Oulun ylioppilaslehti
Oulun ylioppilaslehti
In Finnish

It certainly is a cliché to call Oulu the Cycling City, but it is true.

There is a clear will to uphold the cycling city reputation: the city of Oulu has invested not only in the cycling routes and signs, but also to make cycling more interesting and accessible and to raise cycling awareness. Few examples are the new website for cycling in Oulu area, new road signs, and the long-awaited Sykkeli city bikes. There are Sykkeli stations near both Linnanmaa and Kontinkangas campus.

Cycling students arriving at the Linnanmaa campus on the red paved cycling route can’t help but notice the changes. Oulu Student Magazine interviewed two active cyclists and asked what they think about the changes and whether they see subjects for improvement.

Antti Nurmesmäki, a fifth-year chemistry student, tries to cover all his journeys by bike. He bikes to Linnanmaa campus almost daily.

“During my teaching practice I took a bus because I didn’t want to be sweaty when teaching”, Nurmesjärvi says.

In addition to daily exercise, cycling is also Nurmesjärvi’s hobby: his longest trip so far is cycling to Hailuoto and back in the summer, and he’s already planning a trip to Europe’s long cycling routes.

While getting some incidental exercise, Nurmesjärvi also points out that cycling saves money and refreshes.

“In the mornings I’m much more energetic than I would be if I’d just walked into a bus,” Nurmesjärvi states.

“When I started studying in Linnanmaa campus, there was no clear biking route and it was usual to laugh at how hard it is to find the way from the campus to the city centre. Now there’s a red carpet which is easy to follow.”

Nurmesjärvi finds his daily commute to the university has become faster, thanks to the new cycleways, although the road construction site in Alppila has temporarily slowed the journey. All in all, Nurmesjärvi praises the cycling projects of the city of Oulu, even though he, originating from Oulu, hasn’t personally benefitted from the numbered cycling routes.

He also thinks that the bicycle repair points installed in the city centre last year are really handy.

Like Nurmesjärvi, also Eemeli Bergström, a third-year geosciences student, is active cyclist both in his everyday life and in free time. He, too, is happy with Oulu’s cycleway network, which he thinks is quite extensive.

In addition to students, also others are pleased.

Pasi Haapakorva, the Chair of Oulun polkupyöräilijät ry (“Oulu Cyclists”, OUPO), states that Oulu is the best cycling city in Finland. In his e-mail response, Haapakorva tells about things that are characteristic to Oulu cycling infrastructure. These include possibility to cycle long distances without crossings as well as the density and extent of cycleways outside the city centre.

“When I started studying in Linnanmaa campus, there was no clear biking route and it was usual to laugh at how hard it is to find the way from the campus to the city centre. Now there’s a red carpet which is easy to follow”, Haapakorva writes.

Cycling culture in Oulu is great — but not perfect

Eemeli Bergström says that the cycling culture in Oulu is generally good. His basis for comparison is small cities in Australia, such as Kalgoorlie, where he has lived. He says that in Australia, drivers don’t take cyclists into account as well as in Oulu, which can be seen in the cycling safety.

According to Bergström, the attitudes toward cycling are good in Oulu and in Finland as a whole.

“In other countries biking is only for kids, here everyone bikes”, Bergström says.

Pasi Haapakorva, too, highlights the way drivers in Oulu are careful and give space to cyclists. He says that it’s understandable, since most likely also drivers cycle from time to time.

Antti Nurmesjärvi thinks that in general it is good to bike in Oulu. He, too, praises drivers’ attitudes towards cyclists, but stresses that there are regional differences in Finland. According to him, people in Oulu are more understanding when it comes to e.g. mistakes in the traffic, but this is not the case in the whole country.

“My friend who lives in Turku told me that if someone bikes on the pavement in the city centre, they might get punched.”

“In other countries biking is only for kids, here everyone bikes.”

Sometimes cyclist’s own behaviour can cause problems. Nurmesjärvi points out that it’s dangerous to hold a phone while biking and to bike in the dark without lights. He himself hasn’t been in dangerous situations because of these examples but finds them nevertheless annoying phenomena.

Still need for bike racks and streetlights

Even though the city of Oulu has significantly improved its cycling circumstances in the past few years, the city continues to invest in cycling infrastructure in the future as well: Oulu applies for state grant to continue the cycleway from Raksila to Mäntylä. This so called “Mäntybaana” is a part of over 60 km long cycleway network that is still in planning.

Also, the amount of Sykkeli city bikes and Sykkeli stations can in future change according to feedback.

Both students have their own suggestions on how to improve cycling in Oulu.

