september 2009.pdf - CBS OBSERVER

c b s o b s e r v e r 6 s e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 9 4 1
f o r e i g n a f f a i r s
By Alexandra Bode
Photo: Rie Neuchs
New international name, new international
profile – no? 16 months
ago, the future of student representation
at CBS looked very promising.
The two previous, competing
student unions – De Studerendes
Råd and Moderate Studerende –
had merged, and the reorganized
CBS Students was the single student
representation of CBS’ students.
All the outdated internecine
student organization warfare could
be left behind once and for all, and
CBS’ student organization could
focus on getting the ball rolling
for projects and efforts aimed at
improving the student experience.
Tricky track record
An enthusiastic Vice President
and head of the International
Committee proclaimed ambitious
plans for the future in CBS
OBSERVER. CBS Students seemed
to be well en route to effectively
representing all students at CBS –
finally making an effort to include
the internationals.
CBS Students’ efforts since then
have left hardly any mark and a
lot to be desired. Hardly any of the
intentions were realized, and CBS’
international student body still can’t
count CBS Students as an organization
directed towards servicing
them outside the Study Boards.
Especially the integration of international
students – something that
is mostly left to the International
Office regarding exchange students
and basically just neglected regarding
the international full time students
– is a duty CBS Students has
done practically nothing to fulfill.
Through the
last two years
many of the student
initiatives
and organizations
that do
seek to target
the international
students, such as
the International
Choir, CBS
Sports etcetera,
have sought to
benefit and contribute
through
joining or collaborating
with CBS
Students. The
main support
towards establishing,promoting
and developing
themselves, however, has come
from CBS’ official Diversity@CBSinitiative’s
financial assistance with
CBS Students contributing very
little so far.
Ready… set… stuck
There are reasons for this. CBS
Students took a structural detour,
and the international focus was
just one of the things that got lost
along the way.
In order to make for greater professionalism
in the organization,
CBS Students established a new
structure, based on a moderately
salaried president and vice presidents
for four key areas. Instead of
improving things this turned out
‘Our experience is that
volunteers who are not in
it for the money are highly
motivated and will work hard
because they know what
they are getting into. Our job
at CBS Students is to make
the volunteering experience
as enjoyable as possible and
leave the boring parts to the
paid members.
Anders Bech Bruntse
CBS Student member
and also working for the
International Office
CBS Students have so far failed to communicate effectively in anything but Danish, but this has now changed with the launch of cbsstudents.dk which
is entirely in English. CBS Students welcomes international students to join them, says Chairman Jenskumar Sivagurunathan (picture left) and member
Anders Bech Bruntse (right), who is actively involved in the International Office’s exchange student initiatives.
CBS Students go international… again
With a questionable track record up to now, CBS’ student organization aims to reinvent itself once
again. On their quest to become the unified voice of all students at CBS they seek to gather all
other student initiatives as allies, but have yet to plausibly include the international students
to be ineffective and make things
more disorganized.
- The culture of getting paid for
doing things led
to getting paid
and not doing
enough. We had
high expectations
on the new
structure, but we
didn’t get much
in return from
it. It’s a rough
area if you are
not experienced
in the management
of building
an organization,
a senior CBS
Students member
explains.
So instead
of focusing on
reaching out,
CBS Students
had to turn its focus inwards and
go back to the organizational drawing
board.
No pay, more volunteers
The new team around CBS
Students’ fairly new president,
Jenskumar Sivagurunathan, took
up the challenge again this year.
Working from the conviction that
fresh minds and ideas are what
is most needed in turning CBS
Students around; the organization’s
recipe for success is a more volunteer
orientated member body with
no paid vice presidents – and the
new online portal, cbsstudents.dk.
This key element of CBS
Students’ new strategy is the first
website that the organization has
set up entirely in English. While
other student initiatives at CBS
have been working with English
version websites for quite some
time – or even communicate purely
in English, such as CBS Sports or
AIESEC – it has taken CBS Students
years to get around to doing the
same.
Once the decision was made,
though, it has taken only since
March to set up and launch their
new wonder weapon website from
scratch. With a new corporate color,
a fresh green, the portal is meant
to incorporate information on all
student initiatives and events at
CBS – accessible with the students’
e-campus login data and linkable
with their Facebook profile.
- We want to be where the students
are. In order to be their first
point of reference, we have listened
closely to what all student initiatives
have had to say about the portal
possibilities, CBS Students’ president
Jenskumar Sivagurunathan
comments on the development
process.
CBS Students’ representatives’
meetings with the student initiatives
have certainly helped to spread the
word about the new platform – and
the fact that it is designed specifically
to benefit the collaboration,
communication and interaction
between CBS Students, student initiatives
on and around CBS and the
student body at large.
Giving and sharing
In order for the enthusiastically
marketed platform to succeed
and be the meeting point that
Jenskumar and his team want it
to be, everybody definitely has to
contribute and share their knowledge
and ideas. CBS Students’ new
strategy, once more relying heavily
on volunteers, is logical, but might
prove a risky bet.
Not according to Anders Bech
Bruntse, member of CBS Students
and actively involved in the
International Office’s exchange student
initiatives:
- Our experience is that volunteers
who are not in it for the
money are highly motivated and
will work hard because they know
what they are
getting into.
Our job at CBS
Students is to
make the volunteeringexperience
as enjoyable
as possible and
leave the boring
parts to the paid
members, he
says.
Jenskumar
emphasizes that
CBS Students
welcomes everyone
and wants students of all
nationalities and backgrounds to
join. Also, the old sleaze of friends
recruiting friends and making it
difficult for new people to find a
place in CBS Students’ activities is
to be completely abolished – even
to the extent of formalizing a mild
negative bias towards members’
close friends joining up in order to
get involved in the same projects.
‘We want the best people
to come and support us in
making all students thrive
in what they do. The portal
is our chance to gather all
the experience, initiative
and motivation our students
have to offer.
Jenskumar Sivagurunathan
chairman CBS Students
- We want the best people to
come and support us in making
all students thrive in what they
do. The portal is our chance to
gather all the experience, initiative
and motivation our students
have to offer, Jenskumar posits but
acknowledges that the organization
has to be realistic in its assumptions
on what it will be able to
achieve in the future.
Another new start
For now, the enthusiasm of CBS
Students is infectious and may just
prove that the time for a change in
outlook has been recognized. All of
CBS’ 3,000 new
students have
had a presentation
on and the
offer to actively
contribute to
CBS Students,
making a conscious
effort to
also target the
international students,
as part of
this year’s introactivities.
This development
should
be closely watched and preferably
actively supported by this
semester’s new internationals and
their senior co-students. An international
business school, where many
international students are neither
supported by nor even aware of the
existence of their main student organization,
should have been something
of the past several year ago.
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