News in brief

Director of Education, Frank Sanders, of the Civil Engineering & Geosciences faculty, fears that this will create a battlefield.

“For decades one-third of all civil engineering students have dropped out,” he said, “and I suspect that if the standard is raised to 45 ECTS more than one-third will drop out.” Sanders thinks this is unjust. Herman Russchenberg, Director of Education at the faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, takes a different view: “I’m not convinced it will in fact become a battlefield. Students focus on the standard, and that’s why I often say: set the standard then at 60 ECTS.”

Robbery
Delft student company, ikhebeenbril.nl, was robbed last week. The thieves made off with 700 pairs of sunglasses, totalling some 3,000 euro. The student company was not insured. The break-in occurred at Bacinol 2, an office building in Delft. The company, which was set up two years ago by students Ad Oner and Mark Reiff, sells sunglasses via its site and at festivals, like Awakenings and Voltt.

ikhebeenbril.nl

Objections
Dutch Secretary of State, Halbe Zijlstra, is not convinced by the arguments put forward by lawyers representing various Dutch student organisations. Zijlstra insists that his bill, which fines students who study too long, is legal. Professor of educational law, Paul Zoontjens, says that Zijlstra can refute almost all juridical objections: “I wonder if this bill is going to pass the Parliament and Senate without changes, but if it does it will be hard to defend it before a judge.” On Thursday, April 14, Parliament will debate the bill.  

Less research
The Rathenau Institute, an independent institute that promotes science and technology, submitted an overview of government research spending for the years 2009-2015 as part of a parliamentarian report on the total research budgets of all Dutch ministries. The Rathenau Institute states that total government research funding will decrease from 4.8 billion euros in 2009 to 4.3 billion in 2015, a drop of 450 million euros. Critics say research budget cuts will mean the Netherlands will struggle to compete with other countries in the knowledge economy.  

August retakes
The faculty of Industrial Design Engineering will now take the August retake exams into account for Bachelor-before-Master (BaMa) assessments. The faculty of Architecture will not do so, however. The Student Council complained last year about the fact that students of both faculties are disproportionately penalised by the implementation of the Bachelor-before-Master, because these students follow programmes that require lots of project and practical work, but they are not allowed to start such MSc projects or laboratory courses until it’s certain that they passed the BaMa’s BSc degree segment.

Merger
Should TU Delft work more closely together with the universities of Leiden and Rotterdam? TU Delft’s Executive Board thinks the university should seriously ask itself that question. This subject is part of a series of discussions on the Strategic Outline TU Delft 2020 that started this month. From April to September the Executive Board wants to talk to (PhD) students, employees and external stakeholders about the future of TU Delft. According to chairman Dirk Jan van den Berg, TU Delft must dare to think about merging with Leiden and Rotterdam. How far this merger must go, is the second part of the question, he says. TU Delft also wants closer ties with universities in China, Singapore and Brazil.

Embassy closures
The Dutch government plans to close seven embassies in Africa and Latin America, due to governmental cost-saving measures. The Dutch embassies in Cameroon, Zambia, Burkina Faso and Eritrea will be closed. In Latin America, the Dutch government will close embassies in Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Uruguay. Some 300 jobs will be lost due to the closures. 

Lap dances
Jack Rappaport, an assistant professor of management at La Salle University in Philadelphia (US), has been suspended while LaSalle investigates allegations that he hired strippers to give lap dances at a $150 extra-credit symposium on ‘the application of Platonic and Hegelian ethics to business.’ It’s alleged that during the class the strippers gave lap dances ‘to willing students – and even Rappaport – while he lectured,’ the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. In his bio on the LaSalle website, Rappaport writes: ‘I try to enrich my teaching by using interesting real life applications.’

He said
There he is, the Delft male student, standing in front of a mirror, preparing himself for a party. Hair? Check! Shirt? Check! Breath? Check! Protection (you never know…)? Check! His friends told him the party is going to be great: “It’s at Industrial Design, so there  will be lots and lots of girls!” Full of confidence, he takes his bicycle and sets off of for the Mekelweg.
He arrives at ID kafee, meets up with his friends. First thing he does is carefully scan the perimeter. There is a hot blond girl at the bar, but the dude right next to her appears to be her boyfriend. The lucky bastard. The student asks his friends: “Where the girls at?” His friends: “Don’t worry, it’s still early, they will come!”
As the night progresses the crowd thickens. “That guy looks familiar, I think he’s from 3mE, and that dude over there is from Aerospace Engineering.” It seems like the whole male population of the university has gathered here in search of some female company. As he drinks more beer, the few girls that are there get prettier by the hour. However, the competition is fierce; he knows he will only get one shot. Hmm, that girl over there looks nice. He approaches her from behind, opens his mouth to say something, but…. You’ve got to be kidding me! It’s a dude with long hair! The student realizes he is wasted, time to go home.
Highly educated men in the Netherlands are predicted to raise several families in the future, as women are more attracted to them. The Delft male student that wakes up with a terrible hangover the morning after the party realizes that he will probably have to wait until he gets his degree and leaves for more female-rich areas.

She said
There’s a party at industrial design and me and all my ladies are gonna have a good time! All three of us. Two of the five girlfriends I have in this city can’t make it, but ain’t nothing gonna stop our crowd of three! Then, one of the girls calls to cancel. Ok, crowd of two then!
We arrive at the party. Damn, it’s nice being a single girl in Delft — so many cute guys in sight! My girlfriend is off to get us some drinks. While she’s gone, I make eye contact with a guy and he comes up to chat. His name is Fernando, and he has a thick Spanish accent. He’s already tipsy and five minutes into the conversation his hand is slipping past my waistline and he’s leaning in. What the eff, boy? I’ve just met you! I discreetly make the ‘headslice’ gesture to my friend who’s just surfaced from the crowd, and she drags me off to the next room.
We hit the dance floor. From the corner of my eye I see a cute blond guy. He’s totally checking me out! We make eye contact and… he looks at the floor. A minute later I look up and… he smiles! Jackpot! But what is that I see in his eyes? Cautiousness? Fear? I’m distracted by a crowd of first-years that is now dancing in circles and spilling beer around us. Why is it that only exchange students and first-years approach us?
It’s the end of the party and we’re heading for the exit. Someone steps in my path. It’s the cute blond boy from before! Only now his eyes are red and his speech is so slurred I can hardly make out what he’s saying. So you’ve waited till you’re piss-drunk to come up and talk to me? This time the ‘headslice’ isn’t even necessary as my girl drags me away into the night.