It’s 6 months of intense work. During the preparation for the introduction week for new students he has meetings with the fire brigade, student associations and sponsors. And he has to take all the daft worst-case scenarios into account. What motivates Welcome Week chairman Hubald Verzijl?
Why did you want to organise the Welcome Week?
“I enjoy getting along with lots of people and keeping everyone happy. I was an altar boy for many years. Then you get to see so many happy people all around you. I used to love that. I hope that I’ll be able to make everyone happy during Welcome Week.”
How was your own introduction week?
“I really enjoyed my own Welcome Week. I had no preconceived idea about Delft. I came from Friesland. That’s where I went to secondary school. Then it suddenly dawns on you just how big it is here and the rich history that this city has. Plus all the faculties and the research at TU Delft. I still remember standing at the top of the Nieuwe Kerk and seeing Rotterdam and Scheveningen in the distance. I thought to myself: ‘This is where I want to study.’ It is an honour to be able to study here. I want to communicate that feeling to others. I want to help new students to experience how wonderful it is here.”
What is different this year, compared to last year?
“Just like last year, everyone will get a wristband with a chip. You can use this to pay with. What’s new about it this year is that you can top it up yourself with an app on your smartphone. Last year you had to go to a top-up point. There were massive queues for the top-up points at the opening party. You can also set up groups in the app, so you can send money to someone who’s just bought a round, for example. And you can donate the money that’s left over after Welcome Week to a charity. On the last day there’ll be a special supermarket on the campus. Instead of buying a smoothie, you can choose to donate money to a TU Delft staff member who will be doing a sponsored cycle ride in Zambia to collect money to combat child marriages, for one example. We want to showcase small-scale charities in the supermarket. The underlying technology really appeals to me. Other cities don’t have that. If you’re assigned to go somewhere, you can only get in if there’s a green light when your chip is read.”
So you can’t just sneak in any more?
“You used to be able to exchange tickets. You can’t do that now. We’ve made Welcome Week fully automated. If the wristbands failed to work, we’d have a real problem. But that’s not going to happen. The company is very experienced. They also do business with the football club NAC Breda.”
This year’s theme is: ‘Op díe fiets’, which means literally ‘On that bike’. What’s that all about?
“Students use this expression a lot. It means ‘Oh, I see!’ During the Welcome Week, you get to see how student life works. And of course, students at Delft are well known for being bike repairers. And, most importantly, we’ve done a deal with the company SwapFiets. You pay €7.50 and you get a bike until the end of September. That’s all done with the chip as well.”
Are you already busy organising it?
“Yes. The Welcome Week only lasts for five days. But what it involves is incredible. We discuss the plans once a month with the fire brigade. We have to sort out permits and sponsors. We have to deal with all kinds of things that would never normally occur to you. If someone in the Royal Family were to pass away, we couldn’t have a party in the Market Square (Markt). So we have to have a back-up plan for that. That sort of thing. We work on it for six months full-time with a team of eight people. It’s exhausting.”
You certainly do look tired.
“I’d have preferred not to have had this interview today. We had the Ladies Intro yesterday, an introduction day especially for female students. It went on into the small hours. I’m glad that the photographer’s not here. I bet you’re going to write that I’m really looking the worse for wear.”
Verzijl would like to dispose of the stereotypical image of the arrogant and binge-drinking student.
“People associate students with beer drinking and wasting taxpayer’s money. It’s true that students celebrate and drink beer during the Welcome Week party. The drinking mostly happens in the evenings at the student associations. That’s beyond our jurisdiction. But the Welcome Week is so much more than that. We want to prepare students for their student life. They learn all about the history of the city during the City Challenge. We organise a backstage tour of the campus: a guided tour of all the wonderful labs, including the High-Voltage Laboratory and the Anechoic Chamber. And, of course, we have the book Binas (Belangrijke informatie Naar Alle Studenten) with important information for all students with which we prepare the first-years for their student life.”
There was quite a bit of fuss surrounding that booklet. An angry mother sent you and the rector a letter last month about the misogynist statements it includes.
“Yes, Luyben and I were mentioned in the same sentence. ‘Dear Sirs Luyben and Verzijl.’ You don’t get that very often. The mother’s message was put on Facebook. I got loads of WhatsApp messages, even more than on my birthday. Everyone wanted to know what was going on. And there was a piece on the website Geenstijl the following day. People who haven’t studied here just don’t understand the terms in the booklet.”
One of the words that was included in Binas was ‘jaarringen‘, which was defined as being ‘the layers of stored energy on a female’s hips’ How do you regard the mother’s complaint about terms like that?
“The glossary has been the same for the last 7 years. Nobody complained about it before. But still, the world moves on. Maybe it’s no longer acceptable. If people already have negative associations when it comes to students, and they see a term like that appear in a book sent around in the name of TU Delft, it’s not going to help matters. So we are advising the next Welcome Week committee to scrap that word and a number of others from the glossary.”
What’s going on during the Welcome Week?
“We will be working much more closely with the introduction committee for international students. They are organising a film screening on the roof of the library. We will join in with that. And there’s the Pub Crawl on Tuesday with the international students. That’s when the students can visit the various student associations. Not everyone’s interested in the associations, so we decided that we had to offer an alternative. Another reason is that the Welcome Week is getting bigger. At some point, not all the students will be able to get into the student associations at one time. For Thursday, we’ve jointly organised the hop-on-hop-off bus tour. There are a number of buses circling the city and stopping at places of interest. A bus comes past every ten minutes.”
What else is different?
“We had the canal tour on Sunday last year. The student associations presented themselves along the quays. Now there will be a campus dinner. We are setting up tables along the tram rails. The buses don’t take that route on a Sunday. There will be a parade of vehicles from the student associations and the dream teams along the cycle path. The opening party will be in the Market Square in the evening. The students will go there in a great procession that will leave from the campus. There will be about four thousand people in all, if you count the mentors and the members of the student associations and the dream teams. Alcohol will only be served at the party itself.
The information market, where all the student and sports associations present themselves, will be held on Monday. This was held at the campus last year, to avoid possible inconvenience in the city. But now we’re allowed back to the Market Square, which is where the information market is traditionally held. We will leave the stage up after the party on Sunday: nothing will be dismantled. That will help to limit inconvenience. This is what we’re required to do. Another new event will be on Tuesday, a performance in Theater de Veste that was inspired by the TV programme College Tour, where people will be interviewed.”
And when it’s all over?
“Once we’re done, the eight of us will be going to Portugal for a week’s holiday. After that, the lectures start up again. I’m really looking forward to it. TU Delft is so fantastic. There’s so much to do here.”
CV
Hubald Verzijl (1994) is studying Clinical Technology. He obtained his first-year diploma last year, in August. He had previously obtained a TU first-year diploma in Mechanical Engineering in 2013. Verzijl grew up in Drachten, Friesland. He has played the piano since the age of eight. “I don’t play that much nowadays. But if I come across a piano, at the station for instance, then I have to stop and play.” He was an altar boy for many years. “I’m not sure if I’m still a 100% believer, but I am considering taking it up again once I finish my studies. It’s very calming.” Verzijl has an orange belt for karate and loves vintage motorbikes.
New at the Welcoming Week
- -Campus Dinner with Dream Team Parade
- -Payment chip top-up via smartphone
- -Hop-on hop-off bus on campus
- -Bicycle rental for €7,50
- -Pub Crawl with international students
- -City Challenge throughout Delft
- -Backstage Campus Tour
- -Charity supermarket
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