Liz van der Jagt, master’s student Industrial Design, thinks that it is important for students in Eindhoven to have a student union. Together with a few others, she has been trying to get this project off the ground for some time now. “At some point, we just decided to schedule weekly meetings to get started as structured as possible. Robin, Veronique and I now form the union’s interim board. We’re still busy trying to get a student from the Design Academy to join, and we hope to find someone from a secondary vocational education program as well.” It’s important to her that every level of education is involved. Van der Jagt: “We represent all students. We feel that Eindhoven’s education authorities aren’t represented by an umbrella organization. I don’t mean to say that Groep-één isn’t useful, it’s great that they exist. But it is our aim to provide all students with a voice.”

Van der Jagt briefly outlines the steps that were made this year: “In May, when students gathered to express their right to protest, Naomi Rajiv of the Dutch student union LSVb gave a speech in which she underlined the importance of a student union. Such a union can help students in a variety of situations, most certainly during an arrest on campus.” During that protest in May, students were given WhatsApp group QR-codes to determine whether or not they’d be interested in launching a union in Eindhoven. And that definitely turned out to be the case.

Well received

‘Student Union Eindhoven’ has already gone live: an Instagram account has been set up (@student.union.eindhoven), as well as an e-mailadres for those who would like to seek contact. “Everyone is welcome to join our meetings. But if you don’t have time for it, just send us an email and we’ll be glad to keep you up to date.” It’s clear that the Eindhoven union has been well received. “After we shared our first Instagram post, we were contacted by many other unions, received DMs, noticed that our post was shared by many people, and we got many new followers. It was really great to see that.”

Free membership

Unions aren’t as popular among young people these days as they used to be. Not many young people want to join a union. Do students here in Eindhoven know what a union can do for them? “One of the things we do is help put the room shortage problem on the agenda. We also help tackle distressing rental issues. We address problems. Take our university, for example, which recently claimed that it doesn’t want to grow anymore, only to suddenly change its mind. There needs to be a dissenting voice that says: but where will all those people live? And how can they form a community? And where are you going to find enough teachers to provide them with highquality education?”

Van der Jagt hopes that Student Union Eindhoven will welcome large numbers of new members. “Sign up, attend a meeting, become a part of our union. And if you don’t have time but still believe that it’s important, we’ll keep you up-to-date. We need people who care, that will bring about change.” Membership is free. The union holds weekly meetings in Atlas (3.220) on Tuesdays at 17.30 hrs.