The elected AStA

We are the democratically elected, political student representation at the University of Mannheim.

In accordance with the State University Act, the General Student Committee has an executive board that represents the constituted student body.
At the University of Mannheim, this therefore includes all 10,000 students.

The elected representatives work in six departments and the executive board to improve your everyday study life and to create new opportunities for you on campus.

The AStA-Board
Wanja Pasdzierny (he/him) [lgl] & Celina Kapuscinski (she/her) [Juso-HSG]

Marco Haupt (he/him) [lgl] in comission

As chairpersons of the AStA and the VS, we represent the student body vis-à-vis the university and externally vis-à-vis the city and the state.

We decide on the content of the AStA’s work. This includes, for example, the staffing and distribution of the departments, the decision on which events are planned by the AStA and the implementation of major projects. For example, the cooperation with nextbike, the culture ticket and our campaign against compulsory attendance.

We also have a lot of administrative work to do: As a public corporation, the VS is a state institution and therefore bound by many guidelines and regulations that must be adhered to. Ultimately, however, the administrative work also serves to ensure that we can offer you an active student body and a wide range of activities on campus!

Equal Opportunities Officer

Yagmur Yeic (she/her) [Juso-HSG]

Marie Preiser (she/her) [lgl] in comission

We encounter gender equality issues every day, including in our everyday student lives. It is important to consciously deal with the problems and challenges, especially as a privileged person who is not affected.
With the Equal Opportunities Office, we want to give a voice to students who have to deal with injustices in everyday life at the university, or who are simply forgotten as a minority.
With the Equal Opportunities Office, we want to work towards equal opportunities, mutual support and awareness in our interactions.
Groups of people the department addresses include students with disabilities and chronic illnesses, students with children, students with a migration background, and people from the LGBTQ+ community – but generally all those who feel they are not treated equally or fairly, as well as those who want to get involved with ideas and thoughts on the topic in order to improve equality in everyday university life.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions, concerns, problems or suggestions about equality.

A look at the half-yearly statement of semester fees reveals: not all of the €204.30 goes to the university. 14€ of your fees end up in the AStA’s finance department, which manages the overall budget of the student body (i.e. the AStA, the student parliament, the doctoral students and the departmental representatives).

The main work of the Finance Department is unfortunately not very public, but it is all the more spectacular because, in addition to the everyday processing of applications, the negotiation of contracts with Nextbike or VRN, for example, or the preparation of a new budget for the following year are also assigned to this department. The Finance Department keeps things running and makes the work of the AStA departments and the student councils possible.

And who sits in this finance department? According to the state university law, it needs at least two people: on the one hand, the elected honorary finance officer from the ranks of the students and a full-time budget officer (BfH), who advises and supports the work of the finance officer and the AStA chair with a lot of experience. Karin Schaab is our budget officer. I, Henrik Tadge, hold the office of Finance Officer. We also work closely with the student body financiers, the university and, of course, the AStA chair and the AStA departments.

If you are interested in working in the finance department or have questions about our work, please contact us directly at finanzen[at]asta-uni-mannheim.de.

Finance officer
Henrik Tadge (he/him)

Officer for PR
Charlotte Grünen (she/her) [AGA]

Julian Schmiedel (he/him) [AGA] in comission

What exactly does the General Students’ Committee do?
The Public Relations Office was created to answer this question for the students.
The main task of the Public Relations Office is to prepare information and work for the students and to keep them up to date.
To this end, the Public Relations Officer looks after and maintains the website of the General Students’ Committee, the AStA Facebook page and the AStA Instragram account.

If you would like to help us with public relations, please get in touch via Facebook, Instagram or by email to oeffentlichkeit[at]asta-uni-mannheim.de!

Campus officer

Sven Mertlich (he/him)

Moritz Lomitschka (he/him) in comission of environmental sustainability

As campus officer, I would like to make life on campus more pleasant for you students. This includes creating offers, accepting wishes, suggestions and comments, organising and communicating.

So far, our bicycle repair station in front of the refectory and our bicycle workshop, which will soon be reopened, offer you help with small and large repairs to your bike. Following the motto “Sharing is Caring”, a public bookcase has been set up next to the Campus Shop.

Furthermore, I am the contact person for all initiatives and take care of their concerns and questions, the accreditation and reaccreditation process, as well as the initiative market and the pub crawl during freshers’ week.

In addition, I coordinate and organise projects that have a significant impact on campus life. At the moment, the “Cup-to-Go” project is in the starting blocks and has the goal of abolishing all 400,000 disposable cups (p.a.) at the University of Mannheim. This and many other projects are being promoted by the Campus Office in cooperation with the Sustainability Department of the Campus Office, the Studierendenwerk, the Service und Marketing GmbH and the University Administration.

If you also have cool projects or ideas, don’t hesitate to write to me. I look forward to hearing from you!

Social Affairs officer

Vincent Spies (he/him) [lgl]

The Social Department primarily tries to support students with social problems that can occur both during and outside of their studies.
Social problems have a broad definition: from BAföG to the threat of exmatriculation to housing problems, you can contact the Social Office at soziales[at]asta-uni-mannheim.de.  If you need additional support, you will be provided with free legal advice.

We are there for you from the beginning of your studies.
If you are still looking for accommodation and your studies are about to start, please visit our AStA Couchsurfing Facebook group.

Do you want to earn some extra money while studying?

Then take a look at our AStA Job Exchange, where new job offers are uploaded regularly. It’s also worth visiting the scholarship exchange organised by the Social Department.
Here you can talk to current scholarship holders, get an overview of different scholarship offers and get tips for your own application.
The Social Department is also working on being able to support you financially in emergency situations in the future through the introduction of the emergency scholarship.

During your studies, problems can arise that place an additional burden on you. The Social Department deals with these issues and will not leave you alone. You are always welcome to contact us, even if we don’t immediately have the right answer to your question, we often know who we can refer you to.

Culture officer
Sarah Fröschl (she/her) & Paula Schmelzer (she/her)

Everything that has to do with culture can be found in the culture department. We work in many different ways to make cultural events accessible to all students, regardless of their budget.

We organise readings, band evenings, exhibitions and take you to Mannheim’s cultural venues on our visit day. For those who like films on the big screen, we offer a weekly cinema in the lecture hall. And so that you can get a taste of Mannheim’s cultural offerings for free, we regularly give away free tickets.

If there is something missing from the list, you are cordially invited to join the KulturAStA and enrich the programme with your ideas. The KulturAStA is the heart of the cultural department, where we brainstorm and plan all our events. We are open to everything. We love creative ideas!

To make sure you don’t miss any of our offers, follow us on instagram @kulturasta_unima or send us an email.

External Affairs officer
Ali Insan (he/him) [lgl]

Maurice Möller (he/him) [AGA] in comission

The External Affairs Office is mainly concerned with everything that affects our university but goes beyond the campus. This includes networking with the student representatives of other universities in Mannheim as well as at the state and federal level. This networking is of great importance in order to bundle the interests of the students, to influence political decisions in our favor and to promote the exchange of experiences.

In addition to coordinating with other student representatives, the AStA’s foreign office is also active within Mannheim. This includes cooperation with organizations such as “Mannheim against the Right” and the “QZM” as well as participation in demonstrations that affect students or are relevant to us for other reasons.

In this working year, we are specifically striving to achieve a uniform and more cost-effective public transport ticket for (Mannheim) students and to hold events on foreign policy topics. If anyone has ideas for projects or would like to get involved in the work of the Foreign Affairs Department in any other way, we look forward to hearing from you.