Both Bergström and Nurmesjärvi say that cycling arrangements in Linnanmaa area are adequate. Bergström points out that small amount of bike racks is a problem. But neither Bergström nor Nurmesjärvi finds bigger issues than that in the Linnanmaa campus area.

Instead of Linnanmaa, both students have suggestions on other areas in the city.

Nurmesjärvi hopes that the traffic arrangements for cyclists in the city centre were clearer. He raises Rotuaari as a problem: for cyclists it’s hard to know where biking is allowed and where it isn’t. Bergström, too, thinks that cycleways in the city centre should be clearer.

In addition to the city centre, other areas have problems as well. Bergström, who lives in Toppila, mentions that from his point of view, the most problematic is the lack of street lighting on the way to Linnanmaa. He says that the dark areas do have streetlights, but they are rarely on.

Neither of the students have used the Sykkeli city bikes, but they still see them as a positive thing. During his exchange in Slovenia, Nurmesjärvi got to know the city bike culture there. He sees the city bikes as a valuable addition to public transport here in Oulu as well and is interested in trying Sykkeli.

This autumn, the city bikes have been the cause of harsh criticism because of their difficult interface and technical problems. The procurement and mobilisation of Sykkelis didn’t go as planned: the bikes were planned to be in use in the beginning of the summer but because of reasons unrelated to the city, they were ready for use at the end of August instead. Because the city bike season ends at the end of October, the time for using Sykkelis was brief this year.

The red-surfaced cycleway has also had its problems: in the middle of October, Kaleva wrote about the cycleway’s slipperiness and therefore causing accidents. According to Harri Vaarala, the traffic engineer interviewed in Kaleva’s article, the impression of slipperiness is caused by the fact that new asphalt tends to be more slippery than old asphalt.

Editor’s comment

“As a cyclist I’m quite lazy. My bike has been waiting the day I’d bring it with me for a shamefully long time. In my first year in the university, I covered most of my daily trips by bike, even though I wasn’t as active as the students interviewed in this article. I don’t find cycling itself unpleasant, but everything that comes with it. Maintaining the bike, planning the route, and preparing for the weather started to feel bland. Hopping in the bus is easy, especially if you only go between Linnanmaa and the city centre as I do.

Most of the problems that I had as a cyclist have been solved in the past few years. As a first-year student without any sense of direction I would’ve needed the numbered cycleways that we now have in Oulu. Now, an easy route to south from Linnanmaa and back exists, and the road construction works have eased off.

My excuses have become weaker, and before the city bikes I could make excuses how my bike is old and hard to pedal. Thanks to Sykkeli’s initial problems, the lazy cyclist had another excuse to walk or take a bus.

Now that the Sykkelis are about to go to hibernation, it may be that I, too, will put off starting the cycling until the next spring.”

Translation: Essi Ranta.

In Finnish

On the 3rd of October 1959, a festive atmosphere prevailed in Oulu. On that autumnal Saturday, sun flashed between the clouds and thousands of people were on the streets. Flags were waiving in the poles.

The big change had arrived in the city, and now the entire Oulu celebrated. The act on the University of Oulu was signed on 8 July 1958, and a bit over a year later it was time for the first opening ceremony of the university.

The largest meeting room in the city, YMCA’s tennis hall, was full of festive people. City orchestra sat on a raised platform, and the guests sat side by side on the rows of seats. Among the guests were Speaker of the Parliament Johannes Virolainen, Prime Minister V. J. Sukselainen, Member of Parliament and former Minister of Education Kerttu Saalasti, academicians Martti Haavio and Kustaa Vilkuna, as well as Bishop of the Diocese of Oulu Olavi Heliövaara.

Whether minister or academician, the dress code guided the guests for festive attire: white tie or lounge suit, for women dark short gown without a hat, decorations.

As the opening ceremony began, a parade of academicians, university chancellors and rectors, as well as the university’s temporary council, acting professors and assistant professors. The crowd stood up, the orchestra played Erik Tulindberg’s minuet, and the parade arrived in the hall led by Pentti Kaitera, the first Rector of the University of Oulu. The President Urho Kekkonen and his wife Sylvi Kekkonen, Governors Kalle Määttä and Martti Miettunen with their wives, and adjutants arrived in the hall accompanied by Porilaisten marssi march. After Pentti Kaitera’s opening presentation, the guests heard greetings from Minister of Education Heikki Hosia and professor Edwin Linkomies, the Rector of the University of Helsinki.

YMCA’s hall was completely full, the floor was covered with rows of seats, and those who didn’t get a seat stood in the balconies and stairs leading there.

Matti Kauppi wasn’t one of them. Like many others, he, too, followed the opening ceremony from a TV in the hall of Oulun lyseo, a couple of hundred meters from the actual ceremony.

