In last week’s issue of Delta, it was reported in the News in Brief section that the Dutch Parliament is ‘very critical’ about the proposed merger of the Leiden, Delft, and Rotterdam universities.
The socialists (SP) and social-democrats (PvdA) have already rejected the proposed plan. The liberals (PVV) think a merger is unnecessary, and the Freedom Party (PVV) frets about loss of student choice, while the Christian Democrats (CDA) have opaquely stated that decentralized education fits the current zeitgeist (so it’s not that people prefer it, but that the CDA imagines that people prefer it). I have news for the members of parliament: these three university campuses are already effectively merged, at least for some programs.
The Life Sciences and Technology, bioinformatics, and Industrial Ecology programs are all collaborative between Leiden and TU Delft, and the industrial ecology program used to include Rotterdam as well. Unfortunately, Rotterdam dropped out of the industrial ecology alliance, but one reason for this could be that coordination between the universities is terrible. Actually, non-existent would be a better description. As an industrial ecology student, I can tell you that getting registered at both campuses, getting grades and classes posted to both intranet systems, or getting residency permits renewed all require lots of travel between the respective campuses, unanswered emails, and frantic phone calls. In fact, there is so much confusion every time I ask an administrator about my program that I feel like industrial ecology is some strange relative the universities didn’t know they had.
This is a shame, because interdisciplinary programs like the ones mentioned above offer new opportunities for practical application and research, and actually increase student choice (once again, the PVV reaches a bizarre conclusion, but at least this time they’re not being bigoted).
I recently finished an internship at Royal DSM, a company with two main groups of businesses: life sciences and material sciences. But as the use of biomass for materials like engineering plastics increases, DSM increasingly finds the lines between these two groups to be arbitrary and blurred. This is just one example of where interdisciplinary applications are important.
The question is not whether the campuses should be merged, because they already are in a functional sense. Instead, the government should be inquiring about the best way such a merger should proceed: should there be a strong central authority? Or should the campuses retain maximum autonomy? What do students actually want? What can be learned from current joint programs? Of course, I don’t expect the Dutch government to act intelligently here – this is the same government that recently rescinded €25 million for a new architecture building that had been awarded to the TU Delft, because the university decided that retrofitting an old building was a better idea. The money could only be used for a normaal cursief>new building, which is ridiculous – especially since retrofitting an old building should be more cost-efficient and environmentally friendly. I guess the TU shouldn’t even bother asking for money to renovate the Civil Engineering and Geosciences building, which is also a pressing need. Maybe we should burn it down instead? Apparently that’s preferable to this government. That being the case, I’m not sure why anyone should listen to the government’s opinion on the merging of Leiden, Delft, and Rotterdam universities.In last week’s issue of Delta, it was reported in the News in Brief section that the Dutch Parliament is ‘very critical’ about the proposed merger of the Leiden, Delft, and Rotterdam universities. The socialists (SP) and social-democrats (PvdA) have already rejected the proposed plan. The liberals (PVV) think a merger is unnecessary, and the Freedom Party (PVV) frets about loss of student choice, while the Christian Democrats (CDA) have opaquely stated that decentralized education fits the current zeitgeist (so it’s not that people prefer it, but that the CDA imagines that people prefer it). I have news for the members of parliament: these three university campuses are already effectively merged, at least for some programs.
The Life Sciences and Technology, bioinformatics, and Industrial Ecology programs are all collaborative between Leiden and TU Delft, and the industrial ecology program used to include Rotterdam as well. Unfortunately, Rotterdam dropped out of the industrial ecology alliance, but one reason for this could be that coordination between the universities is terrible. Actually, non-existent would be a better description. As an industrial ecology student, I can tell you that getting registered at both campuses, getting grades and classes posted to both intranet systems, or getting residency permits renewed all require lots of travel between the respective campuses, unanswered emails, and frantic phone calls. In fact, there is so much confusion every time I ask an administrator about my program that I feel like industrial ecology is some strange relative the universities didn’t know they had.
This is a shame, because interdisciplinary programs like the ones mentioned above offer new opportunities for practical application and research, and actually increase student choice (once again, the PVV reaches a bizarre conclusion, but at least this time they’re not being bigoted).
