October 29, 2012, Year 3, Issue 23

the CEU Weekly

An independent newspaper by CEU students and alumni

Have you ever wondered who was Ferenc Deak? This is your chance to find out! Alexander Minbaev ana-lyzes Hungarian bank notes and invites you on a small tour of Hungarian history and culture.

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HUNGARY NEWS

How did smokers’ life change during the last year in Hungary?

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CEU Community

Student Tip # 67

67: Despite the beautiful Indian summer, the cold

weather and the time of roasted chestnuts is ap-

proaching. You can already see people selling

roasted chestnuts in the city. However, when they

are roasted at home, chestnuts are cheaper and more

delicious. Steep chestnuts in water for 3 hours, then

cut an X onto their top and put them in the oven.

After 30-35 minutes you can enjoy them. :)

Hungarian Expression of the week

Phrase: vénasszonyok nyara

Pronunciation: vénasso ok ara

Translation: indian summer. The word-by-word

meaning is: summer of old women.

The Faces on Hungarian Forints

How to confront our grandparents’ deeds? Are we strong enough to face our ancestors’ shady past?

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What kind of student are you?

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From the BUSINESS SCHOOL. How Can CEU Become a More United Campus While Enriching The Experience of Its Students?

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THE DEBATE SECTION

Bullets versus Books: a Story from Pakistan The story of Malala Yousafzai in a global context: women’s rights and access to education.

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Interview with the new president of the CEU Student Union.

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Risk of Erasmus bankruptcy triggers debate on the programme It is not surprising that the news that the Erasmus pro-gramme was going bankrupt has sparked up debate even on mainstream media like Le Monde, which has – somewhat surprisingly - praised the programme as “maker of Europeans since 1987”. Although it looks like funding will be ultimately found to guarantee its continuation (in a budget proposals which will be voted upon on October 22), The Guardian has called for donating to the Erasmus program the money that the European Union will gain from winning the Peace Nobel Prize.

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the CEU Weekly DEBATE

October 29, 2012, Year 3, Issue 23

Bullets versus Books: a Story from Pakistan

On October 9, a van taking girls home from school in the Swat Velley in Pakistan was ambushed. Two girls were injured while 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot in the neck and head at point blank range by a Taliban gunman. She has been since then taken to a hospital in the U.K. where her future remains uncertain. Why was a child seen as such a great threat by the Taliban? When Malala was 11, she first spoke up against the violence caused by the Taliban in her native Swat district, Northwest Pakistan. This troubled region has seen intense fighting between the Pakistani Army and the Taliban forces which has resulted in more than 2 million refugees as registered in 2009, the extent of which is comparable to such refugee crisis as Rwanda in 1994. What Malala wanted specifically was an opportunity for girls to continue their education, which is strictly forbidden under a Taliban rule. In Adam Ellik’s documentary for Al Jazeera English, A Schoolgirl’s Odyssey, we see that one of the things that Malala worries about after having fled the war-torn Swat Valley is whether her notebooks will still be in her house when she comes

back home. Three years later, we find Malala, a recipient of Pakistan’s National Peace Award for Youth, in a British hospital, showing some signs of recovery after the attack. Meanwhile, the Pakistani Taliban has released a statement regarding Malala’s case: If anyone thinks that Malala was targeted because of education, that’s absolutely wrong, and propaganda of the media. Malala was targeted because of her pioneering role in preaching secularism and so-called enlightened moderation. And whoever does so in the future will be targeted again. This is how the news reads. What we can take from this news depends on who is reading it, yet the following paragraphs pre-sent you with my suggestion? As CEU students, we can take a great deal from this news item. From an academic point of view, it serves as an analyzable example of women rights, access to education, intrastate conflict, refugee crisis and a number of other topics. All of them, do not get me wrong, are utterly important as they remain extremely relevant. At the same time, there is more that we can take from Malala’s story. What it can give us is a perspective, or a really scary reality check. After all the readings on liberalism, psychoanalysis, Weber, Nash Equilibrium, and hegemonic stability, it becomes challenging to keep up with what is happening in the world. Very easily, the world can become markets with rational players guided by institu-tions. That’s it. That is why Malala’s case may serve as a painful reminder. A reminder that ultimately, we live in a world where a child can get shot for wanting to go to school. Take Taliban as one of the rational actors playing in both domestic and international arena, take Malala as another actor and…see what happens with the analysis. To make a long story short: if this is our perfectly rational world with its calculated equilibrium, then it simply cannot fit in my head. As I said, it is a scary reality check. Without a doubt, it is way easier to come back to my readings where no kids are being harmed, happiness is measured in units, and people are seen as inhibiting the markets to achieve their goals. These are good readings as long as they do not claim to have the power to explain – and solve – all the problems. Now, my last remark. Malala’s wish was to get education. Being students at CEU, we are all living her dream, maybe even something beyond it. Should that change the way we see ourselves in a broader context? Could it make us feel a little embarrassed for com-plaining over having readings to do? And can we learn from something that is not an academic text? I hope we can, because the sources of this kind are rather vast.

