- Campus , Employee
- 20/02/2024
TU/e to continue without community manager
Erik de Jong is leaving TU/e. Twenty years ago he started here as a Built Environment student and he has been our community manager since 2017. Now he has decided it’s time to focus on his career in 's-Hertogenbosch, where he is to be the general director of Bosch Parade. He will not be replaced, but the activities he initiated will be continued.
After he graduated (in Architecture in 2012), Erik de Jong was happy that Joep Huiskamp approached him for a paid project at Education and Student Affairs. As a student he had stood out because of his active attitude. “I was chair of Quadrivium, a student assistant at Studium Generale, and treasurer of umbrella association Scala, I organized the Muziek op de Dommel festival three times and I was a student member in the first Stehven cohort. The assignment to co-draft TU/e’s student association policy fit me like a glove. It sure beat working as an architect.”
In 2013, De Jong became an official TU/e employee, travelling Europe as a CLUSTER Network (a network of twelve European universities) coordinator. This culminated in an international conference on Engineering Education at the Evoluon.
With TU/e’s decision to transform into an English-speaking university came the realization that someone was needed to shape the community. How do you make sure employees and students form a close-knit population rather than become a disjointed group of individuals? Erik de Jong turned out to be the right man for the job.
Booster
Mindful of minorities, he conceived of events that accommodate anyone and – above all – everyone. For instance, he came up with the TU/e Christmas market (now WinTU/er Village), instilled new life into Connect with my Culture, and created a space on the TU/e website for all student (and other university-related) associations.
De Jong is pleased with his accomplishments as a community manager. “Our standards and values have been put into writing. Multiple opportunities for meeting one another have been created. And we finally have a pop-up store!” But it’s time to go, as repetition isn’t one of De Jong’s favorite words. “I’ve always considered it a temporary position,” he says. “And it was part-time, as I was the managing director of Bosch Parade at the same time. Now I’m set to become its general director, which means my work will double. More hours, more content. For one thing, I’ll also be responsible for the overall artistic direction.”
On Friday, March 15, Erik de Jong can be found in his office in MetaForum for the last time. A farewell reception will take place at De Zwarte Doos on Tuesday, March 26.
This Thursday, Cursor will publish a farewell interview with Erik De Jong, in which he will go into his time at TU/e at length.
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