Aaltolainen Manifesti
Thoughts on “Waviness” in the Global Context
Preamble
The first plenary of newly elected members of the AYY’s Representative Council was carried out in Finnish. There were two simultaneous interpreters just for me (well, also for the live-cast), I was the only one wearing headphones. It was an interesting experience, practically for the first time I could see Finns’ lips move and understand them instantly. For a moment, I imagined AI would one day be so advanced that multi-lateral interpretation would be universally available, and world peace would finally be possible.
Facilitating international dialogue is not as simple, to carve out a portion of questioning in English seems obtrusive. Frankly, some members may feel constrained having to express thoughts in a second language. What if we have a separate workshop or working session outside the meetings, involving those who are interested, and the sessions would be in English about topics of internationally facing activities, perhaps basic topics as well? This could work, though it requires some effort to organise. So perhaps instead I’ll just write a one-way manifesto to outline various ideas. It seems to be the easiest, and people don’t even have to read it.
AYY Council as an Exercise of Democracy
Within the first few minutes of being at the meeting, the first thought that came to mind was “Oh wow, this is an encouraging image of a well-organised democracy”. Obviously the organisers have had practice. I’m a supporter of the indigenous people’s pursuit of identity and self-governance, therefore, the meeting being in Finnish was quite okay at least for me. It’s a commendable effort just to provide the simultaneous interpretation. I would even think the people here know how to organise a democratic process so well, that they should record a MOOC on “how to do democracy” and send USB sticks with recordings of this “Civic Starter Kit” into other parts of the world.
An especially good part was the question times. The speakers were very patient in having all questions heard. This was a huge plus in the spirit of democracy. The architectural shape of the arced hall was also conducive. No joke, there’s a whole book on this topic.
Even though I was elected on the list of “Oikea Aalto”, my views are much more “Keynesian” than the “libertarian” factions within the alliance. For example, I think the compulsory membership fees have a “postage stamp” efficiency factor, namely a fastidious “user-pay” regime often introduces disproportional admin overheads and damages to community good will that it’s no longer worthwhile. Though ideally, if it’s compulsory, it should be born by the Finnish state. Abolishing the current levy would simply devastate the revenue base of student unions.
I also disagree with austerity as a goal: saving money is not the end — all economic value is eventually actualised at the time of consumption. To quote George Samuel Clason, when you spend $1M on a building, that money does not just vanish. You get marvelous spaces, people get value from using those spaces. Workers get paid, they spend their earnings back into the economy. It’s more about what activities you get everyone into, rather than a mercantilistic balance. Therefore I think the goal of the Union should be to maximise the total aggregate well-being and quality of life of its members. Financial responsibility or profit accountability is an intermediary tool for achieving this goal.
Another thought on democracy: say, you have a brain tumour, you go a brain surgeon and ask “By the way, Doctor, which medical school did you go to?” The surgeon says “Oh, I didn’t go to any. I was elected by the villagers to practice brain surgery.” Management positions should be filled through a search and interview process based on competence, rather than popularity contests, horse-trading, and political arm-wrestling. Why not apply reason to selecting executives of public policies?
Revenue Replacement
One main idea of this manifesto, is that AYY as an entity responsible for its own finances, should be run competently like a business in this regard. My colleagues on the Oikea Aalto list may be very ready to agree with this, so would the reality of financially-accountable operations. Laws of economics are no less hard that those of physics. Therefore we need executives who are good with business sensibility, since finances essentially underpin all projects. Revenue is not the end goal, but without it, noble goals would have no steam.
I also think the AYY should be more ambitious, to boldly go into the world, acquire commercial properties around and beyond the peninsular, and use the revenue from offices spaces to subsidies student housing and other projects. For example, Macquarie University (where I did my bachelors) owns real estate in the adjacent Macquarie Park, and industrial park, to have close cooperation with companies (for commercialising research) and to generate revenue for the university.
The “user pay” model is not always sustainable, and may often prove to be very constraining, because students often live in poverty. AYY must find other means than simply trying to balance its portfolio by extracting from its members and student tenants. We must be more creative. We must change the mindset of scarcity, to one of abundance.
