CENES Advisory Council Members at Vanier Student Residence for our CENES Language Day Event.
Apply for the 2024-2025 CENES Student Advisory Council! Applications are due by July 25, 2024 at 4:00 pm.
We in the Department of Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies (CENES) know that higher education is rapidly changing before our eyes — with the COVID pandemic, the shift to online/hybrid course options, social movements and media landscapes, geopolitical and infrastructural challenges, Truth and Reconciliation and climate emergency mandates, and a complicated job market for everyone, before and after graduation. University of British Columbia (UBC) students’ needs are important to us for all these reasons, and we want to hear directly from you what those needs are.
“In the CENES advisory council, your ideas are not only welcome but are encouraged, your concerns are listened to, and you are given all the tools to be successful in your position on the council and as a student.”
A department like CENES concentrates on the cultures, languages, and literatures of a vibrant and historically complex region, encompassing 34 nation-states, and ranging from Indigenous Northern Europe to the Black Sea in the European Southeast. Our faculty members and administrative staff are multilingual, multicultural border-crossers, like most of our students.
2023-2024 CENES Advisory Council
With all this in mind, CENES is seeking six UBC undergraduate students to fill our 15 person council. Students must have completed at least one CENES course (either in CENS, DANI, GERM, GERN, GMST, NORD, POLS, RUSS, SCAN, SLAV, SWED or UKRN) to sit on the 2024-2025 CENES Advisory Council.
The council will be asked to deliberate on questions such as the following:
- When and how ought the department best schedule its courses?
- How can we communicate most effectively with students about our Minors/Majors in German, Russian, Nordic, and Modern European Studies?
- What events ought the department organize in order to grow our undergraduate community?
- What are our potential areas of improvement as a department, from students’ perspectives?
- How can we make our space on the 9th floor of Buchanan Tower even more welcoming? What other spaces on campus might we effectively use for CENES events?
- What do our responsibilities towards UBC’s diverse communities, and toward European settler legacies on Indigenous land, mean for all of these questions above?
- What matters involving Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe are most important for UBC students currently?
Because of the complex nature of these questions, work on the council will engage students to articulate their views on some of the key challenges and questions of higher education for the present and the future. We intend to engage students’ wisdom and insights, and to recognize and credit students as equals in this planning process.
“It is a great way to gain communication and advocacy skills through this council and see how you can make change as a group.”
Beyond a mere line on students’ resumés, the experience will allow students to sharpen and practice their engagement with institutional matters, organizational psychology, practical strategies in communication and marketing, and critical issues in higher education planning.
2023 – 2024 CENES Advisory Council Members celebrating CENES community achievements at the 2024 Cenies.
How to apply:
If you or someone you know may be interested, please complete this brief online application for yourself, and/or this quick nomination form for someone else.
Applications are due by July 25, 2024 at 4:00 pm.
