By Marije Sluiskes
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. But who are these people? What do they do exactly? What drives them? ‘Meet the Staff’ hopes to provide more insight into exactly these questions, by interviewing the staff members that are so crucial to the functioning of this institute.
Could you introduce yourself?
My name is Linda Termaten, I’m 49 years old, and I’m the current assistant-controller of UCR. I’ve been working for UCR since June 2012.
What does an assistant-controller do on a daily basis?
Well, the very first thing I do every morning is get a cup of coffee. After that, I check the UCR bank accounts to see if there are any unexpected or odd bank transfers. As assistant-controller, I’m responsible for the tuition fee payments, the invoices, and further mutations. I’m also responsible for the financial administration of special projects, such as Going Glocal, and all financial issues related to taxes.
Do you like working for UCR? If so, what do you like about it?
Yes, I really like working here. As a matter of fact, it is actually a lot more fun than I expected. The staff members are quite close with each other, I like meeting people from such a wide array of nationalities and age, and the flexibility and variety of my daily tasks ensure I never get bored. When I started working here, about 4,5 years ago, I started with a contract for only 16 hours per week. This was because I still had my own accountancy firm at that time. However, I liked working here so much, that I decided to quit my own firm and only work at UCR. I now have a contract for 32 hours per week.
What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
Definitely the tuition payments. Sometimes I really have to turn my emotions off, when sending semi-angry emails to students urging them to transfer. This is difficult at times, but obviously UCR cannot allow some students to simply not pay their fee. Fortunately, I don’t have to deal with situations like these too often.
Do you have contact with students? Would you like to have more?
I don’t have a lot of daily contact with students. Most of them will only know my name from the tuition fee emails I send every year. Students often don’t realize how much time and effort staff members actually put into them, simply because the staff is so invisible. However, the amount of contact that I have with students has slowly but steadily improved over the years, which is something I very much enjoy. An event like the Public Sphere is a great opportunity to stimulate staff-student contact even further. I hope more events like these will be organized in the future. Perhaps we could even form some discussion groups that consist of staff, faculty and students, because I think there’s a lot we can learn from each other.
What message would you like to give to all UCR students?
Although you’re essentially here to study, please do not forget to have fun and enjoy life as well. These years shape your personality, so make sure to invest in friendships, extracurricular activities and yourself, besides your academics.
Marije Sluiskes, Class of 2017, is a Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science major from Est, the Netherlands.
