The afternoon devoted to a business case that study association Pattern has put together for its Intro kids is well received. Buddy Natasha van de Berg speaks with enthusiasm. “It’s fun to be working here together on an assignment. You have to think about the instructions and you don’t have any time to think about yourself. That makes the ‘kids’ more relaxed, and helps us all to get to know each other better.” Group 7 are enjoying themselves more than on Tuesday, when they had to make their own choice and the day involved a lot of ambling about.  

On Thursday afternoon one of the assignments is to make a Tinder profile for the buddies. Intro mom Natasha and Intro dad Jonas Niederle (not in the same group) have had to supply some data about themselves. Not only their Spotify playlists, Netflix history and YouTube recommendation, hobbies and own photos, but also a motto for living. For Jonas it is ‘Better late than never’. He explains, “Because I’m never on time, wherever I go”. Natasha’s slogan is ‘Is that allowed?’ The contrast is pretty sharp. “I’m rather cautious,” she says, “Always, and now more than ever with social distancing.” The two complement each other well and that will be useful when they are both sitting on Pattern’s board next year.

Quarantine

Data Science has about a hundred first-years who are taking part in this Intro, or wanted to. Much to Daan Steenhof’s regret (Daan is the coordinator of Pattern’s Intro Committee), they had to tell “seven or eight” Intro-goers on Monday that they could not join the offline program. “It’s because they have been abroad, somewhere that is code orange. Either on vacation or because it’s their home country. They have to spend two weeks in quarantine and are not yet allowed onto the campus.”

A bitter pill, Jonas agrees. “Nor has anyone come up with an alternative for them for the days when we are at the uni. And right now our role as buddies is keeping us too busy to help them get this sorted. But we can help them when the program’s not running. We are easy to reach then.” As if to illustrate his words, we hear this: “And now we have to move on to the next part of the program.”