Chiara Stam appointed to the role of student assessor

Chiara Stam already has a lot of experience: she's served as the president of the student association AKT and as a member of the University Council. This year, she occupied the role of student assessor at the Faculty of Humanities. Chiara was chosen as one of DUB's fifteen promising students of 2021.

In a statement published on UU's website, Stam informs that, in her new role, she would like to strengthen the sense of community among UU students, and increase safety against inappropriate and abusive behaviours. "Students have more and more counters and offices to go, but sometimes they can't see the wood for the trees in all the options provided."

Like her two predecessors, the new assessor will join the weekly meetings of the Executive Board, as well as their meetings with faculties and deans. She will focus on subjects related to education and matters that are of interest to students.

Stam: “In my new role, I hope to provide a critical, honest look on things that are at play at Utrecht University. Thankfully, I’ve learnt in previous positions how to turn students’ opinions and desires into concrete action.”

Evaluation results
Stam will be the third student to hold the position of student assessor of the university. The role was created in 2021, with the goal of representing students' perspectives within the Executive Board. Her predecessors were the Medicine student Merel Dekker and the Sociology student Anneloes Krul.

In a memo (accessible only with a Solis Id, Ed.) to the University Council, the Executive Board states that it would like to strengthen the position of the student assessor even further. Although everyone is satisfied with the new position, an evaluation shows there’s still a lot to improve.

For instance, the evaluation has pointed out the importance of prioritising: student assessors have a considerable number of tasks and subjects on their plate. The assessor will be asked to provide a monthly report about their activities to give the University Council more insight into the projects they're working on. 

Moreover, the student assessor should meet with student organisations, such as the student union Vidius, multiple times a year. Currently, structural contact is limited, despite these organisations being a potential important source of information.

The collaboration with the faculties’ assessors could also be improved, the evaluation shows. Therefore, a meet & greet day will be organised, and the costs of certain activities will be reimbursed.

The relationship between the assessor and the student members of the council also requires attention. The connection is rough sometimes, especially because the student assessor has more information than the council members, while the council members have "political" interests. For that reason, a regular meeting should be organised between the student assessor and the president of the student council.