This document describes the methods of practical implementation of the Language Strategy that the Student Union Representative Council approved in its meeting 6/2010. If the Representative Council makes changes to the Language Strategy, this document will be considered obsolete.

Here are described practices that will be included in the daily work of employees and other actors in the Student Union. In areas where the current situation is not as good as the guidelines listed, the deadline for reaching such a level of service is the end of year 2010.

1. Essential AYY documents will be available in three languages

Goal:

The essential documents pertaining to advocacy work will be translated into three languages in order to enable the full participation of language minority members in the Student Union. Important day-to-day documents such as those regarding AYY services and other relevant information will be made available in three languages.

Action:

• Documents or summaries of documents concerning advocacy, such as statements, Representative Council approved policy documents, bulletins, opinions published in newspapers as well as the board program and its updates will be made available in three languages within a week of their publication.

• Openings for halloped positions (i.e. openings for student members in university governance) and all information regarding Representative Council Elections will be published in all three languages simultaneously.

• The headlines in council agendas must be translated into three languages.

• Council resolutions will be translated into English within one month of the meeting.

• Information about other official documents must be made available in Swedish and English on request. Examples of such documents are council records, draft resolutions, budgets, financial statements and balance sheets.

• The weekly newsletter will be translated into three languages within two days of publication.

• More extensive documents, such as the student rights’ guide, halloped guide and the different guides for student associations will be made available in three languages after they have been completed, primarily within six months of publication.

• Relevant parts of the new students’ guide will be translated to three languages. The communication sector will do a yearly evaluation on the need for updating the translated versions.

• AYY rules, rules and guidelines for residents, student housing information packages and the different forms, contracts, contract drafts and checklists used at AYY service points will be made available in three languages within six months of the adoption of the language strategy.

• Other AYY brochures, guides, publications, surveys and the AYY calendar will be translated within the limits of translation resources available. Student Union operatives must look into the use of translation services on a situational basis.

• Signs and notifications will be written in three languages.
• Whenever possible, multilingualism should be promoted in Aino magazine and on the TV channel OUBS (Otaniemi Underground Broadcasting System).

• Trilingualism is visible in the visual style and insignia of AYY.

Sector responsible: communication sector

2. Ayy.fi website will be trilingual

Goal:

Particularly the slowly changing content on the website will be available in three languages with as little variation in the content as possible between the different versions. The base assumption is that all material on the website can be of interest to all language groups. Only if certain information can be justifiably seen to pertain only to a certain language group can it be left untranslated.

Action:

• A translator will be hired to work on the translation project. The website will be rendered trilingual from the beginning.

• Cursory translations and summaries will be offered with the help of translator or translation programs on quickly updating content, such as news items, event notifications and discussions.

• Associations are encouraged to add information about their events on their websites in more than one language.

• From now on, the slowly changing content about to be put on the website is delivered straight to the translators.

• The persons responsible for language matters will have their contact information listed on the website.

Sector responsible: communication sector

3. Events and activity will be open to all language groups

Goal:

It is easy for language minority members to take part in the activities of the Student Union and the associations within it, as well as in the different events they offer. The interaction between students from different language groups is lively.

Action:

• The flyers, invitations and supplementary materials made for events that are suited for persons without skills in Finnish should be written in more than one language.

• There needs to be more programme that is suited for language minorities at AYY events.

• Associations are encouraged to communicate multilingually and to prepare activities and events that would also cater for language minorities. Associations are encouraged to choose a person to handle international issues and the association’s English communication. The possibility of making limited translation services available to associations will be looked into.

• In day-to-day communication, mailing lists, training sessions and so forth, all AYY operators are encouraged to use summaries if producing a thorough translation is too encumbering.

Sector responsible: association and culture sector

4. Language minorities must have their say in decision making

Goal:

Language minority members must also have a genuine opportunity to influence what happens in AYY and the university.

Action:

• Representative Council groups are encouraged to take language minorities into account in all their activity, especially when recruiting candidates for and campaigning in the Representative Council Elections.

• The possibility of hiring an interpreter or using volunteers as interpreters for council meetings where non-Finnish speakers are present will be looked into.

• The Student Union encourages language minority members to apply for halloped positions and supports them in their work.

Sectors responsible: international sector and academic affairs sector

5. The support and training of staff

Goal:

It is essential that AYY personnel are able to work in three languages without feeling trilingualism to be a burden or a negative influence on their work. The staff must have access to the needed support and resources, such as supplementary language training, in order to make trilingualism a reality. The application of the language strategy should not lie solely on only a few sectors, but all Student Union operatives must take it into account in their own work from their own initiative.

Action:

• Staff will be given a training on the guidelines for working in different languages and when to employ translators. Staff are encouraged to use translation services.

• A new Swedish course will be tailored for staff. The course will include work related speech exercises and writing exercises covering the most common types of work related communication. Participation is advisable but not mandatory. Additionally, individual staff members may partake in other language courses with the support of the employer, provided that the courses are relevant to their work.

• When hiring new employees language skills and a positive attitude towards trilingualism are among the hiring criteria.

• MOT dictionaries will be acquired for the use of staff as soon as possible. SYL’s student union dictionary will also be utilized as soon as it is completed, probably sometime during fall 2010. Possibilities to increase AYY’s translation resources will be looked into. Practical arrangements for the delivery of translations will be planned together with the translators.

Sector responsible: chief administrative sector

6. Advocacy

Goal:

Aalto University is an international institution that offers its students a diverse and international study environment and high quality education in three languages.

Action:

• Together with Aalto University and other interest groups we will promote the goals formulated in section 1.4 of this document.

Sector responsible: international sector