Dear fellow students of Leibniz University! Welcome to the trouble!
The winter semester 2023/24 starts off in wild times that will also change student life forever – and not just for the better! Around 1/3 of all students (!) in Germany live in poverty, according to the Paritätische Gesamtverband. With utility costs rising and rents increasing, buying groceries and the difficult financial situation are becoming a stress test. At the same time, more and more forests are burning and entire landscapes are being flooded. We are experiencing the man-made climate crisis first hand.
Forests are also being cleared in the Leinemasch in Hanover so that the southern expressway can be made even wider. July 2023 was the hottest month since weather records began, and it will probably have been the coldest of our future lives.
Turning our attention to our university structures, criticism of our university presidency is growing: Inadequate student co-determination, cuts in teaching or the closure of library locations – we are fed up! Condescending communication based on neoliberal short-sightedness is unacceptable to us. Incidentally, it should be mentioned at this point that there are also right-wing extremist structures in Hanover, some of which are also active at the university. We don’t want to scare you away with this brief summary; we want to motivate you to get involved in university politics or in other political contexts! You can do this, for example, in your student council, which organizes your orientation days and is always here for you. Get to know new people and places and get involved!
Under the motto „Welcome to the trouble“, we not only want to critically intervene in the rut of a university trimmed for performance, usability and competition, but also think outside the box and show you what else Hanover has to offer. That’s why we’ve put together an alternative introductory program for you, with this booklet as a possible guide! We have planned several weeks to make your start easier and more enjoyable. A varied program awaits you to help you pass the time, so don’t worry about planning from mid-October to mid-November. Fun and entertainment are guaranteed, now all that’s missing is you!
You decide whether you want to meet great people at the feminist pub night, spend afternoons with workshops or lectures, watch a movie, end the day with a casual evening program – or just take it all in. You can discover various solid locations and remember the route for the next time.
In addition to the events, we have put together a guide for you in which various political groups, initiatives and collectives etc. introduce themselves. You can get in touch with them and find out more if you are interested. Of course, this guide is not complete there is always more out there. If you would like to find out about possible accessibility issues in individual spaces, are interested in a translation into sign language or have any other questions, please write to polbil@asta-hannover.de.
On Instagram or the AStA Telegram channel (Education & Events Hannover), you can also find this program in digital form.
Come along, because only together can we make this society a better and more vibrant place – Welcome to the trouble!
Your AStA