- The University , Student
- 09/03/2018
MomenTUm: good initiative, but some concern about the logistics
‘A good initiative that is all about students'. Among those we spoke to, this was the prevailing view of MomenTUm, the day of celebration on which TU/e is bringing together multiple academic ceremonies. The logistics are the aspect considered likely to present the main challenges. How can we get everyone to attend, how will the departments combine it with their own ceremonies, and how can we ensure it retains the tone of an academic ceremony? The celebration, first planned for September 7, has now been moved to September 21.
Founders' Day, the opening and closing of the academic year and the presentation of the academic annual awards at TU/e will be held on a single day from now on, we reported recently on the Cursor site. Also presented on this day, which has been named MomentTUm, will be all Bachelor's diplomas. This was decided recently by the Executive Board. In the current academic year the university's birthday will no longer be celebrated in April. The new event was first planned for Friday 7 September, but has now been rescheduled for Friday 21 September. “This enables us to meet the departments' legitimate requirement of having students who graduated in time to attend the graduation ceremony,” CEC Director Hanneke Koppers informs us. Although some concern has been voiced about choosing a Friday, that decision is now final. “We want the student party to go ahead in the evening, and there are no lectures on the following day,” explains Koppers. After the celebration in 2018 - a pilot - the chosen date will be revisited.
How can we get everyone to attend?
The Federation of Study Associations Eindhoven has been organizing the Opening of the Academic Year (OAJ) for many years. This year its board members are invited to help plan the MomenTUm pilot. FSE President Tom van Teeffelen: “The idea that it will become a huge party really appeals to us, but we also think it is important that the departments can keep their own programs. This is being taken into account, but will need to be allocated sufficient time. Mainly we need to look at how we can get everyone to attend on the day. First-year Bachelor's students tend to go home on a Friday afternoon. How can we make sure they stay on campus? In previous years we'd have started planning by mid-March; that's not an option this year because some elements of the program haven't yet been decided. Still, I expect it will all come together, and we'll create something great.”
In his circle, Sem James, chairperson of the study association Simon Stevin (Mechanical Engineering), is seeing that ‘the idea of clustering all the festivities is being met with a fair degree of skepticism’. “An initiative like this shouldn't be abandoned too quickly. It is immediately obvious what is being celebrated, and that's no bad thing. That doesn't diminish the fact that we feel it is absolutely necessary that we maintain the departmental element.”
Various people at TU/e have expressed their opinion on this subject, on Facebook and in earlier Cursor articles. Students, for example, regard the suggestion that all graduates wear a gown and beret as ‘American nonsense’. Another student wonders how the wish to involve the city more can be met if the event is held on campus. An employee remarks that she sees scant attention being paid to employees during MomenTUm.
Keeping the intimate ceremony
The program directors are also keen to see the ceremonies held in their own departments included in the program, which has not yet been drawn up. They have received this commitment, but how the ceremonies will fit in is not yet clear. Eric van der Geer-Rutten-Rijswijk, program director at IE&IS, lets it be known that he ‘does see the benefits of having a single day of celebration that is a major event. “We are entitled to make a big show of how proud we are to be studying and working at TU/e. An event like this can add to the atmosphere and make everyone enthusiastic, even those involved only indirectly. Though I am still concerned about the logistics. Alongside this large-scale festive happening, it is important that we maintain the intimate graduation ceremonies at the departments. Among other aspects, we need to look at how we can get the students and guests into a single room for the celebration. I am relieved that the date has been put back. You can't expect the program administration to have everything ready on September 7 for those students who are doing their Bachelor's graduation project in the summer. It's going to be hard work to get everything ready for September 21, but it is feasible.” It's up to the departments to decide whether they participate in the pilot for MomenTUm, but in principle IE&IS will be joining in - albeit with fewer graduates. “We had already planned to hold a graduation ceremony in March; we aren't going to cancel that now. So those students won't be attending in September.”
A beadle for more than thirty years
Cees Heijmans has been a beadle at TU/e for more than thirty years, and in all that time has led the procession held in April during the Dies Naturalis or Founders' Day celebrations. He is also actively involved in the Opening of the Academic Year. The Dies held in 2006 was one he found special, he recalls. That was when Queen Beatrix visited TU/e. And now for the first time after all those years there will be no Founders' Day celebration in April. Having said that, there is a strong determination to keep the procession and to award the honorary doctorates during MomenTUm. “It will take a little getting used to, but I hope that the students especially will feel it is a major day of celebration. At the Dies celebrations in recent years they did have a guard of honor, but apart from the members of the study associations, few students attended. I think the ceremonial nature of the day is important and I hope we keep that. It is the role of the beadle to lead the academic ceremonies and I would like to carry on doing that. I can imagine that everything will be shortened somewhat. I'll wait and see what the program looks like.”
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