News in brief

With this move, Delft wants to help solve the lack of student housing. Students have been pushing for such action for many years, but in practice it seldom works out, as the building owners usually do not want to cooperate.

Laptop assault
Dr Frank Rybicki, and an assistant professor in the Mass Media department at Valdosta State University (Georgia, USA), was arrested last week for his behaviour in class – charged with assault, a serious crime. But all that Dr Rybicki allegedly did was accidentally close a laptop computer on a student’s hands, because the student was surfing non-class related websites. The student then began arguing about closing the laptop and about websites she visited while in class, before pressing assault charges. Dr Rybicki was arrested and suspended from the university, and the police have ordered students who were in the class “not to talk to anybody about the incident”. 

No empty threat
Dutch Secretary of State, Halbe Zijlstra, did not have a good week. Student organizations announced they would take the state to court if Zijlstra’s bill, which fines students who study too long, passes Parliament. And that is no empty threat, based on advice provided by Stibbe, a Dutch law firm, which has called it a ramshackle bill. However, it is still far from certain the bill will ultimately pass Senate. This week the Christian party, SGP, said it wants to protect students who have already studied for too long. If the SGP votes against Zijlstra’s bill, it will become almost impossible to get it passed in the Senate.

Tough choices
The faculty of Architecture has expressed doubts about the decentralised selection of first-year students in 2012. The faculty has not decided how to select students according to the numerus fixus system. “It’s a lot of work and what is the yield?” asks director of education, Krik van Ees. Money also plays a role. Van Ees believes the Architecture faculty is able to select. The University of Cambridge uses the ‘Thinking Skills Assessment’ in selecting students and is willing to make a Dutch version. “That’s interesting, and we haven’t rejected this yet,” says Van Ees. “We’re also considering the method used by the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering.” That faculty intends to select 15 percent of its students in two steps. The first step would be via questions answered via internet, and the second a meeting at which students must do some design work while being observed and assessed.    

Tough talk
The confidential counsellors employed by TU Delft have received 31 reports regarding ‘intimidation by the organisation’. The director of Human Resources calls this “tough talk”, but intends to take the issue seriously. In their annual report for 2010, the confidential counsellors stated that they receive more and more reports of employees who feel pressured by the organisation. The counsellors speak of ‘intimidation by the organisation’, which means the employees not only feel intimidated by a specific manager but also increasingly by a ‘stronghold’ of managers and human resource advisers who go about their business will all the tact and sensitivity of a steamroller, the counsellors reported. The director of Human Resources, Nynke Jansen, would like the confidential counsellors to be more factual and nuanced in their reporting:  “That said, it’s very disturbing if people experience it like this. Every complaint is one too many.”       

Goodbye cash
De Volkskrant reported that illegal aliens are sometimes offered money to leave the Netherlands. These payoffs allow the illegals to build new lives in their home countries. Many aliens are asylum seekers who’ve applied for but failed to receive residency. According to Rob Bezema, of the Repatriation and Departure Service, his governmental agency also offers the aliens custom-made solutions; for example, before being sent back home, a Nepalese man was given a pasta-making machine to start a restaurant with, while an Egyptian was given four camels and an Angolan woman a manicure set for starting her own beauty parlour. De Volkskrant reports that offering cash or parting gifts is much cheaper and more efficient than the cost of detaining people in holding cells for months or even years in some cases.

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Exhibition
The assignment to design a building for the port authority and pilotage services near the locks in the weather-beaten coastal region of IJmuiden, posed a huge challenge for students. The best plans are exhibited in the corridors of the East wing at the Faculty of Architecture.

Doel was het ophijsen en plaatsen van zes immense betonnen liggers bestemd voor de zogenaamde derde toren die studentenhuisvester Duwo daar samen met collega-corporatie Laurwentius bouwt. De derde toren wordt een studentenflat met 405 woningen.

Student housing
The municipality of Delft has ‘10 to 20’ empty office buildings in mind that could be converted into student housing or office spaces for starting entrepreneurs. With this move, Delft wants to help solve the lack of student housing. Students have been pushing for such action for many years, but in practice it seldom works out, as the building owners usually do not want to cooperate.

Laptop assault
Dr Frank Rybicki, and an assistant professor in the Mass Media department at Valdosta State University (Georgia, USA), was arrested last week for his behaviour in class – charged with assault, a serious crime. But all that Dr Rybicki allegedly did was accidentally close a laptop computer on a student’s hands, because the student was surfing non-class related websites. The student then began arguing about closing the laptop and about websites she visited while in class, before pressing assault charges. Dr Rybicki was arrested and suspended from the university, and the police have ordered students who were in the class “not to talk to anybody about the incident”. 

No empty threat
Dutch Secretary of State, Halbe Zijlstra, did not have a good week. Student organizations announced they would take the state to court if Zijlstra’s bill, which fines students who study too long, passes Parliament. And that is no empty threat, based on advice provided by Stibbe, a Dutch law firm, which has called it a ramshackle bill. However, it is still far from certain the bill will ultimately pass Senate. This week the Christian party, SGP, said it wants to protect students who have already studied for too long. If the SGP votes against Zijlstra’s bill, it will become almost impossible to get it passed in the Senate.

Tough choices
The faculty of Architecture has expressed doubts about the decentralised selection of first-year students in 2012. The faculty has not decided how to select students according to the numerus fixus system. “It’s a lot of work and what is the yield?” asks director of education, Krik van Ees. Money also plays a role. Van Ees believes the Architecture faculty is able to select. The University of Cambridge uses the ‘Thinking Skills Assessment’ in selecting students and is willing to make a Dutch version. “That’s interesting, and we haven’t rejected this yet,” says Van Ees. “We’re also considering the method used by the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering.” That faculty intends to select 15 percent of its students in two steps. The first step would be via questions answered via internet, and the second a meeting at which students must do some design work while being observed and assessed.    

Tough talk
The confidential counsellors employed by TU Delft have received 31 reports regarding ‘intimidation by the organisation’. The director of Human Resources calls this “tough talk”, but intends to take the issue seriously. In their annual report for 2010, the confidential counsellors stated that they receive more and more reports of employees who feel pressured by the organisation. The counsellors speak of ‘intimidation by the organisation’, which means the employees not only feel intimidated by a specific manager but also increasingly by a ‘stronghold’ of managers and human resource advisers who go about their business will all the tact and sensitivity of a steamroller, the counsellors reported. The director of Human Resources, Nynke Jansen, would like the confidential counsellors to be more factual and nuanced in their reporting:  “That said, it’s very disturbing if people experience it like this. Every complaint is one too many.”       

Goodbye cash
De Volkskrant reported that illegal aliens are sometimes offered money to leave the Netherlands. These payoffs allow the illegals to build new lives in their home countries. Many aliens are asylum seekers who’ve applied for but failed to receive residency. According to Rob Bezema, of the Repatriation and Departure Service, his governmental agency also offers the aliens custom-made solutions; for example, before being sent back home, a Nepalese man was given a pasta-making machine to start a restaurant with, while an Egyptian was given four camels and an Angolan woman a manicure set for starting her own beauty parlour. De Volkskrant reports that offering cash or parting gifts is much cheaper and more efficient than the cost of detaining people in holding cells for months or even years in some cases.

Exhibition
The assignment to design a building for the port authority and pilotage services near the locks in the weather-beaten coastal region of IJmuiden, posed a huge challenge for students. The best plans are exhibited in the corridors of the East wing at the Faculty of Architecture.