2017 marks the 350th anniversary of Lund University. In preparation for the year of celebration, the University has invested 22 million SEK of its regular budget, however student involvement has so far been low.
Text by: Paula Dubbink
Lund University has vastly invested a sum of 22 million Swedish crowns in its 350th birthday party. The money to finance this comes from the University’s regulatory budget: money that the University gets from the state for education and research.
This doesn’t mean, however, that education or research has received less money because of the anniversary. Carina Jensen, Anniversary Coordinator tells about the use of this money:
“In 2012, 22 million was set aside for the anniversary. Faculties have organised lectures and seminars that also would have taken place during normal years. The difference is that we have planned this program with all faculties together, and added “sparkles” to some events. We will also use more channels to give bigger attention to what is going at the University. The students have been our most important target group and most events are open to them.”
The first planning of the anniversary started already in late 2011.
Apart from the state money, the University has also gathered funds for specific anniversary events amounting to six million SEK.
As it currently stands, the programme includes two culture weeks are included, one in May with a focus on music, and one in the fall with several exhibitions. A number of theme weeks filled with lectures and seminars about current issues such as sustainability and digitalization are also featured.
Student-organized activities are however lacking on the planning.
Carina Jensen says that this is not due to a lack of interest from the organizers’ side.
“We have tried to engage the students in 2012 already, but obviously it was hard for students to be involved in something several years away. I am confident that many spontaneous anniversary events organized by the students will come up during the coming year. We still have money set aside for student-organized activities and students can still come to us with proposals.”
Ludvig Bodelsson, chair of Kuratorskollegiet, the cooperative body of Lund’s nations, confirms that the plans for a nation events are indeed not very concrete yet.
“We have good contact with the University about the Anniversary. Right now, the plan is to have a “Nation Day” somewhere in the Fall of 2017.”
The student unions in their turn will have their main event on May 20th 2017, when they will also celebrate their own anniversary: 150 years of student influence at the University.
TEXT Paula Dubbink
