- The University , Student
- 25/09/2020
MomenTUm live in Luna
MomenTUm isn’t a big day this year, we have corona to thank for that. But there is a livestream full of festivities, organized by students. This Friday afternoon, people will jointly witness a light hearted quiz and the performance of a student band, among other things, from different locations at the university. With some luck, graduates will see congratulatory messages addressed to them appear on a screen. Cursor took a tour of the campus to take a peek at a screen.
Scattered throughout Auditorium and MetaForum, people are concentrated at work behind their laptops. I’m glad that I can walk to Luna via the footbridges with this rain outside, because I want to go to Hubble and the Corona Room to meet students who are celebrating MomenTUm together.
Random Precision
In Hubble, I come across a group of five friends who enrolled in the Bachelor’s program Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences at the same time. Three of them earned their Bachelor’s degree this year. Is this a festive day for them? “Not exactly, we studied all afternoon in Atlas and are here for Friday afternoon drinks. And we first needed to recuperate from last night’s Industria drinks in café De Spijker,” says Niek de Jong. Sure, it’s nice that the livestream is turned on, “but I wouldn’t have turned it on if I were alone,” says Jun Hao Wu, who has his back turn turned to it.
Right now, student band Randon Precision can be seen on the screen. The group recognizes the lecture hall in Auditorium in which the recording is made, and Jeroen Albrechts even recognizes the singers: “Vi Chu was my intro mom once,” And Wu adds: “I went to high school with her in Drunen.” Nice, but down to business. Don’t they really miss the party that was last year’s edition of MomenTUm? Their response is rather lukewarm, but Albrechts knows that it is his mother who is disappointed most of all. “She is very proud, and she went to all my graduation ceremonies.”
Cheers
On to the Corona Room, where some twenty students from study association Pattern (Data Science) have assembled, all neatly at a distance from each other. They only just manage to have a toast together with a cup of beer. When I come in, they are discussing were the group will have dinner this evening, because they don’t feel like sitting through the entire livestream. “It was really fun though, I laughed hard at the quiz,” says Isabel van den Heuvel. “I was hoping to win a nice TU/e hoodie, but unfortunately I didn’t. One day, that sweater is going to fall from the sky for me,” she says, and she’s right, because when she completes her Master Data Science, the university will give her one.
Wieger Punter, who informed Cursor that Pattern would be in the Corona Room this afternoon, says that people cheered more than twenty times when his name and those of his fellow students appeared on the screen. “Some names we didn’t even expect, those were nice surprises.”
Cold
Pattern is ready to go to a cafeteria, I myself walk to the Market hall in MetaForum. There, I find almost forty mechanical engineering students, seated at tables and on scattered chairs drinking beer from Simon Stevin’s bar. “We aren’t here for MomenTUm, this is our weekly drinking party,” says Rik van de Vijfeijke. He is still busy obtaining his Bachelor’s degree. “Since Simon Stevin is no longer allowed to organize drinks indoors due to corona, we’ve divided the Thursday drinks over three afternoons. They managed to make a reservation in the Market Hall the coming month, and we are very happy today because at least we have a roof over our heads.”
Missed opportunity
The large screen above the stairs at the entrance is black. Master’s student Mechanical Engineering Stijn Janssen thinks it’s a missed opportunity. “Simon tried to have the livestream shown on it, but was told that only photos and videos lasting no longer than thirty seconds are allowed to be shown on it. Then they decided to take out the tv screen from the board’s storeroom.” And not everything could be clearly heard on it. “Apparently, the quiz was presented by a comedy duo. It looked breezy, but I didn’t understand a word from what they said, because we simply talked through it, to be honest. I think that we would have been more involved had it been shown on the large screen.” But according to Van de Vijfeijke, even the small screen certainly added some atmosphere to the cold drinking party.
Roof terrace
Meanwhile, Janssen brought in a tray with hot chocolate milk, but I’m headed to the afterparty of MomenTUm. At home, that is. Because De Betere Studenten Avond organizes the afterparty on Twitch, starting at 19:00 hrs. Dj Zowizo entertains all MomenTUm goers from a ‘cool location,’ with music, small talks and games. Het Dakterras, actually the balcony on the fourth floor of MetaForum, was chosen because of the great view of Eindhoven’s skyline. In response to the intelligent lockdown of this spring, Dé BSA started. Since April, a livestream can be seen every Thursday evening, made in the cellar at DEMOS, “It’s still fun,” says Mirko Bolsenbroek, one of the regulars in the group of DJs and MCs. “We can’t be stopped. We will continue each Thursday after tonight as well, for the time being.”
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