The International Student Senate

The International Student Senate is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating interaction and cooperation between elected student leaders worldwide in economic development, social progress and more specific the promotion of education and training as key factors in the development of the future knowledge society. The International Student Senate was founded in 1989 at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.
Organization
The organization of The International Student Senate consists of a Board of Directors presided by a Secretary General elected by the members of the Board as well as a General Assembly, i.e. The International Student Senate.
The Board of Directors has a threefold goal:
1. to select the students eligible to reside in the International Student Senate
2. to organize the yearly International Student Senate
3. to disseminate the findings of the International Student Senate
The International Student Senate meets once a year under a President elected from among the members of the Senate. The members of the Senate are all lawfully elected student leaders at top tier universities. When the International Student Senate votes on important questions, a two-thirds majority of those present and voting is required. Examples of important questions include: recommendations on social and economic matters to ameliorate society in general, recommendations on promoting education and science as a driving factor in the future knowledge society. The International Student Senate pursues its objectives through the dissemination of her findings to the different regional, national and international stakeholders of the questions discussed in the Senate.
History
The International Student Senate was founded in 1989 by then student leader Gert Van Mol at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Being elected himself as a student leader by the students of the Institute of Physical Education for Biomedical Sciences at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium Mr. Van Mol conceived the idea of bringing together a selected group of elected student leaders from across Europe to come together on a yearly basis to discuss topics with the impact of ameliorating society on several aspects as well as to be confronted with ideas from outside the university. The Senate started to invite internationally acclaimed thought- and business leaders who would discuss certain topics hereby creating a learning moment for the student body, after which the students would debate the viewpoint of the speaker, ultimately leading to a white paper on the subject, collecting the viewpoints of the assembled elected student leaders. The International Student Senate organization would then send the white paper or resolution to the different stakeholders in society.
Originally the organization was named The Student Senate. A seat at The Student Senate was automatically reserved for anybody who was a lawfully elected student leader by a recognized student body of a top tier European university. The first ever session of The Student Senate took place at the student headquarters of the students of the Biomedical Science Group Leuven in “De Sportzak” at that time located in ‘brasserie’ De Wink, at the Father Damian-plein in Leuven, Belgium, assembling a dozen elected student leaders of the different faculties of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Together the elected student leaders represented approximately 10,000 students or at least half of the total student population from the university at that time. Confronted with the atrocities at the Tien An Men square, June 4, 1989, The Student Senate invited several Chinese students, professors and student leaders to debate what was going on in China. It was decided during many lengthy and nightly discussions that The Student Senate should internationalize immediately hereby changing the name from The Student Senate to The International Student Senate. In a later stage, in 1990, a subsidiary group was created being solely populated with European elected student leaders, or The European Student Senate. Mr. Van Mol went on to create his proper publishing house, The Publishing Company, after graduating from university. In 2000 he sold his company successfully to a company on the Euronext Stockexchange, moving on to become a VIP Program Manager for Dow Jones at The Wall Street Journal Europe ultimately becoming head of The Wall Street Journal Europe Future Leadership Institute. In 2009 it was decided to join forces between The Wall Street Journal Europe Future Leadership Institute and The International Student Senate, which led to renaming The International Student Senate as the WSJE International Student Senate.
Sources
The Wall Street Journal Europe Education Website: About The International Student Senate
About Gert Van Mol

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