initial email from C. Lange

From: Christoph LANGE <ch.lange@jacobs-university.de>
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2009 13:07:10 +0200
To: "jacobs-gsa@jacobs-university.de" <jacobs-gsa@jacobs-university.de>, "Kühler, Larissa" <l.kuehler@jacobs-university.de>, "Eichhorn, Jan" <j.eichhorn@jacobs-university.de>, "Jain, Mitul Kamlesh" <m.jain@jacobs-university.de>, "Nguyen, Trung Hieu" <t.nguyen@jacobs-university.de>, "Ramay, Usman Javaid" <u.ramay@jacobs-university.de>, "Stancioi, Maria-Magdalena" <m.stancioi@jacobs-university.de>, "Hartrick, Taylor David" <t.hartrick@jacobs-university.de>, "Ionita, Mihai Cristian" <m.ionita@jacobs-university.de>, "Navarrete Berges, Andrés Octavio" <a.navarreteberges@jacobs-university.de>, "Omarshah, Tariq" <t.omarshah@jacobs-university.de>, "Friedemann, Lukas Valentin" <l.friedemann@jacobs-university.de>, "Theinert, Salomon Nathanael Johannes" <s.theinert@jacobs-university.de>, "Tikekar, Devashish Makarand" <d.tikekar@jacobs-university.de>, "Mowry, Glenna Munger" <g.mowry@jacobs-university.de>
Cc: "Nees, Sarah-Elisa" <s.nees@jacobs-university.de>
Conversation: jacobs-gsa Proposal for an European election campaign at Jacobs
Subject: jacobs-gsa Proposal for an European election campaign at Jacobs

Dear all,

are there any plans about bringing the EU election campaign to the campus?
If not, let me propose to do so. A very large number of potential voters is
on campus (e.g. more than 200 Romanians and Bulgarians), and they should be
made aware and mobilized.

A similar effort was made for the Bürgerschaft election in 2007 – not sure
how the turnout was, but I highly respect that the effort was made at all. Or
consider the great interest that the US presidential elections gained (thanks
to Jessica's commitment) – well, for sure they are a bit sexier than the EU
parliament elections, but on the other hand only very few Jacobs students
(around 20? 30?) were actually entitled to vote, compared to some 600
(estimated) for the EU. Plus some 100 students from future EU members
like Macedonia.

For those who don't know me: I'm a Ph.D. student in smart systems, former
member of the GSA board, and highly interested in politics – not a member of
any political organization, though. See my work homepage at http://kwarc.info/clange, and my facebook profile at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=691382900&v=info&viewas=691382900.

Now there are certain things I'm not completely sure about, but maybe you can
help:
1. What can foreigners vote if they vote in Germany? I think the same parties
as Germans, right? That is, one should try to explain to them
a) what the general profiles of those parties are
b) what those parties want to do on EU level
c) what potential effects this could have for their home countries
(consider e.g. the CDU being against the admission of Turkey into the EU
and the potential effects for the neighbour Bulgaria)
d) what effects this has on Germany
... in this order, I think
2. I think they are entitled to vote in Germany, as they have their main
residence here, right? How about voting in their home country? Can they
alternatively do that? Then, many students might prefer that. Still, an
on-campus campaign would be helpful for that – then more focused on the
European level than the national level.
3. In 2007, our fellow students translated the Wahl-o-mat texts
(http://www.wahl-o-mat.de, a voting decision support web site) to English.
Do you know if there will again be a Wahl-o-mat setup for this election?
4. Does anybody have connections to local representatives of the parties, who
we could invite to campus?

That is

the students should be informed about the importance of their vote,
about the choice they have.
Then, we need to convince local politicians of
the huge potential of hundreds of votes used or wasted. And they need to be
briefed to make sure they understand what audience they are talking to. (E.g.
they should be able to speak English, and they should not abuse the EU
campaign for protesting against certain affairs of German domestic policy.)
We should also have panel discussions with professors from political/social
sciences
and maybe some open space forum or contest to allow the students to express
their vision of Europe.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to contribute too much right before the
elections, as I am going to graduate later this year and I'll be on a
conference in the week before the elections. But anyway, I'd first like to
learn about your opinions and ideas.

Cheers,

Christoph

PS: Does the USG have a central e-mail address? I couldn't find any. Sorry
if I missed some members.

–
Christoph Lange, Jacobs Univ. Bremen, http://kwarc.info/clange, Skype duke4701

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6 Comments

Narozniak, Magdalena

Narozniak, Magdalena

Narozniak, Magdalena

Narozniak, Magdalena

Narozniak, Magdalena

Narozniak, Magdalena