Established in 1897,Delftsche Studenten Bond (DSB) is one of the oldest fraternities in Delft. Their logo is the skyline of Delft on a backdrop of a rising sun.
A traditional student association, DSB is neither religious nor politically connected. It’s the only Delft fraternity that is a member of the Federatie van Unitates en Bonden, the basic principle of which is the equality of members. New members of DSB have the same rights and obligations as every other member.
DSB has around 340 members, with a 70:30 male-to-female ratio. It’s made up of colleges, smaller groups of friends with common interests and goals, from various year groups and studies. Each college has its own character and identity. Independent from the colleges are groups for activities such as debating, football or sailing.
Just ten to fifteen members are international and those are mostly Belgian and German with a couple of Americans. “The main reason is that TU Delft promotes OWEE to Dutch students and multicultural week to international students, although that’s improving,” said DSB president, Robbert de Keijzer. He explained that they don’t have a presence at the multicultural event because OWEE takes a huge amount of time and effort, it being the only time in the year that they recruit new members. “We want members to bond, and at the start of the year a number of events are organised for this purpose,” he said. “I think our internationals like it here, they sometimes run into a language barrier, but it also helps develop their language skills. Internationals could benefit more than the Dutch in some ways from a network like DSB. Most internationals we have, have actively sought us out,” he added.
After being forced underground during World War II, they purchased their building at Oude Delft 123 in 1953, with help from several retired members. The building is named Tyche after the Greek goddess of fate. Nobody lives in this large building, it’s used as a social meeting place.
On the first floor is a restaurant, open to the public and members on Monday to Thursday evenings. For €3.50 you can get a warm meal. The main hallway features a timeline which shows the long history of the fraternity. As you might expect, there’s a bar, where you can quite literally swing from the chandelier. The university rector, Karel Luyben, did just that in 2014. Behind the main entrance lies a soundproofed party room. The cellar is a special beer bar, which offers its own home brews.
Of course, they drink a lot of beer. “We have a beer contract with Bavaria which allows us to sell a beer to our members for only €0.80 which is pretty good. We often have 2,000 to 3,000 litres of beer in our basement storage at a time, and it takes one to two weeks before we need to refill it. During OWEE we consumed about 4,000 litres in one week,” said De Keijzer.
For more information about DSB, see their website.
In this new series we’ll be meeting TU Delft’s student fraternities. These fraternities are called gezelligheidsverenigingen in Dutch, which translates as ‘social clubs’, but in fact they’re far more than that. If you’d like to suggest a fraternity for us to cover, please email us at deltainternational@tudelft.nl.
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