Briefly in English 3/2010
Strategic thinking
The administration of the University of Vaasa has officially formulated the uni’s new strategy – an overall plan describing tasks and challenges on the areas of research, teaching, social interaction, networks and organizational issues. The new strategy (available in Finnish as a pdf document on the university’s website) attaches great importance to becoming an increasingly multilingual and multicultural institution, and aims at rendering the uni’s organizational structure more transparent.A spring of surveys
The student union has been asking its members’ opinion about various social-political topics. Currently, you can fill in an online survey on the union’s webpage about housing and student residences in Vaasa. The questionnaire is available both in Finnish and in English. Later on in the spring the union is planning to probe its members’ opinion on the winter maintenance of Vaasa’s streets, on public transport in the city, and on summer jobs. Surveys about summer exams and studies, as well as about sports and exercising opportunities are also in the pipeline.Genes untampered
From now on, Vaasa is a “GMO-free zone”, according to the decision made in February by the city’s municipal authority. In line with the decision, food containing genetically modified ingredients will be forbidden in the city’s kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, retirement homes and municipal canteens. Growing genetically modified crops on land owned by the city has also been banned.The decision was reached following the initiative of the “GMO-free Finland!” campaign of the Green Party. The campaign has not yet reached considerable success elsewhere in Finland. GMOs can most often be found in the country in the form of imported fodder for livestock. According to the current regulations, it is not obligatory to indicate on the packaging of meat products whether they were produced using genetically modified fodder.
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