On Monday, 17th of August, TREY’s board decided to cancel all of the Student Union’s over 50 person events until the end of September. Because of this Wappu or Newcomers Orienteering, for example, are not organised this autumn. Associations operating within TREY can still organise their own events following the regulations by the Government of Finland.
Even though the Government’s current regulations do not inhibit the organising of student events, we in the Student Union want to be responsible and cancel our events because of the large number of potential participants.
“This decision was extremely hard for us to make and it results in great sadness in our whole student community. However, we felt that to ensure the safety and health of students, this was a decision that we, as such a big organisation, had a responsibility to make.”, says Salla-Mari Palokari, who is in charge of events in TREY’s board.
We hope that associations pay specific attention to the amount of people participating and the safety measures involved when planning the events. We will support associations with questions related to organising events and we have compiled a guide that helps with organising safe events. We hope that associations are in contact with the student union with questions relating to organising safe events, communications or the effect of the coronavirus situation on the association’s finances.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, we in the university and student community are living an unusual and difficult time. The situation is unpleasant to all of us. Especially the freshers starting their studies this autumn face a difficult situation. We hope that associations will pay specific attention to the freshers and their commitment to the community. The current situation leads to some students being unable or feeling unwilling to participate in the events. All of us have to work hard to ensure that no member of our community feels excluded. As such we will encourage all associations to create a sense of community and focus on not pressuring students to participate in the events in their communications.
“In this difficult situation it is important for we students to stand together. We in the student union want to support students and associations in this unusual situation. We also want to ensure that new students feel part of our community. Student associations have already done a lot of work in welcoming new students to their studies in this unusual situation. We are thankful and proud of our associations for their excellent response. The strength of students in Tampere is based on our sense of community and I believe that this difficult situation will make us even more unified.”, says the chair of the Student Union Annika Nevanpää.
We in the student union want to support associations in all possible situations. If you have troubles concerning these situations, please contact us. We will help associations with for example questions regarding organising events and crisis communications and help solve them together.
| Media contacts (TREY’s comments) | Chair of the Board Annika Nevanpää and Secretary General Venla Monter | puheenjohtaja@trey.fi, 050 361 2845
paasihteeri@trey.fi, 050 361 2854 |
| Questions regarding the events of the Student Union and the associations | Board member, events Salla-Mari Palokari and Event Producer Lauri Sahramaa | tapahtumat@trey.fi
Salla-Mari: 040 7130082, Lauri: 044 3610204 |
| Association’s finances | Specialist in Association Affairs Mikael Lehtonen and Board member, associations Julius Haapakoski | jarjesto@trey.fi
Mikael: 040 713 0079, Julius: 040 7130088 |
| Crisis communications and support for associations regarding media contacts | Board member, communications Aleksi Niemi and Specialist in Communications Saana Hytönen | viestinta@trey.fi
Saana: 050 361 2454, Aleksi: 044 7656128 |
Frequently asked questions (updated 17.8.)
The cancellation of Student Union’s events
- What events has the Student Union cancelled? All Student Union’s events planned for more than 50 participants have been cancelled until the end of September. This includes Wappu and Student Union events related to Wappu, the Newcomers’ Orienteering and the Hobby and Sports Fairs. Other Student Union events, such as the Annual celebration which is to be held on 24 October, will be re-examined during September.
- Does cancelling Wappu mean that Teemutour is cancelled, as well? Teemutour is an event tour coordinated by the Student Union and it has been cancelled along with the Student Union’s Wappu events. Associations can organise events that normally would have been part of Teemutour as separate events, they just won’t be part of the event tour since it has been cancelled.
Support for associations
- Our association has questions regarding organising events or communications related to events. Who can help us? The Student Union has assembled instructions regarding organising an event safely. If you need further assistance, the events sector of the Student Union can help you (tapahtumat@trey.fi).
- We are considering cancelling our events, but we are worried on how this will affect our economic situation. The association sector of the Student Union can help you in matters regarding associations’ finances (jarjesto@trey.fi).
- The media has contacted our association. What should we do? The communications sector of the Student Union can help you in matters regarding media contacts or crisis communications (viestinta@trey.fi).