#Elebocconi2021: Faculty Council debate

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On April 12th, Marco Lecchi from B.Lab and Francesco Toti for TEAM, candidates for Faculty Council, took part in an online debate event organized by Bocconi Tv in collaboration with Tra i Leoni for the upcoming #Elebocconi2021, which will be held on the 21st and 22nd of April. Here is a summary of the main points in case you missed it!

*Unless when they are explicitly indicated in quotes, both the Moderator’s questions and the candidates’ responses have been reworded or paraphrased for length and clarity*

Candidates

From B.Lab, Marco Lecchi – 1^st year Marketing Management (MM) student, already member of the Academic Council. As a youtuber, he has a strong passion for videomaking.

From Team, Francesco Toti – 3^rd year BESS student, already student representative to the CASA Committee. Passioned about sports and politics.

You@b application: what and how do you want to change it?

TEAM – FT:

• On the one hand, we want to modify the mobile app to make it native mobile, rather than a copy of the website.
• On the other hand, we want to increase the efficiency of Help@Contact by creating a bot able to automatically answer simpler questions as to reduce the amount of demands directed at the offices

B.LAB – ML:

• We want to bring some calendars improvement, introducing notifications in case changes to the schedule take place (e.g., new classroom or modified hour of the lecture).
• We would like to better implement Help@Contact within the app, setting it more as a chat rather than a Q&A structure
• We also want to improve the StudySeats app

Diversity and inclusion: what are you going to propose and how you’ll implement your proposals?

ML:

• We propose the participation to the Milano Pride
• We also propose the possibility to evaluate language skills of Professors teaching courses in English

FT:

• Our proposals concern the introduction of the Alias career for transgender students, as well as gender-neutral bathroom. We also aim at introducing a Diversity Weel, as it is already done at Bicocca University
• We also aim at implementing HIV prevention through free screening and prevention campaigns at Bocconi

Health and mental health: what’s going to change?

FT:

• TEAM presented a report concerning mental health to Professor De Vries, the Dean for Diversity and Inclusion. We pointed out that, despite some good initiatives for that regard already exists at the University, these services need improvement. For instance, counselling should also cover non-academic matters as well
• We also want Bocconi to establish partnerships with psychological centres as to offer those services to students at a price below market one
• It is also important that all existing courses are provided both in Italian and English

ML:

• We want to introduce Care@B, providing psychological support to students through a hotline in case of emergencies, also for non-academic purposes
• We also aim at easing the access to psychological support also for non-residents in Lombardy and international students

Green campus: what do you think you’ll do to make the campus greener?

ML:

• In the next two years, we would like to reduce the amount of paper in the campus and to further encourage the use of students’ own bottles
• Furthermore, plastic is still present at the canteens and we can surely work on that as to have a “No Plastic” campus

FT:

• We want printer machines at the University to work with recycled paper
• We also aim at improving the energetic efficiency of Campus buildings, starting for instance from the library
• We also want to increase the number of smoking areas on campus as to avoid students throwing their cigarette butts on the street

Study seats: an innovation recently introduced – what do you want to do about the way if functions as of now?

ML:

• We would like to give the possibility to book a longer break for lunch. We would also like to sensibiliser students more about the use of this functionality, as not all students are aware that they are supposed to delete their reservation when leaving their seats early
• We also want to bring the point of having a study place on campus that is open 24/7

FT:

• We also aim at improving the StudySeats functionality within you@B. For instance, we would like to introduce a central space where all information about opening hours and classrooms available for studying can be consulted by students

Covid also brought many troubles with new attendance procedures, the introduction of Boccops etc. – what is your position about it and what do you think to do about it?

ML:

• It’s a very difficult situation both for students and University, as Bocconi had to face the problem of student safety as a trade-off with previous freedom. I personally tried to always to build a dialogue with University also in the context of the Disciplinary Committee

FT:

• Although I think Bocconi might have adopted too restrictive measures in some circumstances, I believe we should overall be glad of the possibility to live the campus more than other athenaeums could. We should also take advantage of the unprecedented openness to innovation and new proposals that is characterizing the University during this period

Make a question to the other candidate

FT: Do you think that the program of your group was “plain vanilla” in some points, meaning that it could have been more ambitious?

(in response to FT) ML: I believe that the strength of B.lab lies in over 10 years of representation experience. Therefore, we decided to bring points that we believe could be feasible. What you call “plain vanilla”, we call “realistic”. I would pose the same question to you: why do you think your electoral points are more disruptive than ours?

(in response to ML) FT: For instance, when we talked about mental health, I believe we “did our homework” in a more detailed way, albeit realistic. This could be seen for example in the report that we produced and deliver to Professor De Vries

Some extras you would like to point out that have not been discussed so far?

FT:

• I would like to give three definitions for our electoral program, which could be summed up in: Green, Diverse and Open to Everybody. I would also like to underline the importance of some points that are present in our program, such as the introduction of sanitary pads on campus at a capped price

ML:

• I would like to stress the importance for us to introduce for the highest number of course an evaluation of attendance based not only on physical presence in class, but also on group works and practical activities.
• We also want flexible teaching in the aftermath of the pandemic; retaining recorded lessons in case of special cases or particularly complex topics during the course
• Individual students should also be granted the possibility to use “phone boots” as to make individual video calls when needed, e.g. for interviews