It is late June and the site huts near the former TNO building are still neatly stacked. Rugged looking construction workers wearing brightly colored helmets rummage around through the debris and construction waste. Windows are covered with tape. The floors of the spaces inside are covered with loose wires, ventilation pipes and sacks of plastering materials. A light breeze blows plastic packaging material out of the window and on to the Groene Loper. It won’t be long before the last bits and pieces of construction material disappear from sight and the transformation is completed. The building with a floor space of almost thirty thousand square meters will accommodate the technical study programs of Fontys.

The following programs will relocate to the former TNO building: Applied Natural Sciences, Engineering & Automotive, and Business Management Education and Technology. Together, they account for twenty-five hundred extra students and three to four hundred extra teachers and staff members on campus every day. That number leads to mixed feelings at TU/e. Some see it as an opportunity for a productive exchange and collaboration, while others fear a displacement in their own backyard. The latter feeling, among other things, was expressed during the University Council meeting in mid-June when the council asked the Executive Board to express its views on the upcoming move into the De Rondom building, and on the impact that the extra capacity could have on parking facilities on campus and the availability of study areas.

Vice president Nicole Ummelen’s answer did not come as a surprise: “TU/e is an open community that does not deny people entry to its campus or one of its buildings. People will be removed from campus or a building when they cause a disturbance. With regard to the study areas, we have decided that in light of the capacity problems, those in MetaForum may be used exclusively by TU/e students during and in the period leading up to the examination periods. Other students will be allowed to use the study areas as well outside these periods.” This, incidentally, has been the standing policy since early 2017.

No panic

There is no reason to panic, says policy staff member at Real Estate Management (DH) Bert Verheijen. He believes that the arrival of about three thousand newcomers from Fontys will certainly have a noticeable effect on TU/e’s population of fifteen thousand people, but that it will not be disruptive. “Monique Peels, director of Real Estate Management at Fontys, indicated this during a presentation she gave to our campus committee,” Verheijen says. “Fontys students and staff members have their own facilities in the De Rondom building.”

The figures presented by Peels according to Verheijen certainly seem to justify that claim. There are sixteen hundred work places in De Rondom’s study center and library, and the lecture halls and class rooms have room for a total of twenty-four hundred work places. The labs and rooms for practical classes jointly account for one thousand work places. So, there should be five thousand available seats in the building every day. And with two thousand vacant places, a student flow in the opposite direction seems more likely. Right?

It’s not always that simple, says Anne van Dortmont, project leader at DH. There will hardly be a difference as far as lecture halls or class rooms are concerned, she says, “but the facilities in labs and rooms for practical classes at TU/e differ from those at Fontys to such an extent that they can’t simply be shared by students.” Van Dortmont says that collaboration at these facilities depends on what kind of research students conduct there, on how labs and rooms for practical classes are used and managed, as well as on many other things. Verheijen: “We don’t know how this is going to develop, but there certainly are opportunities for both institutions. We will closely monitor everything in the second half of this calendar year. Where necessary, adjustments will be made in consultation with Fontys.”

During her presentation to the campus committee, Peels made it known that Fontys would happily enter into consultations with the University Council should it express the fear that Fontys students might occupy study areas meant for TU/e students. She believes that in order to prevent animosity, it is important to consult with each other in case students start to use each other’s facilities back and forth.