Coronavirus WIP
Work from Monitoring unit
From Monday the 24th of February our senator Matteo Oggioni has taken part, almost daily, to the monitoring unit along with the Rector, the Directors, and the Deans. This work, which keeps on going, coordinates all this emergency phase in our University. Our goal is to guarantee all services to students, from learning to graduations, with particular attention to the ‘right to study’.
Exams in online mode
We are working to ensure 100% of exams with online mode for every student with modalities similar, as much as possible, to normal modalities (as in sitting exams in person). There are four new modalities provided by our University:
- Project/paper delivery
- Oral test
- Multiple/single online choice test
- Written paper-based test uploaded at the end of the exam
Every modality requires a stable internet connection and a computer equipped with webcam and microphone.
Online learning and recordings
During the first weeks of online learning we worked together with all our representatives and with the directors gathering up all the problems reported by the students, in order to solve them quickly. It was fundamental for us so as to guarantee that everybody could be able to take part in lectures, even with technical problems. For this reason, we focused on:
- Recordings for every course
- Solve the problem of saturated classrooms with more than 250 participants
Post Covid teaching
This semester’s experience has been for sure revolutionary and unexpected. Our position attempts to judge what is happening, taking positive and negative aspects, in order to have a proactive position, while we re-think teaching for when we will come back to normality… There is a possibility to change teaching and we stand for it!
CENTRAL BODIES
Balance-teaching surplus
In April’s BoD the single university budget of Politecnico of financial year 2019 was approved. It was also decided how to use administration surplus amounting to 29 million, for different students’ purposes as we requested, including:
- Teaching for theory and practice integration
- Department laboratories
- Student association support
- Improving online platforms
- Funding for several buildings
- A risk fund for Covid emergency, which includes a measure dedicated to students with financial difficulties, a risk fund for an inevitable offset from the 2020 budget approved in December (DSU, Residences, …) and a fund to plan “post covid teaching”.
New Call for Catering
Sooner or later we will come back to the Politecnico and then we will all be concerned to know which service is going to be in Poli’s canteens and why! Unfortunately, the company, which currently manages Poli’s canteen, is failing. We worked on a new call to attract solid, quality companies, with tiered prices. And it looks like we did it! During April’s BoD we were told that two companies with over 55 years of experience were awarded for tenders: the British company Compass Group, which is an expert in commercial catering, and Pellegrini from Milan, a leader in collective catering, which offers the classic cafeteria. We will continue to work for you so that what has been promised by the companies will be maintained, but we are really proud of the work done so far and we are sure that the breakthrough will be evident.
Bovisa’s gasometers
In April’s BoD the Bovisa’s Gasometers project was presented. The Gasometers’ project is the third part of a big action in favour of Bovisa’s population, which studies in the second Campus in Milan, around the area of “La Goccia”. The first two parts are: the realization of a new zero-emission building named Zen, for the Energy Department and the “Parco dei Gasometri” (gasometers park). This second part is a park with sport grounds, with equipped stations for exercising, and also sheltered study spaces (such as the ones in Leonardo’s Garden). It is ambitious project and it is meant to impact significantly on students’ lives. Even more ambitious is the third part. Inside the ‘gasometers’, in fact, two buildings will be constructed: a sport hall and an innovation district.
We are very proud that our University, by setting aside assets year after year and by looking for external funding, may give perspective of even better environments to its students.
ACADEMIC CALENDAR
The new academic calendar for 2020/21 has been approved. Our work has focused on arranging mid-terms and inserting free days between exams and the exam session, for both the winter session and the summer session.
Here are the main dates:
- First semester: 14 September – 23 December
- Winter session: 11 January – 20 February
- Second semester: 22 February – 5 June
- Summer session: 10 June – 31 July
ACHIEVEMENTS FOR DESIGN
+30 in Communication Design: from next year students admitted to “Laurea Triennale” (equivalent of a Bachelor degree) in Communication Design are going to be 180 instead of 150 (numbers for last year). It’s a big step towards the creation of four alphabetical groups instead of the previous three.
+10 in Fashion Design: from next year, the number of students doing a master in Fashion is going to be increased by 10, by including 8 spots prioritizing Italian students and 2 spots reserved for foreign students.
Study Plan personalization from 2nd year: from next year, students starting the second academic year, will be able to choose their group in Interior Design, which would fit their interests best. The ranking will be assessed according to GPA and CFU obtained. We are working with the directors of Product and Communication Design to make this choice available to these courses, too.
Open Labs: outdoor labs were launched in January, little spaces with tables equipped with cutting bases, carpenter tables, mannequins, set backgrounds, these were wanted by our predecessors.
WIP DESIGN:
Digital Representation: thanks to the determination of our representatives, the School has initiated a quality evaluation process for digital representation teachings provided by every course considering also, thanks to the Career Service, demands in labour market.
Common areas: students representatives have started meetings with the offices, to improve common areas inside buildings and study spaces, to increase the number of seats available, ensuring the possibility to work in teams. Moreover, we are working on improving laboratory classrooms, to ensure that there will be more sockets, not only on perimeters, maintaining the possibility to move tables.