“The student years will be the best years of your life”. I am pretty sure we have all heard that saying before beginning our studies, which probably is correct. The student’s years are filled with social events and new adventures. However, there is more to the story. Stress, depression and anxiety is not an uncommon feeling among students and can sometimes be hard to tackle by yourselves. We had a chat with Carl Ericsson, the educational affairs manager of LundaEkonomerna to talk about #WeCare, the unions’ project regarding the comfort and social sustainability of the students at LUSEM. 

What is #WeCare?

#WeCare is a project initiated last year by LundaEkonomerna, during an uncertain and insecure time in Lund, there was a lot of robberies and muggings. The idea was to ensure that all the students at LUSEM would feel secure and have someone they could trust and come to if something would happen. The idea developed and today #WeCare is LundaEkonomernas profile for development regarding the well-being of the students and their safety, both regarding their student- and social life and the school! The board for 19/20 have continued this work and have initiated a workgroup that works continuously with WeCare. The workgroup consists of me, Carl Ericsson, our president Matilda Eklund, our vice president Molly Backman and our internal relations manager Adrian Schmidt. We organize events and we also want to hold lectures and market other events on the topic. We are also planning on having “Fredagsmys” or cosy Friday, once a month at Skånis. We had three weeks ago, and you are more than welcome to join and keep an eye out on our coming event.

What sort of issues can you get help from WeCare?

It is on a broad range of issues. It can be everything from if you are feeling down to needing help with your studies. If we can’t help you ourselves, we can refer you to other resources, like the student chaplaincy, the student’s health centre, academic skills centre and so forth.

Can you be anonymous?

Of course, you can always hand in student issues anonymously, both school-related and union-related issues. You can also come directly to the board and talk to us and we can help you refer you to the right support function, that work professionally with these errands like the ones I mentioned. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any concerns, or if you have questions and ideas on things that you want us to do. 

Is there a most common issue as a student?

That is difficult to answer since it involves secrecy of issues that are handled by the union. Overall, we can see a trend within students concerning mental health, stress and work-life balance.

How fast can we get help from you?

Since we are a quite new workgroup, we haven’t established a benchmark yet. We always try to get back at you within either 24 or 48 hours with a response, depending on the issue. We always answer as fast as we can, because we do really care.

Check out more about #WeCare’s work at: https://www.lundaekonomerna.se/wecare/

Or leave a student issue here: https://www.lundaekonomerna.se/student-issues/