 per cent.<\/p>\n
Emma Due will join Jesper G\u00fcr \u2014 also from the Student Council \u2014 as a student representative on the Board from 1 January.<\/p>\n
The new Board member is looking forward to getting to work.<\/p>\n
\u00bbUCPH ranks at the top among European universities when it comes to research \u2014 but not when it comes to education. So I will fight to ensure that students are given higher priority, and that their interests are represented on the Board, because that can be a challenge in itself,\u00ab says Emma Due.<\/p>\n
The big unknown of the election<\/h3>\n
Frie Stillerum<\/em> (Free Retreat Rooms), one of the new lists at this year\u2019s university election, had attracted attention from several media outlets during the campaign.<\/p>\n UCPH has decided to close its retreat rooms \u2014 a decision opposed by the list\u2019s lead candidate, Ali Reza. \u00bbWe\u2019re satisfied and relieved. It\u2019s been a tough campaign against the opposition, but in the end this is a victory for student democracy. We\u2019ve managed to engage voters who haven\u2019t previously been involved or voted, and that\u2019s something we want to continue working to strengthen,\u00ab says Ali Reza, before adding:<\/p>\n \u00bbIt\u2019s been a learning experience, but there were also challenges along the way. There has been public scrutiny of the list \u2014 and you could even say of me personally, in some cases. But none of this held us back, and we see this result as a win for the many students and the cause we\u2019ve been fighting for,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n Several lists had joined forces in a single electoral alliance ahead of this year\u2019s university election, in the hope of putting an end to the Student Council\u2019s long-standing dominance.<\/p>\n The alliance consisted of Conservative Students, Frit Forum <\/em>or free forum, K\u00f8dfronten<\/em> or meat front, Students for Diversity, Politr\u00e5det<\/em>, and Conservative Law Students.<\/p>\n Their mission ultimately failed, but lead candidate for Conservative Students Josefine Paaske was still pleased with this year\u2019s result.<\/p>\n \u00bbWe\u2019ve gained ground, and the result clearly shows that there is discontent among students over the Student Council dominance. I think that\u2019s great. And I\u2019m really happy that the electoral alliance has stuck together and that we ran a good part of the campaign together \u2014 that\u2019s something we\u2019ll keep doing,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n Conservative Students \u2014 including its usual supporting lists (Conservative Law Students and Borgerlige politter<\/em>) \u2014 got 1,311 votes, corresponding to 16.6 per cent. Last year, their total was 14.5 per cent.<\/p>\n The electoral alliance as a whole got 26.2 per cent of the vote.<\/p>\n One of the election\u2019s losers was Frit Forum<\/em>, which only managed to secure 256 votes \u2014 or 3.24 per cent of the total. Last year, the list managed to get 10.1 per cent.<\/p>\n The result is a disappointment for lead candidate Niklas Stentoft Mogensen.<\/p>\n \u00bbThat\u2019s the way it goes in showbiz. It\u2019s been a brutally tough campaign, with a strong campaign against Frit Forum<\/em> from both the Student Council, Students Against the Occupation, and Anarchist Students. Unfortunately, I have to admit that it worked. So that\u2019s hugely disappointing, but we\u2019re not defeated,\u00ab says Niklas Stentoft Mogensen. \u00bbThese three groups claim that a vote for Frit Forum<\/em> is a vote for Israel, which is absolutely not true. We were the only ones to campaign on a proposal for UCPH to admit 50 Palestinians and 50 Ukrainians into an education programme, so we can educate them and they can help rebuild their countries,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n Whether their being a part of the electoral alliance is to be rethought for next year is, according to Niklas Stentoft Mogensen, too soon to say.<\/p>\n \u00bbWe need to go home, and figure out what just happened. But generally, yes \u2014 we\u2019ll definitely need to think carefully about who we partner up with,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n Overall voter turnout among students in this year\u2019s university election was 20.5 per cent \u2014 up from 19.2 per cent last year.<\/p>\n Several sources attribute the increase to Frie Stillerum, <\/em>the Free Retreat Rooms list, which mobilised students who might not otherwise have voted.<\/p>\n \u00bbStudent democracy is alive \u2014 or at least slowly coming to life. I won\u2019t take all the credit for the extra votes, but I do think we helped increase the numbers, and we\u2019re proud of that,\u00ab says Ali Reza.<\/p>\n This article was first written in Danish and published on 3 December. It has been translated into English and post-edited by Mike Young.<\/em> Emma Due of the Student Council gets her seat on the UCPH board as student rep. The new Free Retreat Rooms list wins nearly 10 per cent of the vote<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":185200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","expression-news_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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\nFree Retreat Rooms had an impressive debut as a new list, earning 774 votes \u2014 equivalent to 9.8 per cent of the total.<\/p>\nElection alliance against the Student Council<\/h3>\n
Ups and downs in showbiz<\/h3>\n
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\nThe campaign included criticism of Frit Forum\u2019<\/em>s stance on the Israel\/Palestine conflict \u2014 something Niklas Stentoft Mogensen finds puzzling.<\/p>\nHigher turnout<\/h3>\n
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