Written by Raghuraman
16 Mar 2015
http://www.sasse.se/ is probably the best place to understand the feverish activity and social climate at the school without being here. SASSE is one of the oldest students unions in Stockholm and in many ways is more than just a student union.
“The decades around the turn of the nineteenth century were years of rapid industrial expansion in Sweden, which in turn led to a need for trained managers and staff. Swedish industry and commerce were quick to recognize the importance of specialized education in business practices, and the Stockholm School of Economics Association was thus formed in 1906 for the express purpose of establishing a School of Business in Stockholm based on the model of schools established in North America and elsewhere in Europe.” – History of SASSE
So in some ways, SASSE was around even before the school opened. MINDBLOWN!
It has many many students actively involved in its running. Some students even take a break of a year or two to work full-time for SASSE. Members of the board have to do this. Last year’s president was one dynamic character. You can read this interview in Swedish here. (google translate works fine on this one!). He is really really accomplished and looking at his Linkedin profile I could never guess his age. Funny thing though is that the school is full of people like these. Sweden and the school are such a breeding ground for talent. (Side note, this list of 101 super talents 2015 contains one Mr. Ankit Desai, a masters student at SSE from India. So much pressure on me haha :P)
There are very comprehensive elections for these posts. Its super intense and super fair. They have so many rules and most people spend weeks deciding who to vote for etc. Here is the list of candidates for this year. The amount of information available is surreal, also there are many debates and public cross questioning bouts called Porks. The whole school is bustling with election activity for a couple of weeks. Every where you go you see some election related activity going on. Strangely though, to ensure fairness, students aren’t allowed to campaign. I think. I dunno. I now feel guilty for not being a responsible student!
HandelsTV makes these fun and fantastic movies every once in a while. This the year end film themed on the matrix! The old board leaves and the new board takes over soon.
This calender is the go-to place to see what events are happening each day in school. But dunno how much of it is accessible to the public. Hope you’ve gotten a slight flavor of SASSE with this post. I’ll try and write up about some activities at SASSE soon!
