Oosterpoort possible new meeting place for UG students

Oosterpoort possible new meeting place for UG students
The institutes are still deciding what the external locations will be used for exactly. ‘We want to find extra room where students can meet while obeying the corona rules that are in force’, explains UG spokesperson Jorien Bakker.
Study associations, for instance, would be able to use the locations to organise meetings, something they haven’t been able to do. ‘We might be able to use lecture halls, but we wanted to nail down the rooms first and then figure out what we can do with them’, says Bakker. ‘The Oosterpoort is an option though, which is a good start.’
Help from the city
In its search for the meeting rooms, the UG is being helped by the municipality of Groningen. ‘I’ve noticed that students don’t like classes without any form of human contact, says mayor Koen Schuiling. ‘I highly encourage the UG and Hanze initiative to create meeting rooms in the city where students can see each other.’
The mayor has been in contact with student associations since March, communicating about the impact corona is having on students. ‘They’re giving me all these tips. Not just about how the students are doing, but also what they need.’ That’s important, says Schuiling, because if the students and the educational institutes let the municipality know what people need, they can help.
Sharing ideas
However, the student associations represent a total of six thousand students. With a total number of sixty thousand students in the city (counting the Hanze students), that’s a relatively small and specific delegation. ‘That’s true’, says Schuiling, ‘but at least it’s a constructive partnership with the community.’
He also emphasises that students and the university community have a much better idea of what they need than the municipality does. ‘I would like to ask all students to tell us about any ideas they might have. Many ideas are worth considering, and if there’s money involved we usually contribute, but it has to come from the community itself.’