Statement by Board of Directors of Student Services Association of NRW

In response to the recent SPIEGEL report on the ARGE of the Student Services Organizations in North Rhine-Westphalia, the Chair of the Boards of Directors of the Student Services Organizations in North Rhine-Westphalia has issued the following statement. The management of Studierendenwerk Aachen fully supports this statement.

As chairs of the administrative boards of the student services organizations in North Rhine-Westphalia, we are committed to fostering a social environment in which young people can study well and safely. The needs of students are at the heart of our work.

We are firmly committed to fostering a welcoming culture for students of all backgrounds and with diverse life paths. We expressly support the internationalization of higher education institutions. Learning with and from one another is a vital foundation for respectful and peaceful coexistence in our globalized world. Academic freedom in higher education is a precious asset in this regard, protected by our Constitution. Open discourse within universities is a prerequisite for developing social responsibility and simultaneously forms the foundation for an open, diverse society.

We unequivocally oppose ideologies and political movements that disregard fundamental liberal-democratic values and undermine diverse and tolerant coexistence. They violate the very foundations that make respectful discourse possible in the first place. For this reason, we reject any form of collaboration with political and social actors and parties that violate the principles of the rule of law and the respect for the dignity of every human being, thereby preventing any sustainable cooperation within a democratic framework.

We call on the executive boards of all student services organizations in North Rhine-Westphalia to endorse this position.

In addition to the executive boards, the administrative boards are the second governing body of the student services organizations in North Rhine-Westphalia. They are not represented by Arbeitsgemeinschaft Studierendenwerke NRW (ARGE), the association of executive boards.

On behalf of the chairs of the administrative boards of the student services organizations in North Rhine-Westphalia:
Dr. Swantje Eibach-Danzeglocke, Aachen
Christian Osinga, Bielefeld
Ron Agethen, Bochum
Paul Ludwig, Bonn
Simon Waimann, Dortmund
Andreas Meske, Düsseldorf
Pascal Winter, Essen-Duisburg
Hannah Schulze Zurmussen, Köln
Sebastian Schick, Münster
Simone Probst, Paderborn
Marius Wötzel, Siegen
Dietmar Bell, Wuppertal