Planning the OWee, the welcome programme for first year students, is a huge challenge due to corona. How did the board prepare for new ways for students to connect?
OWee board members Suzanne Post (left) and Mennolt Verhaar: “Students can really explore what Delft has to offer.” (Photo: Heather Montague)
OWee President Suzanne Post and VP & Head of Communication Mennolt Verhaar share the challenges of planning the new student welcome programme amidst Covid restrictions. Delta spoke to them about how they managed.
Post: “From my perspective there were different stages for us as a board because of corona. We started by working in small groups, with only three people at the office at one time. Then when corona spread, we had to change even more. Then the final message from the government came that big events would be postponed until September and that was a pretty hard hit for everybody here.”
Verhaar: “The OWee board is a big community. The previous boards are still connected with us and spend a lot of time helping us out. Normally it’s a lot easier because you can copy some things from the year before. But because this year is completely new, we all have to improvise. They are doing a tremendous job helping us. Every day we have around three old board members helping us with signage, making designs and a lot of stuff. We don’t have much time so it’s really nice to have help.”
‘We will be monitoring very closely’
Post: “We have a two-and-a-half-day digital programme that starts on Friday the 14th of August at noon. Part of the programme is our own content and we have also made space in the programme for the associations to present themselves and what they are all about. Students can really explore what Delft has to offer. In addition to those digital days, each new student will get one day where we welcome them in Delft and they will have a full physical programme for the whole day.”
Verhaar: “The participants will be split into what we call mentor groups. These are small groups that will be guided by student mentors through Delft and the campus. We made a very strict programme so we have a good sense of who is where and what’s happening. We have to follow the guidelines so it’s 1.5 metre distance everywhere and we will be monitoring very closely.”
Post: “In the digital programme you will get to know your group. The mentors will participate in chat groups so that they can discuss activities with each other. There will be digital lunches hosted by the study associations where everyone will join a video conference call so they can get to know each other a little bit. Then everyone will participate in the physical day with the same group that they had during the digital day. There will be a city challenge where they will visit the associations and in between we have challenges for them to do together. We hope that that will spark enough interaction. And because the programme involves a lot of walking and moving between sites they will have a lot of time to interact.”
‘You will have a shared experience’
Verhaar: “During the day we will also have lunch and breaks together. We’re building a big terrace in the parking lot of the TU Delft Library and when the programme ends everyone will come together to end the day, to have a drink and food together and they can discuss what happened during the day. This is another really simple but nice way to connect with each other.”
Post: “The terrace can hold 530 people with seating. There will be tables of six, so the groups and their mentors can fill two tables. There will be food trucks and a DJ playing background music, not that people will be dancing, but enough to have a nice ambiance. We have seven consecutive days, with each day reserved for a certain study or faculty. When you finish the day, you should feel part of the group and have a shared experience.”
Verhaar: “I think we can be proud of what we came up with in such a short period of time. It’s a completely new programme. Some activities are similar, but because it has to be done digitally that makes things quite different.”
‘Our hard work has paid off’
Post: “I think another thing that we can be really proud of is our adaptability. Early on the guidelines were very strict, but then when corona got a little more under control there were new possibilities. So, in a really short time we came up with the idea for the terrace. When we heard that the municipality might issue permits, we had six days to fill out the paperwork and submit it. This would normally take one or two months to prepare but we did it in a really short time. We were not sure if we could even pull it off, but it’s all coming together.”
Verhaar: “It definitely showed that our hard work has paid off. This was a huge step for us.”
Post: “One thing we should also mention is the digital platform. We had to choose a provider and there were a lot of different opinions. It took a lot of our budget so we had to make sure it was the right choice. Now we’re creating live content as well as recorded programmes, which we’ve never done before so it has really been a challenge, but also fun to explore what we could do with our creativity.”
Verhaar: “Although this year is completely different than other years, you will still be starting at TU Delft. I think the OWee is the best possible way to start here. You not only get to learn about your study programme, but about TU Delft itself and the associations that we have for study, culture, sports and fun. I think everyone should participate in it because it will help connect people.”
Heather Montague / Freelance writer
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