Justina Poškevičiūtė Political Science Department

Photo: tribune.com.pk

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the the CEU Weekly DEBATE

October 29, 2012, Year 3, Issue 23

It doesn’t really need an introduction, but it does deserve a dis-claimer: it’s not just about parties. Since 1987 the Erasmus pro-gramme has allowed more than 2 million European students to spend an average of 6 months in a university abroad or in train-ing in a foreign country, while receiving a scholarship from the European Union. It is not surprising that the news that the Eras-mus programme was going bankrupt has sparked up debate even on mainstream media like Le Monde, which has – somewhat surprisingly - praised the programme as “maker of Europeans since 1987”. Although it looks like funding will be ultimately found to guar-antee its continuation (in a budget proposals which will be voted upon on October 22), The Guardian has called for donating to the Erasmus program the money that the European Union will gain from winning the Peace Nobel Prize. Erasmus as a creator of peace? Although one cannot overestimate the peace making powers of Erasmus ex-changes, there is certainly a point to the idea that Erasmus is one of the key defining elements of European citizenship. Because Erasmus has contributed more than anything else – yes, even more than Ryanair – to the mobility of young people in Europe; it has given the possibility – for some of them, the first - to get out of their parents’ houses and home towns to go and get to know the rest of the continent, and even the world. To grow up and learn that Europe can also be made of people, not just of institutions. I will never forget the huge round of applause that the lecture hall I was sitting in, in Maastricht (Netherlands), awarded to the news that the Lisbon Treaty had been approved. As I will never forget the awful Monday 8.30 AM seminars on the case law of the Euro-pean Court of Justice (so really, no, Erasmus is not just for parties). But going on Erasmus is not just beneficial for the students who leave. Their families (most of the time) learn that their kids won’t die because of foreign-food-induced hunger and will effectively learn to wash their clothes (hopefully). Sometimes they end up having to host foreign girlfriends and boyfriends and (slowly) change their minds about old national stereotypes. Friends of Erasmus students end up dreaming about foreign locations and universities. Though I will not claim that dreaming about drinking kalimotxo on a Spanish beach will undoubtedly foster a sense of European citizenship, I do think that having been an Erasmus stu-

dent or knowing one provides a person with a different image of Europe. An image of what Europe might be. Those who are teenagers now will grow up thinking about the European Union of the economic and financial crisis: weak, kid-napped by national interests, demanding sacrifices to people, and mostly to young people. But this is not the only possible Europe,

and this is not the Europe I see as a for-mer Erasmus student. A Europe made of for-eign friends rather than foreign leaders; a Europe that is more about Universitat de Valencia, Københavns Universitet, Freie Uni-versität Berlin, Uni-verzita Karlova v Praze and other uni-versities, rather then the buildings of the European Commission. And while I recommend to all EU students– but it’s an easy thing to do in a multicultural place like CEU – to use any possibility provided by the Lifelong Learning Programmes of the European Commission, I

can’t omit to mention at least one weak point of these exchanges. Living in a foreign country can be very expensive, and Erasmus scholarships are well away from fully covering the living costs one might have to sustain. So just like Higher Education in general, it often comes down to money and the ones who can take part in an Erasmus exchange are only the ones who can really afford it. And this is something that should be addressed by European institutions. It’s in their interest, because Erasmus students are possibly the best promoters of European values that one might find. Because they’re usually happier about Europe and they sense that EU institutions might provide actual opportunities, and not just bizarre regula-tions. I don’t know if an Erasmus generation really exists – as many have speculated in this debate about the programme – but I’m pre-pared to bet that former Erasmus students would have handled the financial crisis differently. Maybe with more beer. But cer-tainly with a greater sense of what European people look like – that is people, not figures.

