Interview with the BASIS board

BAISmag is a project within, and thus part of BASIS, but does nonetheless enjoy freedom of press according to BASIS’ policy manual article 12.5.

Before the winter holidays BAISmag had a chat with Alice Ternacle and Yamal van Oordt, president and treasurer of this year’s BASIS board. For both of them this is already their second year as part of the board. Last year Alice had the role of internal affairs officer and Yamal was a first years officer. Apart from the two, the board also consists of Jenny Dahl Schøyen, Mara Fehlberg, Clara González, Habibe Holzkamp, Mette Kamerich, and Sofia Rusama. In between General Assemblies, office hours and their own studies, BAISmag managed to ask Alice and Yamal a few questions.

What are your ambitions for BASIS this year?

Yamal says he “doesn’t want to change the dynamic of the association but wants to make it feel like more of a community.” “BASIS can sometimes seem very bureaucratic with its budgets and structures and General Assemblies but I want to make it more human,” Alice explains. “We are also just broke 20-year-olds,” she says and laughs.

Early last semester there was some reshuffling of resources with the election of a new treasurer during an emergency GA and a last-minute revision of the budget. Yamal exclaimed he was excited about the role as treasurer which was still new at the time of this interview. The situation with a sudden change of treasurer and revisiting the budget did change how she managed the board, Alice admits. Being a bit scared of conflict, she saw the board year as going into a challenge.

BASIShas fewer members and several committees are dormant (inactive) this year. What do you think is the reason for that? How do you think that could be changed?

Yamal points out that it is something BASIS hasn’t seen before, but that other associations are experiencing the same problem. It could be a post-covid thing. He also notes that the highest number ever of basis members (599 students) was pre-covid. Today the number is about half of that. Despite there being fewer active members, Alice mentions that there are still plenty of students who attend BASIS’ events. She says she doesn’t think people realise the perks of joining the association. Like attending events for free, the student discounts, and free printed copies of BAISmag ;-).

Finally, is there something you would like to tell the students and BASIS members who read this?

“That we genuinely have people’s best interest at heart! We would like all committees to be able to do all the events they want to because they have really nice ones.” Alice exclaims. Yamal’s response follows the same line. “We are on the same team. We (the board) also want nice events. Just communicate with us, we like it when members come by the office.”

– Martina Ljungdahl