Unlike many others, he had a different connection to the university: in a couple of days he would begin his studies as one of the first 424 student in the University of Oulu.

Home through the forest

Matti Kauppi, originally from Kempele, heard about the new university in the spring 1959 while he was still serving in the military in Pohja Brigade in Oulu. In August, he attended in the entrance exams for biologists in all three subjects: botany, zoology, and geography. After the exams, Kauppi got the news: welcome to the University of Oulu!

His interest in nature and its wonders manifested already as a schoolboy. While other school kids in Kempele chose the fastest way home along the road, Kauppi and his friend preferred a walk through the forest. Later in life, the friend became gardener while Kauppi became biologist.

When the University of Oulu began its operation sixty years ago, it formed two faculties: philosophical and technical. Oulu Teacher School, established already in 1953, merged to the university, and the medical faculty started in autumn 1960.

Soon after the opening ceremony, Kauppi got to know the student life in Kasarmintie 7, where currently resides the art museum. The top level of Åström’s office building was rented for the botany and zoology departments of the University of Oulu.

Kauppi still owns the study register where all completed exams and lectures were marked by hand. First marks are from the beginning of October in 1959, when professor Lauri Siivonen began the course in animal morphology.

Teaching was in forms of lectures and courses. According to Kauppi, the courses took more time then than nowadays: one course could be three hours in a week and last through the whole winter. The days were full: courses and lectures spanned from the morning to late afternoon with only break for one or two hours. Because the students didn’t have their own restaurant, they either brought their own lunch or cycled to the city centre to the industrial school in Albertinkuja.

The young University of Oulu received much from the earlier universities. Its professors came from Helsinki and Turku, and the old brass Leitz microscopes came from Helsinki. During the first year, the professors brought their own samples for teaching purposes. This had to be done, otherwise the young biologists wouldn’t have anything to study.

The course assistants also collected and preserved the plants also by drying them and preserving them in formalin. Moulds were cultivated on a bread under a glass cover and algal fungi even with fly carcasses.

The study materials had to be prepared for microscopes, which means that the sample had to be processed for study, Kauppi reminisces. For example, when studying plants, the student had to pick up a sample from the preservative liquid and cut very thin pieces of the sample for studying. The most vivid memory from the first courses was the terrible smell of plants and animals preserved in formalin. Then again, Kauppi became a skilled cutter thanks to constant cutting exercises with razor blades.

At the end of the term, a written exam was held at the end of each course. This was then marked with grade in the student’s register. There were no study credits or points to collect, and guidance for theses was quite minimal in the beginning. According to Matti Kauppi, students worked on their theses mostly independently, at times also by banging their heads in the walls when they had done unnecessary work due to the lack of guidance.

The relationship with the professors was very formal, Kauppi recalls.

“Professors were [addressed as] Misters. We students were also Misters and Misses, but professors were to be addressed highly respectfully – but not as Mister Professor.”

Kauppi’s study week was six days long. Monday and Tuesday were reserved for zoology, Wednesday and Thursday for botany, Friday and Saturday for geography.

Was studying in the new university hard? How stressful was studying back then?

According to Matti Kauppi, he did sit in the lectures like everyone else. After all, the lectures were essential. Not because students’ participation would have been closely watched, but because otherwise they wouldn’t know what was talked about during the lecture. There were no separate hand-outs, unless some other student was kind enough to duplicate their notes with tracing paper. Kauppi preferred courses over lectures, since their schedules were loose.

Students back then did work on their studies, but maybe the pace was more leisurely: “We had time!”

Selling Money-Moles

Even though the study week lasted until Saturday, the students also had time for extra-curricular activities in Oulu.

The Student Union played a big role in Matti Kauppi’s student life. According to him, student life in Oulu started to actually develop when the Student Union moved to Kauppurienkatu 2 in the early 1960.

In fact, he has the first membership card of the Student Union of the University of Oulu (OYY). In fact, he got it by chance.

When he lived in the first student house of Oulu, Domus Botnica, Kauppi heard a rumour that the Student Union, whose office was also in the same building, would soon give out membership cards. Kauppi and his roommate Pekka Keränen knocked on the office door exactly at 4 pm and got their cards: Kauppi got number 1 and Keränen number 2.

Later the membership card has proven useful by giving him VIP entrance to the opening ball at student house Rauhala.

“The cannon fired, the rector spoke and got the university’s first key. Fireworks were set off, students had pea soup and beer, and then the cannon fired again.”

On the side of his studies, Matti Kauppi participated also in guild activities. He was one of the founders of Syntaksis, guild for biology students in the University of Oulu, and as elected secretary, he wrote the minutes of the founding meeting. In 1960s, students in Oulu worked hard to ease the student housing shortage: Kauppi, too, collected paper and sold Money-Moles, mole mascots, to fund the construction of Välkkylä student village.