Elisabetta Ferrari Political Science department

Photo: fotolog.com

Long live Erasmus! Risk of Erasmus bankruptcy triggers debate on the programme

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the CEU Weekly

October 29, 2012, Year 3, Issue 23

HUNGARIAN SPOTLIGHT

I spent my last weekend in Bratislava and – since, after, and during sightseeing our local friend brought us to some of her favourite cafés and pubs as well – I surprisedly experienced that it is still allowed to smoke in public places in the neighbourhood. I was surprized, because after that Hungarian legislation changed from one of the most permissive strategies towards the regulation of smoking in Europe to the strictest prohibition –regarding almost all closed areas such as working places, pubs, restaurants, stations of public transport vehicles, and one is not allowed to smoke closer than 5 meters in their surroundings – I supposed that this restriction was urgent due to an EU directive. The new „law for the protection of non-smokers” is valid from the 1st January of 2012, and even the grace period passed on the 1st of April. Despite the abrupt change, smokers – by every indication – got used to it quite quickly. Representatives of the hotel trade were very much afraid of losing masses of costumers, but in fact the smokers did not abandone pubs and clubs, although there are some places where they can still smoke without going out to the cold street: the so called „flat-pubs” which are formally private flats, not public pubs, but actually function as public pubs where it is allowed to smoke. (Interesting notice for smokers: the most famous one is ’Skanzen Club’, you can find it in Köztelek street 4/A). So the biggest problem for the already non-smoking pubs and clubs is that their smoking guests go out to the street and disturb the inhabitants of the neighbourhood and sometimes there are many stumps left, so cleaning of the area of the entrance gives additional work for the employees of such pubs. The famous ruin pubs of Kazinczy street can have as many costumers in a weekend as 10 thousand. You can imagine the noise at night and the amount of stumps on Monday mornings… The most popular of these ruin pubs, that you may well know, Szimpla, had to pay for the sound-proofing for 25 flats of the street. It pays for the cleaning of the street regularly, and additionally – in order to keep the neighbours peaceful – gives 50% account for the pensioner inhabitants of the neighbourhood. There are not available statistics though how many pensioners attend Szimpla regularly… The National Institute for Health Improvement has recently made a survey, that interestingly stated that not only the 61% of non-smokers (I am one of them) are satisfied with the new strict „law for the protection of non-smokers”, but even the 25% of smokers.

Agnes Kelemen

Nationalism Studies Department

How did smokers’ life change during the last year in Hungary?

How to confront our grandparents’ deeds?

Thanks to the Center for Arts and Culture a really interesting documentary, Grandfathers and Revolutions, was screened at CEU dealing with the Hungarian Communist past from an uniquely personal perspective. Péter Hegedüs, an Australian-Hungarian film director at the age of 22 shot a film about his grandfather, András Hegedüs, who was the most interesting personality of the Hungarian Communist regime, having made a long journey from being a Stalinist to become a critical and socially engaged leader of the opposition of János Kádár’s dictatorship. He is famous in Hungary for having been the prime minister of Hungary in 1955-56, whose government was put down due to the revolution. Since he signed a legal document that justified the Soviet intervention of the 24th October, many blame him to be responsible for the bloody suppression of the revolution. It is true that he belonged to that fraction of the Communist Party, which was loyal to the Soviet leadership of Stalin and that of Hrustov alike. Nonetheless it can be taken into consideration also that his government’s provisions made it possible to flee towards West for 200 thousands of Hungarians after the second Soviet intervention of 4th November ’56. The grandson, the director of the film, knew and admired his grandfather as the leader of the opposition of the 1980s and faced András Hegedüs of the 1950s only later in Australia, after having discovered that Hungarian emigrants hated his grandfather. This touching experience motivated him to research and get closer to the past of his country and of his family. He was curious to know both sides of the barricades of the revolution, so he made interviews with revolutionaries who fled Hungary after the revolution, not only with his grandfather, who was involved in inviting the Soviet troups. His questions addressing the grandparents were sometimes almost redicously naïve, but in the end he got closer to understand them.

