By Junghyun Song As a student myself, I tend to think and write about the problems arising from online learning only from the perspectives of students. But a single narrative is dangerous as we do not get the full picture of how different groups are affected differently by the pandemic. As such, I figured that…
Longer Semesters: The Pro’s and Con’s
By Anja Hermann UCR’s summer holiday lasts around three months and the winter 6 weeks, making the semester a 15-week intensive period for both students and staff. Both groups have questioned whether the heavy workload and semester length is contributing to stress and anxiety. If the length of the semester were to change, it…
Trials and Tribulations of the First Semester
By Anja Hermann Welcome to Zeeland! You made it to this distant “village” known as Middelburg near the edge of Europe, whether you took a 2-3 hour journey via the NS train, a ride in your parent’s car or took a 6-24 hour flight. You have arrived at this small place that some of your…
Print Edition II: Interview with Christine Leedy
Sustainable Consumption A discussion with Christine Leedy By Elisabeth Boon Christine Leedy is a freelance worker at UCR who offers individual guidance and workshops in study skills and writing. She is also a Dru yoga and meditation teacher, and enjoys offering UCR student meditation sessions as well. Mindfulness is a very important part of her…
Master’s Programmes in Utrecht: What to Expect (And Some Sciency Stuff)
By Jacob Hepkema Want to know what a Master’s student’s life in Utrecht is like? If so, please do read on. I graduated this spring, and just started (in September 2017) with the two-year research Master’s programme Molecular & Cellular Life Sciences at Utrecht University. After graduating from UCR, you will encounter many differences in…
From Middy to Mokum
Jade Suzarte The decision to leave University College Roosevelt for another university was not easy. After one year living in the ever-lovely Middelburg, all other universities seemed slightly unwelcoming. However, I knew I had to move, since my track was no longer available at UCR. As a humanities student, I found what I was looking…
The UCR Strategic Plan Discussion Evening – a Summary
By Anna Den Hollander, Noga Amiri and Gerjanne Hoek. Monday evening, 22 students met in C20 to discuss the strategic plan with Managing Director Jorrit Sneijder, and our Dean Bert van den Brink. As we students were only let in on the final product, and cannot claim much insight into the internal deliberations that preceded…
A Critical Perspective on the Strategic Plan 2017-2021
By Faye Bovelander Last week, our Dean, Bert van den Brink, and Managing Director, Jorrit Snijder, released the Strategic Plan UCR, 2017-2021 to the UCR community. This document contains the strategic agenda for the upcoming four years, specifying policy lines UCR management plans on pursuing. It comes following a year in which we saw our…
Summerbreak Series #1 Digging for the truth: Waterloo Uncovered
Tabula RASA is kicking off the new semester with a short series of articles written by students that did something cool this summer. Volunteering, an internship, a cool job; there are so many ways in which people from UCR spend their long breaks! Do you have a story about your summer activities that you want…
Professor Karas about his Utrecht University Outstanding Teacher Award
What does winning the Utrecht University Outstanding Teacher Award mean to you? Well, it is certainly a great honour to be recognised for the work. Especially in academia, where recognition is very important. However, I do also realise that, like in anything in the world, there is some luck involved. I can imagine that there…
Academia: A Tormenting Taboo
With this dissertation, we would like to raise our voices for a very common disorder on which rests an unspeakable taboo: Academia. This Intellectually Transmittable Disease (ITD) is relatively unknown, but affects many of us, as it is easily transmitted via prolonged contact with nerds. An open day might already be sufficient to contaminate the…
Meet the team #2 – Huib Hubregtse
Have you ever wondered who deals with your exchange/IRP/additional semester requests? Who is responsible for all tuition fee payments? Who makes sure that broken lights are being changed? It’s the UCR staff! We don’t always realize it, but UCR consists of more than just students and faculty. Without its staff this place could not function….
When Worldviews Collide: Courageous Conversations at The Veritas Forum 2017
The yearly Veritas Forum is an almost established phenomenon at UCR, but for the few who have not been around that long, an introduction is appropriate. The Veritas-forum is an international organisation concerned with hosting forums on college campuses about life’s hardest questions. The first forum was organised by students and faculty at Harvard University…
Students and Faculty Roast Own University for the Greater Good
3 reasons why you can’t miss out on the next Public Sphere Event Put the words ‘strategic agenda, deliberative conference and future prospects’ in one email and you will have me doing my best to keep my mouse from hovering over the ‘delete’ button in my inbox. All of us are writing enough official…
A Critical Review of the Dean’s Seven Questions
In anticipation of the upcoming event called “The Public Sphere” I have decided to finally write down the issues I have with UCR. I am not usually the person to speak up in public debates, as I realize my ideas are biased and my information limited. I will take back my words if it is…
The Van Gent Experience
These students tried to take notes during a history class, but what appeared on the board will shock you! Forget Rembrandt van Rijn’s Night’s Watch, forget Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring. The Dutch master painters of the Golden Age can eat their heart out over this monumental piece. Because lo’ and behold before…
Repositioning UCR: Setbacks, mistakes, and a rescue plan with great consequences.
On the 24th of August we all got an email that caused immediate uproar on Facebook. The email outlined that budget cuts are upon us. Bigger classes, less courses, possibly more tuition fees and students; it all sounds rather overwhelming. A long, 9-page document accompanied the email. But what did it really say? This article…
“Government is Ourselves”
Policy Change by the Roosevelt Institute at UCR By Marte Nooijen & Annick Wijnstra On the 21st of April this year, Middelburg will welcome the five laureates of the Four Freedoms. The most prominent laureate is Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany. She is awarded the International Four Freedoms for her role as a moral…
Welcome to Hogwarts!
By Aimah Moiz IntRoweeks have always been exhilarating. But no past IntRoweek could even come close to the Spring IntRoweek 2015 as RASA finally took advantage of Franklin’s Gothic exterior and Theatra’s eerie practice room, and decided to convert the school into Hogwarts for three days. IntRoweek began on Monday, kicking off with a sorting…
The UCSRN: Connecting University Colleges
From left to right: Bram Jaarsma (AC member), Henriëtte Hoogervorst (SC member), Daniël Janssen (AC Chair; EB member), Tessa van Hoorn (SC member; EB Secretary), Bob van de Mortel (AC member), Janine de Jong (SC member), Haris Kalic (SC member; EB Treasurer), Geke Hasperhoven (AC member; EB Chair). (not on the picture: Joe Carpenter…