Kauppi participated also in the march from city centre to Kuivasjärvi in November 1966 as a part of big student stunt. On the first of November, more than a thousand students marched long route to dig a hole and fill a field. It was a symbolic act: the location for the future university was a boggy field, and the students wanted to do their share by digging the foundations for the university. The stunt wasn’t a protest but a positive demonstration, whose purpose was to show gratitude on the university’s location.

In the Oulu Student Magazine, the stunt was described as follows: “The cannon fired, the rector spoke and got the university’s first key. Fireworks were set off, students had pea soup and beer, and then the cannon fired again.”

Even before the university, Oulu Teacher School had been active for several years. Pedagogy students launched the “Operation Boulder”, selling ore boulders for raising money for student housing. The Teacher School also had their own student union, who produced a student magazine, organised interest clubs, arranged parties, and organised the first known traditional May Day event in Oulu. Instead of putting a student cap on Frans Mikael Franzén, in 1958 the cap was put on Uno Aro’s bronze statue Kaarnavenepoika (“Bark Boat Boy”). At that time, the students thought that bishop Franzén would be too prestigious to cap, and the head of the statue wasn’t the size of a student cap.

Matti Kauppi looks back and says that he didn’t really meet the pedagogy students. Well, many of them lived in the same building, Domus Botnica in Toivoniemi, and sometimes Kauppi would run into them in student activities. He remembers that the pedagogy students organised rollicking parties, one of which led to burying a radio ceremonially into Merikoski tailrace channel.

“But we were good boys.”

The university wouldn’t let go

Students who started with Matti Kauppi had clear goals: to get the qualifications to teach biology and geography and out to the world!

Kauppi, too, was about to move on from the university towards graduation and teaching. When he reached the point where he was ready to move on to the working life with respect to his studies, Kauppi decided to stay and deepen his knowledge. In 1965 he met his future wife Anneli, who started studying physical chemistry and biochemistry. Matti Kauppi decided to follow her back into the student life.

“When I was supposed to leave the university, I decided to study chemistry and biochemistry instead.”

For many years, they did studies in pedagogy, different field studies, extra courses on computers — everything that is needed to teach in the university. Along the years they wrote also their doctoral theses. Anneli Kauppi studied the structural and functional differences of using stools of broad-leaved trees in coppice forest, whereas Matti Kauppi developed methods for using sensitive lichens as a tool for studying pollution.

“When I was supposed to leave the university, I decided to study chemistry and biochemistry instead.”

Matti Kauppi had worked already on the side of his studies as a course assistant for a professor. After that, his career continued in the University of Oulu in different temporary jobs as teacher, assistant, and garden amanuensis, as well as few times as acting associate professor. Lichens remained his main study interest, and he did cooperation with international researchers. Some publications include also his wife Anneli.

One of Kauppi’s duties was building the University’s Botanical Gardens. They were originally built in Hupisaaret islands, where the city gardens used to be before they were moved to a more spacious area in Peltola. Work on the Botanical Gardens began in the spring 1961. The plants came from Helsinki Botanical Gardens and Raikko Ruotsalo delivered them to Oulu. With the plants came also specific set of instructions on plant placement.

University, too, was first planned to be located in Hupisaaret islands. In the first few years, the university didn’t have one united location but instead it was scattered in different rental spaces. The suggestions for university’s location included Sanginsuu, Virpiniemi and Koskikeskus near the city centre.

Matti Kauppi was instructed to select the trees and bushes in Hupisaaret that were not to be removed when the university comes. Kauppi did as was told, but in the end, the university found its place in Linnanmaa. The Botanical Gardens followed the campus in 1983.

Life, career, friends

Matti Kauppi retired from his job as an assistant professor in 2000. In a way, the University of Oulu provided him everything in life: wife, degree, work, most of his friends and acquaintances, direction for life.

“Contents of life, work and pleasure too,” Matti Kauppi describes the university’s role in his life.

“Its meaning is one-hundred-per-cent important,” Anneli Kauppi adds.

As a child, Matti Kauppi thought to become plant breeder or biology teacher. If there wouldn’t be a vacancy in the university, it would also be nice to work as gardener.

He didn’t become biology teacher, like many others, and like he was originally supposed to. Not a plant breeder or garden director either, although he did work as the latter for a year.

But 81 years of his life Kauppi has been in a good shape, maybe thanks to his gardening hobby.

The university has given him this memory as well:

On the university’s opening day, Matti Kauppi wanted to see the fireworks that he city of Oulu organised over the Koskikeskus. When the view wasn’t satisfying enough from his own balcony, he went up to the fourth-floor balcony in Domus Botnica.

