Hello and welcome to the landing page of the Lund Science Student Union (sv: Lunds Naturvetarkår), LUNA. If you were recently accepted to start studies at the Faculty of Science at Lund University you have come to the right place.

Starting your studies at Lund University for the first time can be quite overwhelming. But do not worry, we are here to ease the process for you. On the 23rd of August we are hosting an Introduction Day for all new students at the Faculty of Science at 11.15 at the TLTH Kårhuset (John Ericssons Väg 3). Here you will get the opportunity to meet fellow students also starting their studies in the natural sciences as well as take part of valuable information for your upcoming studies. See you there!

Until then, there are a few things you can do to prepare:

You can read more about the upcoming period in Novischhäftet by going to ‘Novisch – New in Lund‘. If you have any further questions or need assistance with anything do not hesitate contacting the union at luna@luna.lu.se.

Have a great summer and see you the 23rd of August!

You can watch and listen to the student speech from the graduation ceremony which was held by Caspar Håkansson June 4th.

~ Interviews with students of LUNA ~

It is time for a very special text from the Information Committee’s research project Nadir. We infiltrated one of the Mentor Committee (FU) meetings and made some observations. This transcript is highly classified material, which is now leaked to all members of LUNA.

We give you

‘Observations from a Mentor Committee meeting’

by Sebastian Wolsing.

“Cellphones are being passed around, with more or less funny pictures. It is noticeable that this is both fun and serious. The chairperson of the Mentor Committee, Hanna, tries to take a firm grip of the attention by introducing the first topic of the meeting. She reads the Crisis Management Plan and the members listen carefully.

Vassily laughs a bit as he looks over at Eric. It looks like they have something to say. Hanna keeps reading. Ebba is looking at her phone and John is munching on the cookies that were bought just for this occasion. This is no ordinary meeting, this is an FU meeting where fun and serious are entwined into a mess of cookies and laughter.”

“Vassily shouts “Coffee break!” and goes out to get the coffee (that apparently could be way more black). When he comes back Eric has made a sandwich consisting of gingerbread and cookies, the others nod approvingly. Hanna remembers a story that she finds funny, and retells it to everyone’s pleasure.

After a while she continues to read the Crisis Management Plan, while constantly being interrupted by other committee members making jokes. It would be interesting to see how the productivity varies with coffee intake. Me as a statistician should make such an analysis and show it to them so that they can optimise their meetings.” Next follows a brief summary of how a general Mentor Committee meeting could turn out:

17.12 First person arrives (usually the president), packs up the fika from the backpack and waits for the others.

17.15 Meeting starts, still only one person there.

17.18-17.25 The rest of the committee arrives, everyone blaming late schoolwork/labs/buses.

17.25 Meeting starts for real.

17.27 Someone shows a funny video of a cat, and everyone starts talking about something else for a while.

17.31 Meeting is resumed, for a moment. Discussing mentor related matters, going through the agenda until someone gets a funny thought or has some other story to share.

“The Mentor Committee seems to have a lot of fun during their meetings and it feels like they really emphasize having fun over being productive but it does seem like most of the members are fine with it.

Being a member of the Mentor Committee means a lot of work during the year with meetings, evaluations, and the actual Novisch Period. This includes working hard under stress and  doing that together with a group of people going through the same amount of stress. Maybe this way of having meetings is their way to cope with the stress get closer to one another. After all, they need to be able to work together under a lot of pressure which makes it easier if they can have fun together as well.”

You can contact the Information Committee at info@luna.lu.se and the Mentor Committee chairperson at fu-ordf@luna.lu.se. You can reach the current mentor generals at fg@luna.lu.se. If you want to find out more about life as an active member of the union, you are always welcome to stop by the union office or simply browse our webpage. You can contact the union via this form (you can be anonymous) or by e-mail at luna@luna.lu.se.

~ Interview brought to you by the Information Committee ~

The winners of the awards handed out annually by LUNA have been decided upon. Today June 4th, at the faculty graduation ceremony, the prizes are handed out. Congratulations Melvyn B. Davies and Christina Ledje! Below you find the motivation texts that was sent along the nominations by students from the faculty, for the two.

Nomination text for Melvyn B. Davies as sent in by students

“A very respectable lecturer who teaches the subject with great enthusiasm. He use fun and useful analogies to make the subject easier to grasp. He use discussion in small group as a tool to give the student a deeper understanding of the subject and for the student to think about what the answer to a question before getting it handed to you. A worthy nominee for the pedagogical prize 2017.”

Nomination text for Christina Ledje as sent in by students

“As a biologist one is lucky to know that carrier and study advice is easily attainable and holds a great quality. A quick walk through the Ecology building and you find yourself at Tina’s office. No matter how stressed and nervous one arrives, you always leave her room with a smile and a feeling of confidence.

Tina’s drive and dedication shines through everything she does, and everything she does is in the best interest of the students. Taking on a coordinating role for master studies she is a well-known name across the faculty. Despite her many commitments, neither her work quality nor her empathy lets one down.

