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MEET THE PROPOSED NEW KTH PRESIDENT
Meet the Proposed New KTH President TEXT & PHOTO CARL HOUSTEN SELFIE ANDERS SÖDERHOLM
It is time for a new president to be elected at KTH, and it's looking like it will be Anders Söderholm. In May he visited THS at our student union building Nymble and answered some important - and less important questions. Anders Söderholm has previously been Dean at Umeå School of Business and Economics and President of the Mid Sweden University. Both schools he left as an honorary member of their respective student unions. A feat he is quite proud of! He is currently the Director General at the Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ), which means that he is effectively taking a step down when applying to be KTH President. Student representatives have been involved in the election process. We have been represented by Simon Edström (later replaced by Amanda Andrén) and Ävelin Pantigoso, all of whom are veterans in the student union. But to really make sure that students have their say in the election and for the purpose of establishing an early relationship with students, a hearing was held both in the largest aula on campus and outside of Nymble. The second of which, we’ll be covering selections of in this article. The full hearing is recorded if you’d like to listen to it, there is a link available on the event on Facebook. Some of the questions were asked in Swedish, and have been translated for continuity. Promenadorquestern och med Baletten Paletten opened the event as a crowd warmer! Much needed on this chilly day in May. They played all their greatest hits, such as Tiger Rag and Zambesi. When they were finished playing, the crowd was gathered and the event was ready to go!
The event was moderated by the current president of THS, Teo Elmfeldt, as well as his elected successor, Cornelia Haag. Questions were sent in from the audience. “Hello everybody! You know — how proud I am standing here in front of the best students in the country. That is so rewarding!”, Anders says. He continues, “I really look forward to having an engagement in the
Cornelia: Have you been to a gasque? If so, what is your favorite song? Anders: I have not, so I look forward to that invitation! C: It will come! C: How do you think the future of the campus will be? Will there be a lot of physical activities or will it be online? A: I think the future holds a lot of blended learning opportunities - where students choose to be either online or on campus. As we move on into the future I think this will be something that is also required or requested by future students, or maybe by you as well. C: Nice. And one a bit controversial question in the past is our reception. So we’ve got a lot of questions [about that]. What’s your opinion on the reception? A: And what is that?
student union, and the student community as well.” Regarding the questions being sent in Teo stated: “We want a good mix of the serious, good, strategic questions and the fun and stupid questions - to give a proper sense of everything there is in the student community.”
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C: The reception is when we welcome all the new students, so we have two weeks where only the new students are prioritized and we have a lot of different experiences, learning the campus, [getting to know] people and traditions. A: And why would that be controversial? This statement was followed by a brief but widespread applause.