The fireworks had drawn a lot of students to the balcony. Suddenly Kauppi was pushed aside – some important-looking man cleared space in the balcony. The reason was the prestigious guests: governor Kalle Määttä’s spouse Jenni Määttä and president Urho Kekkonen’s spouse Sylvi Kekkonen were also interested in the fireworks.

“I remember that there I was, watching the fireworks over the Mrs Kekkonen’s shoulder.”

In addition to Matti Kauppi’s interview, other sources used in this article are Kauppi’s interviews in the Yliopiston arki project (“Life in the University”, interviewers Tiina Kuokkanen and Tiia Salo) and in Aktuumi volume 2/08, Oulun korkeakouluseura’s (nowadays Oulun yliopistoseura, “University Society of Oulu”) publication on the opening ceremony of the University of Oulu, the history of OYY Uunosta Välkyksi – Oulun yliopiston ylioppilaskunta vuosina 1959–2009 (2009) edited by Anna Nieminen, and an issue of Kaleva published on the 4th of October 1959.

The story translated by Essi Ranta. All quotes have been translated from Finnish to English.

Matti Kauppi

» One of the alumni who started their studies in the University of Oulu autumn 1959.

» Graduated from the University of Oulu as master in 1965, licentiate in 1972, and doctorate in 1980. Subject for master’s thesis was grazing’s effects on the vegetation of seaside meadows in Liminganlahti, subject for licentiate thesis was using lichens as fertilizers and indicators for pollution. The subject for doctoral thesis was using lichens in studying air pollution.

» Started off by working as an assistant in the plant anatomy course in the University of Oulu spring 1962. Worked in different positions in the University of Oulu until 2000.

“A lot has changed in Oulu since the university was founded, and quite many of the changes have happened thanks to the university. I can only be glad that I have been given a chance to tell about this in the pages of Oulu Student Magazine after 60 years. I wish joy and confidence for everyone working and studying in the University of Oulu!”

In Finnish

Let Me Be Alone in Peace

If Riitta Kaleva could decide, this would be the title of a film depicting her life.

There is a reason for this choice. First, she does not like forms that require various explanations or detailed accounts of things. She also prefers to spend time on her own.

Doing this interview and answering all the questions felt rather awful for her. But it had to be done before her retirement.

You just have to pick up the pieces again, do the unpleasant thing, and carry on. With this mentality she has survived the tough spots.

While very few students would describe the Student Union as something near and dear to them, Kaleva was familiar to many as the Office Secretary. She has placed thousands of term stickers and sports passes onto countless of student cards, given and received keys for the rentable sauna at Manne, and always being the first to meet the customer at the office.

And, of course, answered a plethora of questions from the students.

“I’ve been asked everything. Can you pay with cash at the bus? Or can you receive sexual counselling from this phone number?”

The work she has done for the students of Oulu has been noticed. In February, Riitta was awarded the highest-ranking Honorary Badge of the Student Union.

Before working for the Student Union, Riitta Kaleva worked in the municipality of Siikalatva in the Arts and Crafts Institute of Piippola (nowadays the Piippola Vocational College) as a coordinator for housing and recreation. She studied to become a counsellor in youth work, and eventually she did work with young people for her entire career. “I know of nothing else.”

Riitta Kaleva was the Office Secretary of the Student Union of the University of Oulu for a bit less than fifteen years. Originally, she applied for the job as she wanted to work in Oulu. Her first day on the job was at the beginning of November in 2005, and she quickly grew attached to the work. As she started, she mentioned to the then Secretary General Mikko Nissinen that she would leave the position only when she would retire.

And that is what happened.

Students Nowadays More Polite

Throughout the years the office of the Student Union moved a few times, but some things stayed the same for Kaleva. A few familiar faces picked up the new term sticker every year since 2005. Also, the worries and things troubling students stayed mostly the same, Kaleva assesses. Although, now graduating is one of the things stressing the students, she says.

There are changes as well. According to Kaleva, the current students behave well and are polite. There is also noticeably less binge-drinking and other unwanted rowdy behavior.

Moving from the Mannenkatu office near Rauhala to the old premises of the Language Center at the Linnanmaa campus in 2012 tripled the number of customers and made OYY closer to the students, Kaleva surmises.

But she did miss the old place. At the Mannenkatu office, Kaleva used to open the window at noon so she could hear the bells of the Oulu Cathedral. Summer or winter, the window was always open when the clock struck twelve. The boom of the bells did not reach the Linnanmaa office.

Another wave of new customers arrived when the Student Union moved again in the autumn of 2016, this time within the campus to the old premises of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. These people sought direction inside the campus that had become maze-like and was changing constantly due to all the renovations.

