Turmoil and revolt are festering in the small Diss building behind the Shell station. But hopefully the second organizational change in one year will keep the Diss building rent-free and result in more activities and members.
br />
Few international students notice the small building behind the TU campus’s Shell gas station. Perhaps those people who’ve attended parties there have heard of ‘Diss’, but how many people actually know what the Delft International Student’s Societies does?
Problems started four or five years ago. Up until then, Diss’ building was rent-free and everything was fine. With the help of the TU, foreign students started Diss as a workgroup ten years ago. ”Our goal was to promote cooperation between international students,” explains Geoff Morris, an aerospace engineering student. Morris was head of the Diss committee two years ago. ”When the workgroup started, TU Delft gave us the small building as a gift.” The good times rolled: ”We didn’t have many members but we were having fun and holding lots of events.”
Then, disaster struck. After five years of organising free cultural and social events, the Diss committee suddenly received a fl. 16,000 bill for rent. ”There was a big change in TU Delft organization at that time,” says Morris. ”A new organization responsible for all TU buildings was set up, called Campus Services (Facilitaire Dienst). We had to rent our building from them, just like the TU.” The Diss committee couldn’t pay their rent bill, so they asked the TU for help. ”They told us we could only get a subsidy if we had at least 100 members,” Morris recounts.
Regrettable
Diss had only forty members, so they decided to ask other international student groups to join them. Several organizations agreed, including the Indonesian, Chinese, Iranian, Moroccan and Norwegian societies. These organizations, however, didn’t legally become part of Diss until last year. ”Officially, the international societies joined the club a year ago. We then formed a Diss committee, consisting of one member from each member organization,” recalls Hendra Gunawan, an Indonesian Technology and Management student. ”The old Diss changed into the International Club, also classified under the new Diss committee. We officially registered with the Chamber of Commerce, TU Delft, etc,” Morris explains.
Regrettably, this committee failed. Last year Diss had no activities except for those events held by its member organizations. Slowly, the Diss name disappeared. Now, a number of organizations want to leave Diss, including the International Club, which was formerly Diss. Because they’ve all signed the free-rent contract, their departure from this joint venture will result in new rent bills.
Fortunately, others are willing to rejuvenate Diss, especially since the number of international students in Delft is rising fast. ”Already three groups % the Indonesian, Chinese, and Iranian societies – want to stay in Diss,” says Andi Sugeng, an Indonesian student studying electrical engineering. ”We want to form a new DISS committee and present a new contract proposal to the TU Delft. We’ve already approached the TU and were told that we must have at least 250 students in this club to receive a subsidy.”
Umbrella
250 members? No problem, according to Bing Zhang, head of the Chinese student organization: ”We have some 300 members now, including regular students, PhD and MSc students.” The Indonesian society has 150 members, and Msc Students are being asked to join too. The approximately 200 MSc students have two options: form a new MSc society, which would be under Diss’ organizational umbrella, or join one of the International Club’s societies. Gunawan and Morris prefer the latter option. ”It’d be a pity if an MSc organization was formed exclusively for MSc students, since there are also exchange students here,” Gunawan says. Morris says that that ”if MSc students join the International Club, then we’ll probably stay in the new Diss organization.” David Smola, an electrical engineering student from the Czech Republic, favours this option too: ”Why bother to start a new club if there’s already an old one. The problem was that we didn%t know about Diss. So someone should tell us what it’s about and ask us to join.” Clearly, what Diss needs most right now is a big new-member recruitment drive.
For more information on the PPI, mail Andi Sugeng:
a.m.sugeng@its.tudelft.nl
Turmoil and revolt are festering in the small Diss building behind the Shell station. But hopefully the second organizational change in one year will keep the Diss building rent-free and result in more activities and members.
Few international students notice the small building behind the TU campus’s Shell gas station. Perhaps those people who’ve attended parties there have heard of ‘Diss’, but how many people actually know what the Delft International Student’s Societies does?
Problems started four or five years ago. Up until then, Diss’ building was rent-free and everything was fine. With the help of the TU, foreign students started Diss as a workgroup ten years ago. ”Our goal was to promote cooperation between international students,” explains Geoff Morris, an aerospace engineering student. Morris was head of the Diss committee two years ago. ”When the workgroup started, TU Delft gave us the small building as a gift.” The good times rolled: ”We didn’t have many members but we were having fun and holding lots of events.”
Then, disaster struck. After five years of organising free cultural and social events, the Diss committee suddenly received a fl. 16,000 bill for rent. ”There was a big change in TU Delft organization at that time,” says Morris. ”A new organization responsible for all TU buildings was set up, called Campus Services (Facilitaire Dienst). We had to rent our building from them, just like the TU.” The Diss committee couldn’t pay their rent bill, so they asked the TU for help. ”They told us we could only get a subsidy if we had at least 100 members,” Morris recounts.
Regrettable
Diss had only forty members, so they decided to ask other international student groups to join them. Several organizations agreed, including the Indonesian, Chinese, Iranian, Moroccan and Norwegian societies. These organizations, however, didn’t legally become part of Diss until last year. ”Officially, the international societies joined the club a year ago. We then formed a Diss committee, consisting of one member from each member organization,” recalls Hendra Gunawan, an Indonesian Technology and Management student. ”The old Diss changed into the International Club, also classified under the new Diss committee. We officially registered with the Chamber of Commerce, TU Delft, etc,” Morris explains.
Regrettably, this committee failed. Last year Diss had no activities except for those events held by its member organizations. Slowly, the Diss name disappeared. Now, a number of organizations want to leave Diss, including the International Club, which was formerly Diss. Because they’ve all signed the free-rent contract, their departure from this joint venture will result in new rent bills.
Fortunately, others are willing to rejuvenate Diss, especially since the number of international students in Delft is rising fast. ”Already three groups % the Indonesian, Chinese, and Iranian societies – want to stay in Diss,” says Andi Sugeng, an Indonesian student studying electrical engineering. ”We want to form a new DISS committee and present a new contract proposal to the TU Delft. We’ve already approached the TU and were told that we must have at least 250 students in this club to receive a subsidy.”
Umbrella
250 members? No problem, according to Bing Zhang, head of the Chinese student organization: ”We have some 300 members now, including regular students, PhD and MSc students.” The Indonesian society has 150 members, and Msc Students are being asked to join too. The approximately 200 MSc students have two options: form a new MSc society, which would be under Diss’ organizational umbrella, or join one of the International Club’s societies. Gunawan and Morris prefer the latter option. ”It’d be a pity if an MSc organization was formed exclusively for MSc students, since there are also exchange students here,” Gunawan says. Morris says that that ”if MSc students join the International Club, then we’ll probably stay in the new Diss organization.” David Smola, an electrical engineering student from the Czech Republic, favours this option too: ”Why bother to start a new club if there’s already an old one. The problem was that we didn%t know about Diss. So someone should tell us what it’s about and ask us to join.” Clearly, what Diss needs most right now is a big new-member recruitment drive.
For more information on the PPI, mail Andi Sugeng:
a.m.sugeng@its.tudelft.nl
Comments are closed.