On the one hand I liked the method, that the first questions aimed to discover the childhood and youth of András Hegedüs, searching for the explanation how did he become Communist and Stalinist, and the confrontation of these interviews with those made with revolutionaries was also very exciting. On the other hand I missed the actual deep dialogue between the generations. The grandfather appears in front of the audience simply as one of the cutest grandpas ever and the grandson easily concludes that posterity can not judge the deeds of the ancestors without understanding the complexity of historical circumstances. I guess nobody is surprised by this conclusion. Nevertheless, this film gave a demanding food for thought, since the majority of us Eastern-Europeans has grandparents who lived and acted in the age of Communist dictatorship and we have to confront their deeds, misdeeds and the things they missed to do – if we suppose that everybody plays a role in history, not only political leaders. I do believe so.

Agnes Kelemen Nationalism Studies Department

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the the CEU Weekly HUNGARIAN CULTURE

October 29, 2012, Year 3, Issue 23

Albeit 20 000-forints banknotes can make your wallet look much bet-ter, in this article currency value doesn’t matter at all. Actually, I am going to speak about the portraits on Hungarian forints, which we see and, I hope, we will every day.

It is always useful to start from the very beginning. For this reason, meet Stephen I (967–1038), the first King of Hungary and the fac-tual founder of Hungarian state, depicted on the 10 000-forint bank-note is a rightful symbol of the glorious past as well as of the sover-eignty of Hungary. You can encounter the image of Stephen all over the country from fascinating Basilica building named after him, and his famous crown that is a part of Hungarian national emblem to the national brands naming. Interestingly, there are no authentic pictures of Stephen, as he lived long before Homo sapiens invented instagram. His image, bearded, longhaired, finalized with the crown is more likely to be the collective image of Early-Medieval European mon-archs. Still this assumption does not mean that King Stephen did not wear a beard or a long hair, most probably, he did.

History leads us and we humbly follow from the medieval times to the Renaissance . If you have ever held the 1 000-forint banknote in your hand, you, apparently, had a chance to become familiar with the picture of the Roman-looking man with aquiline nose and laurel wraith. Meet the Renaissance King, Matthias Corvinus (1443 –1490). There is nothing strange in such an antique representation of 15th century ruler -it is what the whole Renaissance was about, bring-ing the Antiquity back. Not for nothing does King Matthias rest on his laurels (look at the picture) of a great reformer, educator and patron of arts and science. He actually introduced the Renaissance culture to Hungary as well as Hungary to Renaissance. Being a philosopher-king, Matthias also was a great warrior, unfortunately, the empire that he created, collapsed after his death. By the way, for those who are interested in fashion, among six depicted men, the only one who is shaven perfectly is King Matthias. Well, they did not like beards during the Renaissance in neither Hungary nor anywhere else. One century after Bethlen another prominent figure emerged on the historical scene. It was the famous Hungarian aristocrat and the leader of anti-Habsburgian uprising, Ferenc II Racozci (1676-1735), the national hero of Hungary. By the way, Racozci is depicted on the 500-forint banknote.

The rest two persons are from the 19th century. Count Isztvan Sechenyi (1791-1860), the founder of the Hungarian Academy of Science is depicted on the 5000-forint banknote. Moving further, the last, but not least figure, Ferenc Deak (1803-1876), one of the greatest Hungarian statesmen (“the wisest man of the nation” as they used to call him), looks at everyone who is lucky enough to have the 20 000-forint banknote. Actually, Isztvan Sechenyi and Ferenc Deak, were not great monarchs of the past, as Saint Stephen and Matthias or vigorous fighters for Hungarian independence as Bethlen or Ra-cozci. Both their images symbolize liberal values, civil rights and aspi-ration towards economic and cultural progress. Summing up, not by chance have I chosen the historical order of pre-senting. It was chosen for the sake of demonstration how pivotal themes in national history such as state founding, uprisings, Enlighten-ment and liberalism are represented via images we see every day.

