News in brief

The Owee-board said that in previous years the food bank did collect the leftover food, but that it did not take opened packages. The Owee board members will now evaluate the situation and make recommendations to their successors.

Patience please

Those keen to know how exactly the universities of Delft, Leiden and Rotterdam plan to set up their future merger must be patient. Until May, that is. Prior to then, everyone in the joint academic communities can influence the process, said Dirk Jan van den Berg, Chairman of TU Delft’s Executive Board, during the opening of the academic year on September 5. His words made it clear that he doesn’t like all the speculation in the press and on social media sites about the planned merger of the three universities. Van den Berg believes it is much more productive to discuss the ‘substantive aspects’.

Innovative sports

Twenty-two students drawn from all faculties started a new minor this week, called Sports and Innovation. Why start such a minor? Because “sport is a vehicle to pump a lot of knowledge into students,” says Dr. Arjen Jansen, of the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, who developed the programme. As a kick start, the enrolled students went sailing this week – good for teambuilding- and were given a lecture by former Dutch Olympic field hockey team coach, Mark Lammers.

T-shirts galore

Every student has them: shirts depicting logos of various study, student association and sports clubs. Or a t-shirt from the Introduction Week. But if you don’t feel the need to add to your pyjama-top collection, you can drop off your new and used t-shirts at the Sports Centre, from where they’ll be donated to a charitable cause. ‘Shirts Naar Vraag Delft’ (SNV Delft) – an initiative of MSc students Flip Schellekens and Duco Vollebregt – will be collecting the shirts in a container until September 15. “Clothing is very much wanted in Africa,” Schellekens says.

New funding

The three Dutch universities of technology will receive an extra 33 million euros grant over the course of the next three years. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science wants the universities to spend the money on improving educational standards and study success rates. TU Delft will use the majority of its share of the extra funding for reviewing BSc courses, monitoring and guiding students, and developing courses for teachers.

Drinking water

It pains Professor Hans van Dijk (CEG) that his beloved drinking water sector is currently obsessed with cost reductions at the expense of expertise and dedication to an important public facility. In his parting speech, this Friday, he will express his chief concerns. In an interview with Delta, Prof. Van Dijk warns of the risks of delayed maintenance, which could lead to contaminations. He also states that water companies should cease their mutual comparisons of costs and focus on maintaining high quality standards instead. 

De actie was bedoeld om de nieuwe website checkjekamer.nl te promoten. Op de site is het mogelijk om te kijken of de juiste huurprijs voor een kamer gevraagd wordt.

Enquête
Aanleiding voor de actie waren de resultaten van een enquête gehouden door studentenvakbond LSVb aan de hand van. De conclusie was dat studenten jaarlijks 100 miljoen euro teveel betalen aan huur. Als reactie lanceerde LSVb checkjekamer.nl.

Flyers
Het voltallige, vijfkoppige bestuur van de VSSD en een afgevaardigde van de LSVb stonden vanaf 12 uur ‘s middags koukleumend maar enthousiast voor de Aula en aan de Mekelweg flyers uit te delen. Voor de Aula hadden zij bij hun busje een paar laptops geplaatst waar de studenten ter plekke konden bekijken of zij volgens de wettelijke norm teveel betaalden voor hun kamer.

Doel bereikt
Van de laptops werd door een enkeling gebruik gemaakt. Voor de 250 flyers was veel meer belangstelling. Na anderhalf uur was het bestuur ze kwijt. Hierop werd de actie, die tot 3 uur zou duren, afgesloten. “Het doel is wel bereikt,” vond bestuurslid Bentvelsen, “Door middel van de flyers weten de studenten in ieder geval van het bestaan van de website af.”

Advies
De actie was volgens de VSSD hard nodig. Elke week komen enkele studenten langs voor advies over hun kamer. Van de studenten in Delft huurt 40 procent particulier en daar gaat het regelmatig mis met de huurprijzen. Als er sprake is van een te hoge huurprijs, adviseert de VSSD om dit bij de huisbaas aan te kaarten. Als dat niet helpt kan de student zich wenden tot de bond voor gratis advies. Mogelijke vervolgstappen zijn naar de huurcommissie stappen en een geding aanspannen.

Science Centre

The Science Centre has done very well in its first year. Next year should however make clear whether the heightened interest is permanent. No less than 38,300 visitors came to the Science Centre after it opened its door to the public in September 2010. That number exceeded expectations, says Michael van der Meer, the Science Centre’s director. The target was set at 25,000 – a number never exceeded by the Science Centre’s predecessor, the ‘Technology Museum’. Van der Meer has a number of explanations for the new centre’s success: “We launched an intensive marketing campaign, the weather has been bad this summer – which is good for museums – and we’ve profited from the fact we’re a newly opened museum.”

Risky NL

The Netherlands, of all European countries, is most at risk from natural disasters and the adverse effects of climate change, according to the United Nations’ ‘World Risk Report’, released this week. In ranking based on risk assessments for 173 countries, the Netherlands ranked 69th, owing primarily to the country’s high susceptibility to major floods, combined with a high population density. Vanuatu, a remote island in the Pacific Ocean, was deemed most at risk to natural disasters, while Qatar was judged to be least at risk.