Finding alternative sources of revenue (commercial leases, company sponsorship, portfolio income streams) is essential before any talks of cutting down the existing sources of Union revenue (e.g. from membership fees) because the finances of the union must not collapse.
Yes, student housing could use more resources, and more resources for maintenance and improvement. Students have a lot of capacity for thoughts and creativity and activism, yet they lack means in other terms. We can leverage the strengths (work with what we have, and work around what we don’t) to achieve better conditions than the current abysmal state.
Communitarianism
The built environment, or more specifically architecture in the sense of designing a space for human use, has a major impact on how people live, and on their happiness. “To live” as in the broader, more philosophical sense, not just to reside in a dwelling, but to be active and social and experience “yhteisyys”.
Proximity is a main enabling factor of communitarianism, physical closeness facilitates social closeness.
That’s why a main focus of my advocacy in the AYY Council will be “facilities”. One example is that some art students have a studio (a small office) in the “art house”, it’s a space that can be personalised and made cozy, with warm lighting and a nice work-station setup. Ergonomics and architecture have a direct impact on how people live and work, and how happy they are. What better ways to foster innovation and creativity than to give each student a nice working space? Another idea is a “puppy room”…
I write these words from Junction, though most of the world’s problems cannot be solved by yet another hackathon, people have skills, and the ambience is nice. It’s important to bring people together, beyond just a weekend. Maybe a lot more meaningful interactions could happen.
Education (AYY Election Matcher Questions)
In the Vaalikone app, there were many questions about the operations and roles of universities. I’ll give the gist of my views here. Traditionally, universities originated from the leisure class: aristocrats sending their kids to some idyllic country town (like Cambridge or Oxford) to study completely impractical (at the time) subjects like dead languages or mathematics.
The modern tradition did not move far away. Universities mostly gear themselves towards research, towards climbing the ivory tower. Indeed, various ranking methods judge universities this way, by research prowess.
Academia as a life choice is like going to the monastery. True, it has a very important role in society. There are so many discussions we can have just on this topic. How to make the academic life less austere? How to make the research life more accessible (e.g. for young families, or older starters)? How to increase the level of funding for science and research in an economy, especially in an age of near-universal public finance crises? How to make research more viable as a career choice, a sensible livelihood, and a source of meaning and productive life?
It’s quite clear this ivory path is not for everyone. A tertiary education was sold once and again to the masses as a means of elevating one’s social status, and at other times it’s sold as a “programme” of skill building. Empirically, most people don’t use the skills they learn at universities at work, many don’t even land jobs in the same field of their study.
Perhaps we can rethink these problems. Perhaps universities should have a different role in society, that is, it should not stagnate with the old model of being just a prepping stage for entering academia.
If we look at the current situation, university is already by convention a formative experience in one’s life, and not just a course of study. Friedrich Engels wrote in a letter, “Tätigkeit, Leben, Jugendmut, das ist der wahre Witz!” and the English “translation” expanded on the semantic content:
“To get the most out of life you must be active, you must live, and you must have the courage to taste the thrill of being young.”
Then with this context we can look at these questions again, such as “Should universities be more selective”, “Should universities avoid overlapping areas”, “Are there too many universities”, and suddenly we would have a different perspective.
We could also improve the teaching and learning of basics with MOOCs.
International Outlook
What is the meaning of openness? What is the meaning of a “fundamentally international outlook”? It is 2017, indeed the Finnish economy cannot flourish or even survive by becoming more inward-looking.
Finland has a relatively short yet dark history of suffering and humiliation. Now it frantically tries to emulate a shallow Americanised global culture, but is this an “international outlook”? What does it mean to have an international outlook? I speculate that it correlates with being a more complete person, being more cosmopolitan, cultivated, and humane.
At this stage, the Finnish society seems to be a fragmented construct, a “Barbie factory” for the Instagram generation making duckface in a mirror or on some beach or at the holocaust memorial, a society held together by a thin veil of civility, one or two steps away from “Lord of Flies” chaos. Almost everybody wants to be a globe-trotter, yet amidst the glamour there is no “international outlook”, it’s just “holidaying somewhere else”.
To be open is more about experiencing what it means to be human, to have original thoughts, noble, sophisticated interests, and the patience to meaningfully connect with others. I wish that through organised effort, more experiences of these qualities would happen at Aalto.
