Coburg doubts the kronach campus
Years passed from the first thought of a lucas cranach campus to the announcement of its launch (scheduled for 2021). All the basic developments have been discussed, planned and reported in newspaper articles. The project has been put on hold. Nevertheless, a letter now brings a very skeptical tone to the final preparations. The sender: the student council from coburg. Your university wants to get involved in the cronach campus.
The four signatories admit that there is a shortage of space at both university campuses in coburg. They also show openness to new ways in the future orientation of their educational institution. And they think that the kronach concept – a partnership with different universities – can demand encounter and exchange.
Doubts about the location
Then comes the big one: "the city (kronach; d. Red.) is not prepared for a significant number of new students", it says in the letter. At the same time and as a priority as the establishment of the study programs, the infrastructure must be expanded.
The concrete demands: affordable housing for the students, good traffic connections, a fast connection between coburg and kronach, expansion of the opnv, demand for gastronomy and leisure facilities, expansion of broadband internet, shopping facilities for daily needs.
Uber brieg nicht gegert
State parliament member jurgen baumgartner (CSU), the driving force behind the university projects in kronach, showed interest in the students’ writing when asked by frankischer tag. "I have not been angry for a second about this letter", it emphasizes. An honest, constructive letter is always preferable to some things that torpedo the project behind the back. The critical voices are justified and correct in content, but he praises the young people’s concern to participate constructively in the campus idea.
For the politicians, it is important that there are people who hold up a mirror to them. "This is what germany’s management is made of," he says, he certifies that the students are on the right track in human terms.
He himself admits the mistake of not having kept the student representatives in mind during the preparations and not having involved them directly. "I would like to have a timely meeting", he declares that he wants to make up for it. According to his own statement, co-organizer hans rebhan had already suggested this to one of the signatories last saturday. Baumgartner would like to have an additional function for the student representation within the campus foundation.
In a telephone conversation with torsten utz, one of the signatories of the letter, it then became clear that many points of criticism were obviously due to a lack of information and, in some cases, a lack of local knowledge, and that they quickly love to be put into perspective. "The information obviously differs", utz noted when the conversation turned to a request from the student council for a good opnv connection from the train station to campus. The students still started from the loewe-gelande study site. However, the campus will be located in the city core, just a stone’s throw away from the tracks. The situation was similar, for example, with utz’s concern about supermarket closures, specifically the rewe market. He was simply not aware of the fact that this was a case of a comparison.
Comment by marco meibner
The delegate interpreted the letter from the student representatives as constructive criticism. But the constructive aspect of criticism actually goes hand in hand with the fact that both sides discuss facts at eye level. That was not evident in this case.
On the one hand, it is part of the good style of a factual discussion to deal first and directly with the opponent. In this case, however, the points of criticism ran straight to the rough distributor.
Then it’s a matter of entering into the dialog well informed. However, the students apparently did not have the most fundamental background information on the development in kronach. It is understandable that the local townspeak and floods of information have not spilled over the 30 kilometers into the veste city. But "generation google" in particular, in addition an academic work used, should know that it can come in the internet with a few mouse clicks to all needed facts. It is also strange that in the letter to our editors it was even explicitly pointed out that the media reports from kronach were allegedly also discussed in the student body.
Last but not least, the coburg university administration would have been challenged. You had to mediate and inform. At least she should have the necessary background knowledge.
