In English

This page provides a brief overview of the association and its background in English. The rest of the site’s content is in Finnish.

The Guild of the Round Tower association (PTK ry) is an honour and senior organisation operating in the vicinity of the Aalto University Student Union (AYY). Its purpose is to fulfil its mission, preserve the spirit of engineering students (teekkari) and student traditions, and promote a living connection between current students and previous generations of students.

Activities

The backbone of PTK’s activities for the past two decades has been the Conclaves organized in autumn and spring, where student activists from different generations meet. Conclaves are usually excursion-type meetings, during which participants not only get to know fellow kindred spirits but also explore a current topic, such as a building or a social theme.

In line with PTK’s original idea, maintaining contact with the studying generation has been important, and the esteemed members are very interested in the well-being of the studying youth. PTK strives to be close to both the Aalto University Student Union and Aalto University itself, supporting their purposes. In addition to supporting the university and the student union, PTK has representation and nomination rights in communities established by its predecessor, TTEY (Teekkaritoiminnan Edistämisyhdistys, “Teekkari Activities Promotion Association”), such as the KAUTE Foundation, Student Health Association, and TTER.

According to the 2009 agreement between TTEY and TKY (The Student Union of Helsinki University of Technology, predecessor of AYY), PTK is also responsible for many teekkari traditions, managed in collaboration with the Aalto University Student Union’s Teekkarijaosto (Teekkari Section).

Honourables (“arwoisa”)

Members of PTK are called ”honourable” (arwoisa). Every year, 15 – 20 individuals are invited to become members of the PTK, who during their studies have shown continuous, lively interest and enthusiasm for teekkari culture and other activities of the Aalto University Student Union, as well as advancing development within the student union or associations operating within its sphere. Being called honourable serves as an acknowledgment of active participation in the teekkari community and the Aalto University student community. The invitation to become esteemed is made in close cooperation with the Aalto University Student Union and its Teekkari Section.

History

The current form of the Guild of the Round Tower Association (PTK ry) is a combination of the old ideological PTK and the TTEY.

PTK was established in 1947 based on an initiative made a couple of years earlier by Erkki Suksi. The idea was to improve the internal continuity of the teekkari student community after the wars, so that old traditions would not be forgotten. At the same time, the guild was intended to form a living link between the studying generation and the graduated scientists.

TTEY was founded in 1948 as the working glove of the TKY (Student Union of the Helsinki University of Technology), to gather funds for the construction of the Teekkari Student Village (Teekkarikylä). Under the legislation at the time, the TKY could not carry out all the operations needed to raise money for the Student Village, so a separate legal entity close to the Student Union was needed for the fundraising for the Student Village project.

Both associations were partially forgotten from the 1960s onwards until TKY wanted to revive PTK and bring it closer to the Student Union. Additionally, TTEY drifted further away from the TKY, hiding its assets.

In the early 1990s, documents were found that more broadly revealed the existence of the TTEY. After investigations, the TKY began to claim its representation right in the association’s board and funding for teekkari activities. The TKY approached the old members of the association, especially its founding members, who began to claim their membership rights and demand the association to fulfill its original purpose according to the rules – supporting teekkari student activities. This began a legal battle lasting over a decade and encompassing sixteen court decisions, which ended in victory for the old members and the TKY. In 2006, TTEY’s new legal board returned the association’s assets to match its original purpose by donating over five million euros to the TTER (TTE-fund) established under the TKY. After this, the existence and continuity of the association began to be considered.

In the summer of 2008, the Aalto University Foundation was established, and work began on establishing Aalto University. From the beginning of 2010, the activities of the TKY would transition to becoming the AYY – Aalto University Student Union. It was not desired to establish a separate association for the teekkari community; instead, the starting point was that teekkari activities remain a vibrant part of AYY. However, TKY wanted to transfer certain responsibilities, obligations, and items related to teekkari traditions to a legal entity with sufficient continuity that embodied the spirit of teekkari. PTK was considered a possible guardian of traditions, but it was just a group of individuals operating in connection with the TKY, without rules and a functioning administration. TKY also hoped that PTK would become independent, as a community primarily representing one field of study was not seen as fitting well into the multi-disciplinary activities of AYY.

In the spring of 2009, members of the TTEY board were elected to the PTK council. With a joint administration, an effective change organisation was created, whose most important task was to change TTEY’s rules to match the purposes of PTK. At the same time, the association’s name would be changed to the Guild of the Round Tower association – PTK ry. Other key issues included how to implement the recruitment of PTK’s members as future members of association and managing the association’s membership register. The rule change was approved at TTEY’s annual meeting on March 18, 2010, when TTEY’s honourable history took a new leap in supporting teekkari activities, this time becoming a purely ideological association preserving traditions.