100 Years of Student Council Success

Photos: From The Student Councils and UI Archives
Translation: Julie Summers

The University of Iceland Student Council has worn many hats over the past hundred years, tackling a wide variety of issues related to student welfare, and it’s incredible to see how much the Student Council has done for the university community. Looking back on everything the Council has undertaken, it’s clear that UI students have always had a fighting spirit. On this timeline, we’ve highlighted some of the Student Council’s landmark achievements from the past century.

Learn more on the Student Council’s new website, student.is.

1920: Student Council founded. The first Student Council election was held on December 11, 1920.

1924: First issue of the Student Paper published.

1928: Association of University Women founded.

1933: Student Council adopts a system of party-list proportional representation and implements elections with secret voting. Lists of candidates were presented to voters, and political associations began forming to curate these candidate lists. The first such association, the Association of Radical Students, was founded the same year.

1934: First student residence hall opens. The first residence hall had space for 37 students as well as a residence hall director. It had a reading room, library, and a gymnasium in the basement.

1940: Students protest military use of residence halls. British forces commandeered student residences for their own use. Students were vehemently opposed, as many of them struggled to find suitable housing.

1943: Nýi-Garður opens and students move in. The 63-room residence hall was completed in September 1943, nearly a year and a half after construction began. Due to a housing shortage, many students ended up sharing single rooms, and 90 students lived in the building the first semester after it opened.

1956: The Student Council approves a proposal to begin construction of additional student housing, Hjónagarðar.

1957: Students gain representation on the University Council. That year, a law was passed requiring the University Council to have one student representative. After 1978, the number of student representatives increased to four. Other members of the council include the rector, the department heads, and two representatives from the Association of University Teachers. The law was amended in 1999, reducing the number of student representatives to two. They are directly elected by the student body.

1959: Student Council receives additional funding. The funding allowed the Council to hire a permanent employee.

1968: Student Services (FS) founded. The University Council and Student Council jointly formed FS, which took over operation of student housing, the student café in Aðalbygging, the student bookstore, student travel agency, and the daycare center Efri-Hlíð.

1969: Students have the opportunity to vote for the rector for the first time.

1972: Students protest the visit of William Rogers. Students organized a protest in Árnagarður to oppose then-US Secretary of State William Rogers’ planned visit to view manuscripts at the Árni Magnússon Institute. The protestors succeeded and Rogers left without entering the building.

1974: First female Student Council president elected. Medical student Arnlín Ólafsdóttir was elected Student Council President in March 1974. She was the first woman to hold the position and made women’s rights a key issue for students.

1975: Student strike. Students went on a two-day strike in October 1975 to protest student loan cuts.

1975: FS opens the Student Cellar. The Student Cellar was a popular gathering place for students - and still is today, just in a different location.

1976 Students protest new student loan rules

1976: Student protests. On November 15, students protested new student loan rules by gathering at the Ministry of Education. Among the protesters was Össur Skarphéðinsson, who later became a member of Parliament and a government minister.

1987 More women then men in the University

1978: Female students outnumber male students. For the first time, more women than men were enrolled at the university. Women have made up the majority of the student body ever since. In the university’s early years, women were very much in the minority; in fact, as the university celebrated its 20-year anniversary, just eight women were enrolled, representing a meager 5% of all students. The number of female students went up gradually until about 1970, when the percentage of female students rocketed from 25% to 39%.

1994: Student Council raises money to purchase more books for the National University Library. The Student Council launched a national fundraising campaign to purchase additional volumes for the library’s collection. Then-President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was a patron of the campaign, which raised 22.5 million krónur.

1998: Higher education in the new millennium. Students and supporters joined forces to raise money toward technological improvements on campus. The goal of the campaign was to raise about 20 million krónur in monetary donations, equipment, and software.

2004: School fees protested. In March 2004, UI students gathered in front of Aðalbygging to protest the introduction of school fees. The Student Council declared its opposition to the proposal and argued for other solutions to the school’s financial troubles. The Student Council started a petition and gathered over 3000 student signatures.

2007: Student Services moves to the University Center. Student Services moved all its operations to the University Center and opened Háma and the student bookstore.

2012: Student Cellar reopened. The Student Cellar was resurrected and once again became the most popular place for students to gather and eat.

2013: Student Council challenges the Icelandic government in court over the Icelandic Student Loan Fund. The case, which was brought before the court in summer 2013, stemmed from changes made to loan allocation rules. The changes involved raising the minimum progress requirements from 18 credits per semester to 22. The court ruled in the Council’s favor in August that same year. This case marked the first time that the Student Council challenged the Icelandic government in court.

2019: Students begin climate strikes. In February 2019, in collaboration with the National Union of Icelandic Students and the Icelandic Upper Secondary Student Union, the Student Council began holding climate strikes every Friday to demand that the government declare a climate emergency and, along with the private sector, take action to mitigate the climate crisis. These strikes were inspired by Greta Thunberg’s famous Fridays for Future. The climate strike was recognized by the City of Reykjavík and selected as person of the year by news networks Stöð 2, Vísir, and Bylgjan.

The same year, the Student Council added an international representative to its staff.

2020: Student Council celebrates its centennial. Now in its one hundredth year, the Student Council is stronger than ever before. The Council has addressed a wide variety of issues this year, responding to the new student loan bill, continuing to fight for actions to be taken to address the climate crisis, and dealing with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on students’ academic careers and job prospects. Despite unprecedented challenges, we’ve had great success this year. For instance, construction of a new residence hall next to Gamli Garður began after a long battle, and the university stopped providing dental age assessments of young asylum seekers.

University of IcelandKatla ÁrsælsdóttirDecember 29, 2020