Again, it was time to advice, help, and guide. But that was not too bad: Riitta Kaleva hopes she will be remembered by the acts she has been allowed to do for others: aiding, helping, or guiding someone.

Riitta thinks that it does not matter who helps, or even if that person fails to realize that they have been helped in the first place. Actions and acts are the most important, not the people doing them.

“I like helping people.”

Sea as Mental Landscape

According to Riitta Kaleva, her greatest success is that she has managed to live a rather happy life.

“I have started a new life many times: I have changed jobs, even my marital status.”

When asked about a motto, Kaleva cannot really answer (“I have such a bad memory that I would probably have to change it weekly”), but people make her happy. On the other hand, climate change causes her concern.

In other people she appreciates joyfulness, openness, politeness, and curiosity. But how does she think other people would describe her?

“Probably as a mother. I have given so many lectures to others!”

Being deliberately mean and mistreating others makes her angry.

“One can misbehave accidentally, but not consciously! You must also be prepared to do as much as you are demanding from the people around you.”

Her perfect day would go something like this: waking up in the morning in a cottage, sitting on the balcony drinking coffee, looking out at the sea. And in the evening, it would be time for more coffee.

“Sea is my mental landscape.”

Kaleva is unable to visit her cottage in Ii weekly, but when she does go there, she usually stays there for a whole week, sometimes even two. At the cottage she does gardening: planting pumpkins and potatoes in the rugged earth. There is some yield, though a rather moderate amount.

“A garden plot of my own is something I miss.”

No More Must

When doing this interview, there is a calendar made of cardboard on the wall of the office. It is counting down the days left before retirement. There is just a single red note left: one final working day to go for Kaleva.

Her desk is not completely empty yet: there is a sheet with term stickers next to the keyboard (“I have given a few stickers today”) and a FSHS accounting form.

Kaleva and Nina Schroderus, who started in August 2018 as the new Office Secretary, have been working in the same space for the past year. During this time more and more of the work has been done by Schroderus.

“I am not slacking that easily. In the morning I still had a list of things I have to remember to say to Nina. I have not given up just yet, maybe tomorrow it is time for that.”

If there is one thing Kaleva will not miss from working life, it is the word must. Must do, must remember, must go. No more must-ing.

At the start of her summer holiday, Riitta Kaleva bought a new backpack. It had to be light and durable, one that is comfortable in both far-off lands and in the fells of Lapland, one that is good for any journey.

And on the very first day of her retirement, the first of August, Riitta Kaleva went on using the backpack.

Translation: Kalle Parviainen

In Finnish.

The results of the cooperation negotiations concerning two research units at the University of Oulu were publicized on Wednesday the 3rd of April after rector Jouko Niinimäki made a decision on the matter.

The Faculty of Education will experience a maximum of 5 layoffs in total in teaching staff of music education, music, music performance and singing. In the beginning of the negotiations the needed layoffs were estimated at six people.

The astronomy research unit in the Faculty of Science will not have any layoffs, but astronomy will no longer be offered as a major subject.

According to the University, astronomy will be offered as a minor subject at the University of Oulu in the future. In their press release the University also states that through co-operation with other universities it will still be possible to take astronomy as a major subject as well as complete doctoral studies in astronomy at the University of Oulu.

The University of Oulu states that supportive measures will be offered to those laid off for finding employment and further training.

“The final amount [of layoffs] will become more accurate. As an employer we are obligated to re-employ and re-train. We will see if we could possibly place these people in other tasks at the university”, Jarmo Okkonen, the Human Resources Director said to the magazine.

There are currently 14 employees involved in teaching music pedagogy, music, music performance and singing. According to the University the job descriptions will be condensed down to nine positions. In addition, a professorship in music education is currently being filled.

As a result of the negotiations a total of nine positions will be re-opened for application. Two lecturers will be directly moved to new tasks, as they are currently covering the same tasks and these tasks will not be cut down.

The positions opening for applications are three music teachers (guitar, piano and piano accompaniment) as well as four singing teachers’ positions, where didactics and theory are taught.

“When the number of positions will be cut, new positions will open for applications. The applicants will be interviewed and we will go through a normal application process”, Okkonen says.

More paired and group work in musical education

The reasons for changes in musical education are the high cost of the education and the small amount of graduates.

What does this mean for students?

According to the University’s press release the music education’s subject teacher programme will be reformed so as to place greater emphasis on the pedagogical development of the teacher.

The University says that the contact hours in teaching music as a minor subject will be brought into line with the department’s other minor subject teaching for example by developing teaching methods and utilizing peer learning. The teaching will shift from individual instruction towards increasing amounts of peer and group teaching.

