Dear colleagues,
I am writing this on what must be the most quiet Monday in a long time. School holidays and summer holidays are in full swing and that means that the campus is empty: no students, hardly any staff, no classes. The Vrijhof is deserted, I have seen just one colleague in our corridor. Nearly the entire MT is on holiday, which will make for a very short, but relaxed weekstart. However, I do cherish these quiet weeks as well: time to pick up all the little things that kept falling by the wayside, I reorganised my OneNote notebook and mailbox, sorted out small IT issues that I never had time for, can read up on several issues, I don’t need to ask the smokers outside the Vrijhof to put out their cigarettes, and it is also a time to organise my thoughts and our plans into an annual plan for CES without too many distractions. It is also a great time to catch up with colleagues, perhaps take a lunchbreak that is a little longer than usual, and if the weather improves: to get an ice cream.
Yet, on this quiet campus there are hotspots where people are hard at work to get everything ready for the new academic year: the KickIn Committee is finalizing the last arrangements to give our new students a very warm welcome. Colleagues from CFM conduct various maintenance issues in the buildings (including the theatres in the Vrijhof, lots of drilling!). LISA colleagues are updating software, implementing new tools and applications, and ordering lots of laptops for the incoming cohort. And of course there is CES, the dedicated workers who ensure that not only the graduating students get their diplomas, but who also register the incoming cohort, solve housing issues, create schedules, organise scholarships and visa, prepare new language courses, finalise BSA-issues, update our systems and processes, and all those other things that need to happen before we can once more start an academic year. Assuming that it will also be mostly you who will be reading this letter: good job!
The next newsletter will come out when the KickIn is about to start, when students once more flood the campus bringing their own unique energy, when we can watch the Bestorming van de Bastille, attend the opening of the Academic Year, and know that we contributed heavily to make this all possible. And then, dear summer workers, you will be able to take a very deserved holiday, while everyone else is hard at work!
Until then, keep going and feel free to drop by for a coffee or a chat!
Lieke