I recently finished an internship at Royal DSM, a company with two main groups of businesses: life sciences and material sciences. But as the use of biomass for materials like engineering plastics increases, DSM increasingly finds the lines between these two groups to be arbitrary and blurred. This is just one example of where interdisciplinary applications are important.
The question is not whether the campuses should be merged, because they already are in a functional sense. Instead, the government should be inquiring about the best way such a merger should proceed: should there be a strong central authority? Or should the campuses retain maximum autonomy? What do students actually want? What can be learned from current joint programs? Of course, I don’t expect the Dutch government to act intelligently here – this is the same government that recently rescinded €25 million for a new architecture building that had been awarded to the TU Delft, because the university decided that retrofitting an old building was a better idea. The money could only be used for a normaal cursief>new building, which is ridiculous – especially since retrofitting an old building should be more cost-efficient and environmentally friendly. I guess the TU shouldn’t even bother asking for money to renovate the Civil Engineering and Geosciences building, which is also a pressing need. Maybe we should burn it down instead? Apparently that’s preferable to this government. That being the case, I’m not sure why anyone should listen to the government’s opinion on the merging of Leiden, Delft, and Rotterdam universities.
Het begin is veelbelovend. De setting is een persconferentie van het nieuwe bedrijf Kodacell. Kodak en Duracell zijn ten onder gegaan omdat de vraag naar filmpjes en batterijen is ingestort. De nieuwe baas Landon Kettlewell legt uit dat hij gebruik wil maken van het kapitaal en de logistieke infrastructuren om in de Verenigde Staten ‘het nieuwe werken’ van de grond te krijgen door microkredieten te verstrekken aan kleine innovatieve bedrijfjes.
Journaliste Suzanne Church volgt de ontwikkeling op de voet en komt terecht bij twee nerds die uit elektronica en robots van de sloop aangepaste robots maken die als een soort circusact in auto’s rondrijden of brood roosteren. Kettlewell ondersteunt hun activiteiten.
Church gaat op de uitnodiging van Kettlewell in om exclusief voor hem het nieuwe werken te verslaan. Ze zegt haar baan op bij de krant, begint een weblog en trekt bij de nerds Perry en Lester in. Rondom hun werkplaats ontstaat een bohemienachtige samenleving van op drift geraakte mensen die allemaal hun reguliere baan zijn kwijt geraakt in de voortschrijdende crisis.
Doctorow: “In het industriegebied rond Detroit richtte iedereen zich op technologieën die de auto moest vervangen. Sommigen bouwden robots om oude tankstations te ontmantelen en de verontreinigde bodem af te voeren. Anderen bouwden lopende bandsystemen om auto’s uit elkaar te houden, om de materialen uit het binnenste van de oudjes opnieuw te gebruiken.”
In het nieuwe werken is een grote rol weggelegd voor driedimensionale printers en voor pretparken. De printers maken onderdelen, de robots zetten die in elkaar en zo ontstaat het ene pretpark na het andere. Hoe dat precies in zijn werk gaat laat de auteur in het midden.
Een andere succesvolle onderneming is de in Sint Petersburg ontwikkelde afslankingskuur die Lester in tien weken tijd doet afvallen van 180 naar 80 kilo. Dankzij de kuur, een mix van hormoonpreparaten, stamcellen en een opgezweept metabolisme, verdwijnen de ‘dikkies’ gestaag uit de Amerikaanse straatbeeld.
Afgezien van zulke onderhoudende zijlijntjes blijft de focus van het verhaal op Perry, Lester en Suzanne Church die bovendien verliefd wordt op de nieuwe en slanke Lester. Van haar journalistiek is weinig meer over, het verandert in gedweep. Dat geldt helaas ook voor het boek dat uiteindelijk heel weinig duidelijk maakt over hoe Amerika na de crisis verder leeft.
Na een voortvarende start in het eerste hoofdstuk kabbelt het verhaal zeshonderd bladzijden door. Dat is erg lang. Daar komt bij dat de taal zo plat is als in een vakantiethriller, maar dan zonder spanning. Mocht het je interesseren, download het verhaal dan gratis als e-book en spaar een boom.
Cory Doctorow, Makers, 2010 (Nederlandse vertaling), De vliegende Hollander. Download via craphound.com/makers/download/
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