On Tuesday, March 23, 2024, the Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society welcomed around 500 social work students to the campus in Ludwigshafen-Mundenheim. Together with the Dean's Office, this Department of the Faculty of Social and Health Sciences is the first group to move from the rooms in the former Protestant University of Applied Sciences in Maxstraße to Ernst-Boehe-Straße. The degree programs in midwifery, nursing and nursing education will remain in the premises in Ludwigshafen city centre for another semester and will follow in the winter semester 2024/2025, when the new skills labs in the neighbouring Turmstraße are also completed.
While the university management welcomes the merger of the Departments on one campus 15 years after the merger of the Protestant University of Applied Sciences and Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences and has high hopes for the interdisciplinary collaboration in education and research, the student body also has critical points regarding the new building and the move. The group of around fifteen student representatives articulated this publicly for the first time at the welcoming event on Tuesday: lectures at unwelcome off-peak times, space bottlenecks due to the actual 40 percent shortage of available rooms despite the new building and the transport connections to the campus in Ernst-Boehe-Straße were discussed. The difficulty of balancing studies and family, the overlapping schedules of compulsory courses and the lack of direct proximity of the student council room to the rooms of the Department of Social and Health Care were also addressed.
In dialogue with the student council, the university management, represented by Chancellor Carolin Nöhrbaß and President Prof. Dr. Gunther Piller, directly addressed the points of criticism, explained the context and the framework conditions set by the state and was able to refute misinformation such as an alleged unequal distribution of office space or the presumed blockade of the university management against an extension of examination deadlines due to the library closure caused by the renovation work in a direct exchange. The university management also offered solution-oriented discussions in smaller or larger groups and also referred to the committees in which the students are also represented. The offer to continue the dialogue immediately was not accepted; the student council organized smaller protest actions on campus, which ended this morning with a rally on the outdoor area.
"We welcome student engagement and critical discourse. It is part of the DNA of a university and is an enrichment," commented University President Piller on the action. "At the same time, we consider protests without prior exchange and discussion of critical points, which we have not yet had, to be neither appropriate nor expedient." This approach irritates many members of the university, including students. "In line with the fundamental values in our mission statement, it is important to us to move forward together and to exchange needs, perspectives and requirements in a constructive dialog. The university management is always willing and open to this exchange. In recent years, my colleagues and I have repeatedly made it clear in word and deed that we are approachable, which also applies to the department management," said the President.
The student representatives also reiterated today that the actions were "not a declaration of war on the university" and that they wanted to work constructively on solutions. The regular semester meeting of the university management with the student representatives on Tuesday, March 19, offers a good opportunity for this.