Alexander Minbaev

The Faces on Hungarian Forints

the the CEU Weekly CEU COMMUNITY

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October 29, 2012, Year 3, Issue 23

On the 3rd of October at the first assembly of the Student Un-

ion (SU) of Central European University, the SU members chose the new president who will represent and protect the rights of CEU students in the 2012/2013 academic year. As CEU Weekly has been closely cooperating with SU since the day of our foundation, we could not miss the opportunity to get to know charming Emily Šaras better and introduce her to our

readers. So, meet Ms. President of Student Union 2012/2013, Emily Šaras! Emily was born in the United States, in the small town of Hopedale,

Massachusetts near Bos-ton. She got her BA in Anthropology and Music at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and soon after started to conquer

the European continent: Emily lived for two years in Lithuania, first as a Fulbright Fellow in Ethno-musicology and Classical

vocal performance, and later as a US Embassy Grantee for human

rights projects. After a small break for mountain hiking with her family back in the US, she came to CEU, where she is now do-ing her MA in Sociology and Social Anthropology.

Maryna Shevtsova (CEU Weekly): Congratulations again, Emily, and thank you for finding the time for us in your busy schedule. Tell us, please, how did you decide to join the SU? Was it difficult to win the President elections?

Emily Šaras: Thank you, Maryna. Well, I was eager to join SU because I enjoy being involved in student activities and univer-sity life. I know it may seem to some people that Human Rights, Social Anthropology and Student Policy are different subjects, but for me they are all very connected – working closely with

groups of people to motivate them while representing their ideas and interests. As for the elections, we had three candi-dates for the position of President, and each of us gave a speech before the SU Assembly. I promised the Assembly that if I am elected, I will use my skills, my background and my “loud voice” as a trained opera singer (laughing) to promote

the interests and initiatives of CEU students. And I won their votes! MS: And how does feel now? ES: Exciting! I’m thrilled for this opportunity. But the work is only just beginning. So far, we have only had one Assembly

meeting,

and I realize very well that we have a lot of work ahead of us

to be done. I am looking forward to getting down to business – I have a really fantastic team of SU Board members, and the SU Assembly has great energy. It’s going to be a great year!. MS: What are the priorities now? ES: Our first big issue is approving this year’s budget. It might

sound tedious, but there are a lot of issues to be solved re-garding the allocation of funding for supporting different stu-dent activities, for receiving funding applications, and for deal-ing with the regulations and taxes involved in the budget as well. It’s a long process, but our SU Treasurer Sergey Jakimov already has much of it under control.

MS: What are your other big projects at the moment? ES: We have already been approached with some separate projects dealing with constitutional amendments. One that I am particularly interested in involves ensuring inclusion in student activities and equality in representation in SU for students in the

Roma Access Program. Also, right now it’s important for me to learn as much as I can about SU operations! Thankfully, I’ve been given lots of help and support from more experienced members of SU who have served on the board last year.

MS: Provocative question for the President: What do you think about the upcoming US elections? ES: It’s a dangerous topic! (laughing) Oh, I really hope that Obama will win this election. I was raised in a conservative family, and today I have bipartisan views in many ways and try to approach politics from an independent viewpoint. I am

currently registered as a Libertarian, but I believe my political views are still evolving. I am really lucky to have been able to spend so much time abroad, because in a way, it has helped me to understand how US foreign policy is viewed by – and impacts – nations and cultures around the world. Sure, I be-lieve the Obama Administration has many flaws in approach.

But at the moment, human rights initiatives are a priority for me, and I think a presidential commitment from President Obama to supporting equal rights for all sexual orientations and gender identities, in the US and on a global level, is extremely impor-tant.

MS: What would you wish to the readers of CEU weekly? ES: I wish all you guys a great fall term at CEU. Enjoy your studies and make time for fun, too! MS: Thank you, Emily, and we wish you luck with your new posi-tion!

