‘Even if it’s just one building that stays open’
FSE students want to study at Zernike on the weekends
Door Christien Boomsma
By Christien Boomsma
‘There are quite a lot of study spaces on Zernike’, says student member Ariba Adnan of the FSE faculty council. ‘Most students study in the Duisenberg Building or the Bernoulliborg, but Nijenborgh, the Linnaeusborg and the Kapteynborg also have room.’
However, student numbers have gone up over the last few years. More and more students use the facilities, but on the weekends the buildings close, meaning they have to go to the overcrowded UB in the city centre.
‘A lot of students approached us about this’, says Adnan. ‘They want to be able to study at Zernike. Especially in the exam period.’
The students on the faculty council asked the board to look into the possibility to keep the study rooms open on the weekend. ‘The Harmonie Building is open, too’, says chair Bernhard Budin of the student faction. ‘So it can be done.’
A matter of money
Dean Jasper Knoester promised to investigate. ‘But it’s also a matter of money’, he warned. Keeping a building open means staff members need to be around, too, and having to pay extra for heating. ‘We have to weigh teachers against security people.’
The students are happy with Knoester’s response. ‘I don’t think the board realized this was a problem’, Adnan says. And maybe not all study rooms have to be open on the weekend, she offers. ‘Even if it is just the Duisenberg Building, because that is the biggest study space on Zernike.’
Budin would opt for the Bernoulliborg. ‘The Duisenberg is mostly for students of economics and business’, he says. ‘So perhaps for FSE the Bernoulliborg would be better.’