Digital Student Council Events

With reference to our general awareness concept, the Geography student body is committed to the free democratic principles based on the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. This results in the obligation not to tolerate actions and statements such as insults, racism, any kind of violence as well as discrimination based on gender, origin, religion, sexual orientation, physical appearance, disabilities and handicaps as well as ideology (as long as these do not contradict the free democratic basic order and/or can be classified as extremist) and to actively take a stand against them.

In order to fulfil this obligation also at digitally conducted events, we would like to ask you to observe the following principles/rules of cooperation:

  • Respectful behaviour towards each other (insults, racist or sexist attacks of any kind, discrimination for any reason as well as hate speech are prohibited).
  • Do not take any unsolicited photos or video recordings of the digital meeting.

All participants in the event must ensure that no one is forced or coerced into actions or statements that are contrary to the will of the person in question. This includes in particular the consumption of alcohol.

So – on the whole, behave as you would at an analogue event! This includes, for example, not passing on personal information that you are told without being asked, not sending spam messages, etc.

We as the awareness team of the student council are available for you at any of our events and are also happy to act as mediators (marked as members of the “A-Team”). In addition, we reserve the right to issue warnings for violations of this netiquette and, in the case of extreme and/or repeated violations, to expel people from the digital space.

We trust that you are just as keen to spend a few nice evenings in cool company as we are – only digitally at the moment!

WhatsApp

Our WhatsApp groups for (first semester) geography students are meant to be a place for exchange and communication and to make study-related information easily accessible.

They are not a place for insults or sexist and racist remarks of any kind. In each group there are representatives of the student council who can intervene in a moderating capacity and personally contact and warn people who share insulting, offensive or other content that is not compatible with our awareness concept (LINK). In the event of a repeated offence, the person will be excluded from the group without a second warning.

We want to make sure that important information that directly affects your studies can reach as many interested people as possible and does not get lost in a flood of irrelevant messages. Therefore, we ask you not to use the chat for private discussions or conversations.

You are also welcome to use the chat to share things that are not directly relevant to your studies, such as offers or requests for accommodation, information about lectures or events, or links to surveys for university work.

Experience has shown that endless discussions about the necessity or relevance of such shared posts are more nerve-racking than simply scrolling over such messages. Therefore, we ask that you refrain from doing so. If the chat is abused for excessive sharing of such messages that are not directly relevant to your studies, we reserve the right to write to the person sharing personally and to remove them from the chat in the event of repeated occurrences.

Other

Even though this is not within the remit of our student council, we would like to ask you to keep these rules in mind when using the Zoom chats and to ensure that you treat each other with respect. You should also refrain from sending spam messages there.