An interview by

Maryna Shevtsova

Photo: Dániel Végel

Interview with Emily Šaras. The new president of the CEU Student Union

the the CEU Weekly CEU COMMUNITY

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October 29, 2012, Year 3, Issue 23

Once my professor told me if a student sleeps 8 hours per day and has a time for his/her private life he’s not a good student. Yes, that’s exactly how it was said. And I didn’t agree with that statement. Why? Because I wanted to be good and to feel myself good and you can’t if you don’t sleep, eat and relax. Of course now when I’m a student again I try to think what kind of student am I. May I consider myself a good student if sometimes I let myself to forget of piles of readings and upcoming deadlines and go out or if I don’t stay up the whole night do-ing the assignments?! At this point it would be good to hear your straight response, but never mind, and I continue my foolish thoughts. Students' life is about studying, but not only. Maybe it will help you to measure your level of studentnessJ (don’t look for this word in a dictionary, I just made it upJ) So, are your grades higher than average and you visit library more than four times per week? You can’t remember when it was the last time you went out with your friends, and your weekends are the days when you do an extra homework? Congratulations, I’d say you are a typical hardwork-ing student. If that wasn’t about you, keep reading next options. Is it true that you usually struggle to read your man-datory readings? Do you make your presentation a night before the assignment? What is your “relationship” with the alarm? Does it go off up to ten times before you manage to wake up?! Well done, I’d call you a typical average student. And finally, I have few more questions. Does this sound familiar for you? Do you spend evenings and night out every week-end or during week days? Do you easily get distracted and check your FB too often? You don’t get upset when you see another “B-” grade? In this case you belong to those typical relaxed stu-dents. I don’t know whether you “found” yourself among these categories or not but remember a key word - BALANCE. Without it everything falls apart. By this I mean not less studies and a lot of relaxation. Try to find a balance in doing both. If you don’t study few days in a row you may forget that you are a student at all (and nobody knows what happens thenJ). Some people say a day without a book is a wasted day. So, what may help is organizing your day. Combine studies with some fun. Of course it’s always your choice. We all want to get the best grades but students’ life is a journey - not a destination. Good luck! p.s. This article is full of stereotyping, but that’s what you get if you talk about stereotypes, isn’t it?!

Olha Pushchak

What kind of student are you?

Alexander Minbaev (AM): Hello, Shelley, please tell us shortly about yourself and your academic background Shelley Oberer (SO): Hello. I’m an Erasmus student at the CEU for 2 semesters. I actually study at Regensburg University in Germany, Bavaria, but I’m from Switzer-land. I do my Master in the East-West European Studies in Regensburg and one of my two majors is History; and I’m mainly doing History courses at the CEU. My sec-ond major is European law and I applied for doing some things in the legal are, maybe it will be Human rights and Archives AM: What did make you to take part in Erasmus exchange and why CEU? SO: In January 2012, in the frame of a course called “ Underground Culture and Daily life in the Eastern Block” I took back in my home University (Universität Re-gensburg), a related exercise “Researching Cold War (Media)” was included, which was an Archival excursion to Budapest. Besides doing research at the OSA (Open Society Archives) and some field trips in Budapest, we also had joint seminars with Professor Marsha Siefert’s course: “Biography and Oral History”. I liked the course a lot and the interactive teaching style that encouraged students to discuss with each other and exchange their ideas/thoughts impressed me. AM: And you decided to visit Budapest once again, this time as an Erasmus student, didn’t you? SO: Absolutely. This very positive experience, combined with the fact that the topic of my master thesis is related to the region, as well as that the OSA, hence a per-fect research possibility, is basically just around the corner finally led me to the de-cision to take the opportunity of the existing Erasmus partnership between my home University and the CEU history department. I am very happy I did make this deci-sion, because on the one hand I got to know great people from all over the world, an on the other of course I learn a lot. Last but not least, being surrounded by the Hungarian language, culture etc. is also of help to improve my Hungarian. AM: Are you studying Hungarian? Is it necessary for your research or, probably, for something else? SO: Yes, I take Hungarian here at the CEU. First of all, for personal reasons as my father is from Hungarian minority in Slovakia. Moreover, as for I live in Hungary now, I would like to know at least a few words in order to offer coffee or some-thing like this. It is also important for my master thesis if I speak a bit of language. AM: Being an Erasmus student, how much freedom, regarding classes and assign-ments, do you have? SO: I’m more or less free, but of course a certain amount of classes should be from the History department and whenever possible be somehow related to my Master thesis. However, it depends on your own activity and your own professor. I would say that I’m really lucky to have some freedom in choosing my courses. I profit from this chance by, for example taking one course from the Gender Studies depart-ment, which is rather something new for me. AM: Tell us about your personal experience: meeting new people, making friends. Do you feel that you are in the community? SO: The major thing about the CEU is that it is really international. You have a chance to discuss the issues in the field with people coming from different countries. I find this very important, especially for history, for example, discussions about the Cold War period. My personal experience with meeting new people and making friends was great. Here, at CEU I met many interesting, amazing people, with whom I spend a lot of time going to ballet, cinema, drinks, but also meeting up for a cup of coffee and discussing university issues. I feel as a part of the community and I’m happy to be in this community. AM: Thank you very much, Shelley. I wish you to have amazing yet productive time here at the CEU.