“We already utilize peer and group teaching, now the amount must increase. This will not rule out individual instruction, but the ratio will change. We are developing teaching methods”, Jarmo Okkonen says.

Will the changes affect curriculum?

“There will not be an immediate change. In 2021 we will use new curriculum, in 2020 we will continue with the old one”, Okkonen says.

Petteri Klintrup who is in charge of music education studies told the magazine on Thursday the 4th of April that the result of the cooperation negotiations means huge changes. According to him the scale of the changes had not even begun to take shape in his mind at the moment of the interview on Thursday afternoon.

“The curriculum will change radically. As the staff is cut, the contact teaching per student will most likely be cut drastically, almost catastrophically.”

Klintrup predicts there will be changes to both the subject teacher studies as well as the minor studies for primary teacher education.

“In terms of contents, the future view is very poor for both. As a result of this hands-on teaching will most likely end and we will move to large group teaching, online courses, lectures and book exams.”

“It really is a shame for the students. I have talked with them to some extent and they have also been appalled.”

What happens next?

“We have an existing curriculum that we need to get through with less staff. During the summer we need to try to adjust teaching, and in autumn we will start. In autumn we will run into a wall”, Klintrup says.

“When the situation is this up in the air, no one, me or anyone else, knows what will happen until the new positions have been filled in May and we find out. Now we wait.”

The student guild of Music Education Mukava ry’s president Loviisa Minkkinen gave the magazine a comment on the matter via email on Thursday the 4th of April. Minkkinen said the result is hard to comprehend.

“Condensing fourteen people into nine can only mean a direct cut in the quality of future music teacher studies. We need to survive the upcoming academic year 2019–2020 with the old curriculum and new staff composition. Our teachers are already overworked. To loosely quote one of our teachers ‘five hundred hours of work is being fit in three hundred hours.’ If research done by the staff is also added to this equation, I would be interested to hear the decision-makers’ concrete ideas on how our studies will be carried out reasonably next year.”

Mukava is skeptical towards the education reform measures.

“Putting emphasis on the pedagogic development of a teacher sounds good on paper, but for us it means that musical know-how will be lacking. This could be compared to a situation where future mathematics teachers knowledge of math would be based in their hobbyism. When it comes to individual instruction being changed to pair or group work, it simply will not work on a practical level. Teaching classical singing or piano to a group is entirely impossible”, Minkkinen says.

Not enough masters from astronomy

The reason for the abolishment of astronomy as a major was said to be the small amount of graduating students.

“The amount of graduates is so small, it’s hard to justify how a major would fair when less than one person graduates in a year”, Jarmo Okkonen says.

The last time the major was at risk was in 2016. Back then the University of Oulu discontinued their responsibilities in teaching statistics, biophysics, theoretical physics and geophysics as majors.

The change regarding astronomy as a major will come into effect for students starting their studies in autumn 2020. Students who have started or will start their studies before this date have the right to complete their studies according to the current degree structure.

According to the University, the research conditions will be strengthened by changing one of the astronomy professorships from a fixed-term position to a non-fixed-term one. At the same time, financial support will be directed towards teaching-focused tasks that broadly support physics education, the release states. The tasks are said to be organised as part of a larger entity within the Faculty of Science.

The University states that the objective of the procedures is to safeguard astronomy research, strengthen physics education and even out the workload for teaching staff.

What does this mean in practice? Where is the money being transferred from?

“We aim to support teaching with the Faculty’s resources. How the Faculty is able to organize that is a part of the proceedings plan”, Okkonen states.

Professor of astronomy Heikki Salo told the magazine on Friday the 5th of April that the reason for the cooperation negotiations has still not become clear to him. He reminds us that when discussing the small number of graduates we should notice that the master’s result per person is similar to physics and that “double the amount of doctors are produced”.

“The research also produces ministry funding worth over 40 graduates annually.”

To him it is also unclear what happens next: the major is disbanded, the independent unit will cease to be, and will apparently be merged somewhere. But where?

“As an example, here is a question: how will teaching be organized? Next autumn we will take in new major students who will have the right to finish their master studies by the year 2024. Out of four astronomy teachers two have a fixed-term position, the first ending in 2020 and the second in 2023. There is no plan for how the teaching will arranged. The option to take astronomy as a major subject through co-operation with other universities as mentioned in the University’s release has also not been addressed at all in the negotiations.”

Salo criticizes the strengthening of research conditions mentioned in the press release. Regularizing the other professorship has been in the staff plan for several years according to Salo: “the regularization should already have happened last year.”

“Speaking of strengthening is an interesting word choice when in actuality the staff is being cut so that only two core funded people can stay in the unit. On top of that they also misleadingly speak of giving resources to physics education at the same time. Astronomy is giving the resources, not receiving.”

