Cooperation partner of the TU Chemnitz –
The Chemnitz-Zwickau Student Union (SWCZ)
The student union of Chemnitz-Zwickau (SWCZ) ensures a carefree and trouble-free student life. In addition to economic, social and cultural services, a comprehensive range of services related to studying is offered.
The SWCZ supports students with a wide range of free consultation services, such as social counseling, advice for international students, legal or psychological consultation. In addition, studying with family responsibilities is encouraged by the SWCZ. The SWCZ ensures comprehensive childcare by running its own “Campulino” daycare center and making the “Zwergencampus” available. Various cultural and leisure activities, such as its own courses and events, are also created by the SWCZ and ideas from students are promoted through the cultural fund. Outdoor games can be rented in the “cafete⁵⁵” on Reichenhainer Straße, especially for use on the surrounding areas of the campus between the Orangery and the cafeteria. Various board games can also be borrowed from the info point in Thüringer Weg 3.
The SWCZ also maintains the student residences in Chemnitz. Currently, 2770 rooms are rented in various forms of living, from single apartments to rooms in shared accommodation, in 15 dormitories. There are ten dormitories in Chemnitz, four in Zwickau and one in Schneeberg. The low rental prices include all additional costs, electricity, internet, cable TV and caretaker services. In addition, community and sports rooms can be used free of charge. Washing machines and dryers are available to all tenants for a fee.
The energy consumption of the student residences is almost at the level of the last few years. The proportion of green electricity used in the dormitories has increased. The SWCZ is contractually bound to the SIB when it comes to purchasing electricity. Due to the Europe-wide invitation to tender and the associated large total volume of offers, the SWCZ benefits from lower prices, but has no significant influence on the proportion of green electricity in the dormitories. The dormitory Vettersstraße 52/54 is equipped with a photovoltaic system for generating electricity. In 2020, this resulted in a saving of 8% in electrical energy compared to the total consumption of both dormitories. This saved approx. 26 t of CO².
The SWCZ operates several facilities for catering for students, employees and guests of the TU Chemnitz. These include the refectory and cafeteria on the Reichenhainer Straße campus and the refectory and cafeteria on the Straße der Nationen campus.
The topic of sustainability has been the focus here for years, especially when it comes to purchasing and designing a wide variety of supply offers and menu lines. The menu line “mensavital”, for example, which was developed in the university gastronomy working group of the eleven East German student unions and aims at freshness and calorie reduction, as well as the organic menus and the new front cooking offers introduced in 2019 with the modernization, make a contribution to conscious nutrition. All of them have a significantly higher degree of freshness, which has led to a considerable reduction in convenience goods. All offers are continuously optimized with regard to aspects such as regionality, seasonality, degree of freshness and natural origin. To this end, the cooks work continuously with those responsible in the departments of nutritional physiology and purchasing, with student and university representatives, suppliers and producers, sometimes up to the association level of the German students and student union. The topics of sustainable packaging solutions, fair trade and direct purchase are also becoming increasingly important.
