Political Science Club at the Faculty of Social Sciences Aims to Enhance Communication 












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            * Political Science Club at the Faculty of Social Sciences Aims to Enhance Communication a
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            The students’ Political Science Club at the Faculty of Social Sciences has been working fo

            a year now but has a good number of successful and interesting events under its belt. I-fo
            the club’s chairman Erik Hrušč, a bachelor’s student of political science, international r
            economics at the Faculty of Social Sciences, about the club’s founding and activities.
                                                                                                      
            What was the impulse behind the foundation of the Political Science Club?                 
            The club was established in late 2009. The main impulse behind it was a poor performance o
            previous students’ self-governing body at the Institute of Political Science (Students of 
                                                                                                      
            Institute of Political Science – SIPS) but also the forthcoming elections to the Academic 
            of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Charles University. We used the Political Science Cl
            platform for coordinating the campaign ahead of those elections. Over time, the club has a
                                                                                                      
            role of a students’ self-governing body and started organizing various other activities in
            supplement the education at the Institute of Political Science (IPS) but also the whole of
            of Social Sciences.                                                                       
                                                                                                      
                                                                                                      
            One of our main goals was and still is to facilitate communication among students in diffe

            across all forms of study.  We believe we are succeeding in fulfilling our goals and the c
            to all students at the IPS. But we still have a long way to go.
            Can you tell us how the club is managed? Who is in its leadership and how often do you mee

            The club has an interesting governing structure. Officially, the club is led by a board of
            the moment, two from each year of the bachelor’s course) which is appointed every year. Bu
            philosophy is an active approach, therefore we encourage everyone who is interested and ca

            the club to participate in its management. In practice it means that, on average, twelve p
            at the management meetings, a kind of “broader presidium”. These meetings take place regul
            two weeks, or more frequently if necessary. Of course, as far as official matters are conc

            communication with the faculty or institute management as well as with outside organizatio
            handled by the official presidium members.
                The leadership of the Political Science Club at the Charles University Faculty of Soci

            What is the response to the club among the students at the Faculty of Social Sciences?
            So far we’ve only encountered positive reactions, at least as far as the students at the I
            Students from the whole of the Faculty of Social Sciences come to our events and we also t

            with other clubs at the faculty. The cooperation is only starting now but we believe that 
            of time things will change and there will be substantial communication and collaboration a
            of the five institutes of the Faculty of Social Sciences. We often receive suggestions for

            students who are not directly involved in the Political Science Club but see the club as a
            putting their ideas into effect.
            Can you give us examples of events that you have organized and invite us to some future on

            It is true that we are a young club, we’ve been around for just over a year, but despite t
            got a number of interesting events under our belt. We organized several lectures and discu
            different topics. Our past guests include, amongst others, Karel Schwarzenberg, Jana Hybáš

            Vondra. We organized discussions with our teachers, mainly with regard to last year’s elec
            event worth mentioning was a “meet’n’greet” event for IPS students. The Faculty of Social 
            tradition of “freshers’ icebreakers” for first-year students that we want to maintain. And

            course, some informal events in the course of the year. As for future events, we would lik
            opportunity to invite everyone to a forthcoming Conference of Political Science Students i
            with political science departments of the Faculty of Economics and the Faculty of Social S

            We also intend to continue in our discussions on different topics. You can find more infor
            events as well as the club itself on our website at pkfsvuk.cz.
            (Lucie Kettnerová)


            Translation: Pavla Horáková