Breaking News: Erasmus students have been spotted at CEU! Alexander Minbaev interviewed one of them.

he Weethe CEU Weekly

Page 8

FROM THE BUSINESS SCHOOL

October 29, 2012, Year 3, Issue 23

About the CEU Weekly This is a student-alumni initiative that seeks to provide CEU with a regularly issued newspaper. The CEU Weekly is a vehicle of ex-pression for the diversity of perspectives and viewpoints that integrate CEU’s open society: free and respectful public debate is our aim. We offer a place in which current events and student reflections can be voiced. Plurality, respect and freedom of speech are our guiding principles.

Editor in Chief: Florin Zubascu Managing Editor: Justina Poškevičiūtė

Editorial Council: Agnes Kelemen, Olha Pushchak, Maryna Svetsova, Elisabetta Ferrari, Erik Kotlarik, Laszlo Horvath,

Razi Zaheer, Rodrigo Avila B. ceuweekly.blogspot.com

CEU has done an excellent job of educating local and interna-tional students both undergrad and graduate, but it is up to the students and student lead governing bodies to make sure that while in pursuit of individual goals, there are a multitude of other connection opportunities between students. Student interaction was never meant to be confined to peer to peer, it was always to include cross fertilization between schools intellectually, socially, and culturally. The school has now evolved to a point to where it is creating the necessary infrastructure to support these type of initiatives in a way that will improve the quality of student connection, but more importantly, will bridge the gap that exists between the CEU main campus student body and that of the Business School. Unbeknownst to most students the Busi-ness School is hosting its 24 cohort of full time MBA students which has 47 students representing 24 different countries. It simultane-ously has an Executive MBA program that has another 50 students which also represent the global community. With almost 100 busi-ness students with impressive professional experience and profes-sional influence its imperative that the Business Schools talents and resources are used to benefit the general CEU community and vice versa. This will not only make for a better experience for students at both campuses, it will help to bind these long standing inde-pendent communities. Another area of focus would be to integrate the alumni regis-try. Although I think it very important to have alumnus targeted for B-school purposes, I also think that the ability to have access to possible leads and connections be afforded to all students re-gardless of the course of study. Again, our school strengthens with shared communication avenues and opportunities. With proper participation and organization an alumnus database that is driven by the user allows students to take responsibility for their fu-ture.....one contact at a time.

Lastly, a premium needs to be put on interaction between not only campus, which was discussed earlier, but also between programs and courses. This is no easy task as cross curricular integration and sequencing is very difficult, but it will be the academic centres that part-take in this dense realignment of courses and programs now that will be the schools of choice in the near future. Unlike in recent history where courses and professions had the appearance of being very independent of one another, today's workforce has evolved and surfaced commonalities across professional strands. Although highly technical fields still require very specific and tar-geted knowledge and skill acquisition, their still exist elemental, conceptual, and technical similarities that permeates areas of l e a r n i n g a n d / o r p r o f e s s i o n s . If these kinds of discussions with actionable items are prioritized in our present, CEU will be promised regional prominence with global recognition and its past and present students will become its pipeline into the future.

Aswad Harris MBA Student

2012-2013 Class Representative

How Can CEU Become a More United Campus While Enriching The Experience of Its Students?

YOUR CORNER

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