One cannot do anything but wonder how she manages everything so well and still finds time to make personal connections to the students she cares so well for. Such dedication and extensive knowledge within one’s area of work should not go unnoticed, and I cannot think of anyone more well-deserving of LUNA’s honorary prize.”

~ Interviews with students of LUNA ~

It is soon time for a long summer break, and for some of you maybe summer jobs are waiting. We managed to get an interview with Elin Backström, a member of the Corporate Relations Committee (CRC) of LUNA. Here follows a brief text about what they do and how they are working to improve the employability of science students.

“In the meetings of CRC, we discuss areas that influence the relations between students and working life, for example how natural scientists can be more visible and more attractive for employers and what opportunities there are for improvement. We highlight these areas by hosting events such as lectures and workshops. During the fall semester, we have also been planning for LUNAs own career fair ATLAS. I applied as a representative for the CRC since the working life is an extremely important area, in which there are plenty to work with. Being a member of the CRC is educative and I feel like I learn plenty of different things. It is also really fun!”

You can contact the Information Committee at info@luna.lu.se and the Head of Corporate Relations moreover the chairperson of the CRC at naringsliv@luna.lu.se. If you want to find out more about life as an active member of the union, you are always welcome to stop by the union office or simply browse our webpage. You can contact the union via this form (you can be anonymous) or by e-mail at luna@luna.lu.se.

~ Interview brought to you by the Information Committee ~

~ Interviews with students of LUNA ~

Time again and this time we give the spotlight to Hanna Thosteman (again). If you have been paying attention, she was also the chairperson of the Gender and Equality Committee (JoL). Now she has another role to report on, namely being the chairperson of the Mentor Committee (FU). Let us see what she has to say about that responsibility.

“Black tailcoats, medals, sunglasses and ridiculously good-looking members; from the outside, the Mentor Committee might strike you as superheroes carrying out the Novisch Periods while dancing and losing mascots simultaneously. But appearances are deceptive.

Behind all the glamour and fame hides a group of hard working, dedicated students, who on their spare time plan and execute the Novisch Periods together with awesome mentors. Their meetings are long (one time they scored four hours) and their ideas are many, but they would not be able to manage all the work without the fantastic mentors that year after year greet and welcome the new students to Lund. Together they make an excellent team, and will time and time again pull off the greatest Novisch Periods in the history of Novisch Periods. TAGGARÅÅÅ.”

You can contact the Information Committee at info@luna.lu.se and the Mentor Committee chairperson at fu-ordf@luna.lu.se. If you want to find out more about life as an active member of the union, you are always welcome to stop by the union office or simply browse our webpage. You can contact the union via this form (you can be anonymous) or by e-mail at luna@luna.lu.se.

~ Interview brought to you by the Information Committee ~

~ Interviews with students of LUNA ~

Another week and that calls for another student interview. We asked an old member of the Information Committee, Julia Höglund, about how it is like to be a part of a spex in Lund. If you are interested in joining a spex, or just curious to what it is all about, have a look at what Julia has to say about it.

“If you are new in Lund, if you are old or if you have been here your whole life, you might or might not have heard about the student activity called spex. 

As one can read on Wikipedia: “Spex is a kind of amateur comedy theatre act performed by university students in Sweden and parts of Finland. University cities, such as Gothenburg, Lund, Uppsala, and Linköping have long-running traditions of spex. The word is likely derived from abbreviated student slang for spektakel (spectacle; scene; show).”

In other words, you start with nothing except for a manuscript and some 15-20 songs, meet every day for five weeks and suddenly a group of 50-120 students have (at least) four spectacular shows with hundreds in the audience clapping for you to sing one more time, or say a funny line again.

The theatre shows are normally political satires, about a historical event or person, and the story often have a comedic twist and the use of non-time accurate characters is also very common.

Currently there are more than ten spexes in Lund ranging from the big ones having their shown in the big hall in the AF building like Lundaspexarna and Boelspexarna, to the nation spexes like Hallands slottsspex and Krischanstaspääxet having their shows at the nation. Your part can be any part, as long as it helps making a show coming to life. A spex needs people to sow the costumes, build props, play in the band, act on stage, selling tickets, and even cook food every day. Anyone can join any spex, and you don’t have to know anything before (well except being able to play an instrument if you want to be in the band).

The spexes normally have a day every semester where you can apply an interest, fill in a form what you like, what you want to do and then hopefully you will spend five intense week doing whatever you decided to do with other as dedicated students as you.”

You can contact the Information Committee at info@luna.lu.se. If you want to find out more about life as an active member of the union, you are always welcome to stop by the union office or simply browse our webpage. You can contact the union via this form (you can be anonymous) or by e-mail at luna@luna.lu.se.

~ Interview brought to you by the Information Committee ~

Our dear giraffes made it back home! After an adventurous trip to Gothenburg and back again LUNA and its teammates of Samhällsvetarkåren are safely back in Lund. Find pictures from the trip on Facebook. Tandemstafetten 2017 is over and the next one takes place in 2019. Next year the Lundakarnevalen will take its place.