During the cooperation negotiations the unit made several attempts to talk with the University’s administration. This contact was turned down, Salo says.

“It feels like the information we sent and the worried messages from international colleagues have now gone into a black hole. However, astronomical research of black holes is more worthwhile – you might get some indirect signal back.”

Heikki Salo thinks the doctoral studies situation will lead to a crash. He says that the day before the interview he got contacted by someone interested in Oulu as a place to complete their doctoral studies. Could Salo have been the instructor?

“I was thinking on answering like this: a couple of months ago this would have been successful had the funding worked out. Now we cannot grant enough specialization studies, nor an appealing environment. In doctoral education it is not enough to have one instructor who teaches about everything. You need a conversational environment where discussion is about science, not only about how to survive going forward.”

According to Salo the astronomy unit’s enthusiastic atmosphere has been ruined. In the last two months employees’ thoughts have revolved around the cooperation negotiations, and many have applied abroad, he says.

“Even just a day before the news about the negotiations, it could have been said that astronomy was doing better than ever before both research-wise and when it came to outside funding.”

Paula Kvist, astronomy student and event manager for Sigma-kilta, the association of physics and mathematics students at the University of Oulu, told the magazine on Wednesday the 3rd of April that the decision was a terrible shame and a big disappointment.

“Once again we are losing another a major along with theoretical physics, geophysics and biophysics. Based on what we have seen happen previously, the disbanding of a major has always lead to teaching practically withering and research units dying out. [Without a major] Continuous research and education have previously not been able to be guaranteed, and I feel pessimistic about whether it will be guaranteed now, either.”

Paula Kvist thinks this will also affect astronomy education.

“Two people have worked in the unit in fixed-term positions, and they have contributed significantly in teaching. It feels unlikely that the teaching could continue to be offered at the same quality without the resources of these two employees.”

Paula Kvist is also upset about how the status of the major was handled during the negotiations.

“The way in which the matter has been advanced has ignored students’ voices. Handling the major status in cooperation negotiations has actively removed our changes to affect things from the whole process.”

The rector’s decision was made on 3.4.

The plan to hold cooperation negotiations was published for the first time at the end of January. The decision to move forward with the negotiations was made in a meeting of the University’s board on the 8th of February. Originally the negotiations were thought to end by the 11th of March.

The negotiations regarding the two units ended on Wednesday the 20th of March. The negotiating party representing the staff presented a dissenting opinion.

In the dissenting statement, criticism focused on how even though the procedures regarding music as a minor and musical education align in part with development goals, opening music and vocal teachers’ positions as old positions with 640 hours of teaching duties does not follow the current collective labour agreement or seem like good employee politics. On top of that the increased amount of group lessons will increase the need to prepare teaching even more.

Petteri Klintrup also thinks the hours assigned to the new positions are against the general collective labour agreement.

The general collective agreement for universities that came into effect 1.2.2018 includes three limits to hours, 142, 396 and 455 hours a year. In positions that focus on teaching the hours for contact teaching are a maximum of 396 in an academic year. However for professors the maximum hours for contact teaching are 142 hours per academic year. In teaching positions that do not include research the maximum hours for contact teaching can be up to 455 per academic year. According to the general collective agreement, implementing the largest maximum 455 hours in practice in a scientific university requires that the job includes less preparation in tasks that focus on teaching.

“In the new general collective agreement all the new teaching positions are 455 hours. Even though the positions are being opened for a new application period, these new positions for music and singing teachers’ hours have been marked at 640 hours using the old model. We find that to be against the agreement”, Klintrup says.

“We disagree with how the general collective agreement should be interpreted. The rules on transitioning state that in positions where work hours have been greater when the agreement came in to force, the amount of hours will remain the same. So if the hours have been greater they will continue to be so”, Jarmo Okkonen states.

Regarding astronomy, the dissenting opinion brings up that the reasoning behind the negotiations being a small amount of graduates and the new funding system are unsustainable, because the funding the unit receives from the Ministry of Education and Culture is based in research and internationally contended funding. Where the expensive field of study funding has been changed to be based in degrees in the new funding model, the weight on research and internationally contended funding increases.

A week after the negotiations ended there was a discussion event held for the staff of music education on Wednesday the 27th of March and for astronomy on the 28th.

Why were staff events being held before the final decision was made?

“The general collective law states that once negotiations have ended, we are obligated to report what procedures the employer is considering. In these events the employees have been told these are the procedures the employer is considering”, Jarmo Okkonen states.

According to Okkonen the final results stayed the same as the ones reported in the staff meetings.

The previous time cooperation negotiations were held at the University of Oulu was in 2017. Back then the negotiations did not concern teaching and research staff.

Translation: Iida Putkonen.