Dear colleagues,
This is a very full week, with lots of things happening! And as I am leaving for my summer break on Friday, it is also a very full week with all kinds of appointments for me personally. But let’s look at what is happening at our university first!
This morning the Week of Education was officially opened with a nice event in the Amphitheatre in the Vrijhof. At this event, the Brinksma Innovation Grant was awarded to Tracy Craig from Applied Mathematics. If I had had a teacher like her, I am sure I would have done a lot better at mathematics in school! But all three shortlisted finalists had really interesting projects (an online escape room to learn how not to plagiarise, and a method to get students back into tutorials) and it is very promising for the other events this week. The programme for the Week of Education, organised by our colleagues from CELT, can be found further on in this newsletter.
Een ander onderwerp is parallel bilingualism: het nieuwe taalbeleid van de UT dat door de collega’s van het UTLC is geschreven. Hierbij worden Engels en Nederlands naast elkaar gebruikt. De officiële stukken worden nu in het Nederlands geschreven, maar we blijven Engels gebruiken om iedereen in de universiteit te betrekken. Het MT heeft hierover gesproken, zeker in relatie tot de nieuwsbrief. Die zal vanaf nu gemengd zijn: sommige delen in het Nederlands, andere in het Engels. Op die manier blijft iedereen de ‘andere’ taal gebruiken.
This week is also the week of elections for the University Council. You will have received the link in your mail this morning, and voting is very easy. You can do it online, with no big forms to unfold and refold, and you have five days to cast your vote! Make sure your voice is heard! Our own Michaella Schepers is running for the UC and is placed at position 11, but there are only nine seats available. If you think it is important to have a UC member from a service department, not only members from the faculties, then please consider voting for Michaella.
In lijn met parallel bilingualism zeg ik ook nog een keer in het Nederlands: deze week zijn de verkiezingen voor de universiteitsraad. Als het goed is, heb je vanmorgen een link in je mail gekregen die je kan gebruiken om te stemmen. Het gaat snel, je hoeft niet naar een stembureau en er zijn ook geen grote formulieren die je moet open- en dichtvouwen. Je kan de komende vijf dagen stemmen, dus zorg ervoor dat je stem wordt gehoord. Onze collega Michaella Schepers is kandidaat voor de UR en staat op plek 11, terwijl er negen zetels te verdelen zijn. Als je het belangrijk vindt dat er naast medewerkers uit de faculteiten, ook iemand vanuit de diensten in de UR zit, overweeg dan op haar te stemmen.
Finally, even though the weather is not very summery, there is a little present on its way to each of you, via your head of department. It is just a small token from the MT to let you know how much we appreciate the hard work of all our colleagues in this first half of the year. These are not easy times, the stress can be high, and yet so much gets done. We know that is not self-evident and we are lucky to be working with such wonderful colleagues.
In the next newsletter, there will be no Letter from Lieke as I will then be enjoying my summer holiday in Italy, but I do look forward to seeing you again in July, and the rest of the summer.
Best wishes,
Lieke
