Unipartners at the board market. Max Kevers on the right. Still, a year in a board is recommended, even during the pandemic, the current board members state. ‘If I had been taking classes, my entire life would have taken place online.’
Text and photos by Susan van Weperen
During the annual board market, which took place on Thursday 20 January in Forum, board members of various student organisations and associations were looking for successors. A wide selection of student clubs was present, ranging from sports associations such as SWU Thymos to international student association IxESN.
‘The number of visitors was much lower than in previous years’, says Max Kevers (22), a student of Nutrition & Health. He is an HR manager on the Unipartners student board. Unipartners links students to the business sector. ‘Normally, the market is held on the ground floor. Because of corona, it was moved to a lecture hall on the fifth floor. This fact, and the fact that fewer students come to the campus, made the attendance is slightly disappointing.’ Nevertheless, Kevers is not afraid he will be unable to find successors for the Unipartners’ board. ‘In previous years, we had no issues, even with corona. We have an excellent recruiting team, so it will be fine.’
Run on activities
What is it like to sit on a board in times of corona? ‘If I had merely followed classes, my entire life would have been online’, Kevers says. ‘Instead, I see my fellow board members in the office every day for work and meetings. It’s a nice change to studying during the corona pandemic.’
Students currently crave activities
Sifre van Teeffelen of the SWU Thymos-board
Sifre van Teeffelen (23, secretary of student sports foundation SWU Thymos) is happy she chose to spend a year on the board. ‘Working with different types of people in the sports sector is awesome’, the student of Molecular Life Sciences states. ‘The start of the board year was particularly great because we were still able to organise quite a few events, such as a dance event and a canoeing activity. There was a run on these activities, the one hundred places were booked within minutes, and people were put on the backup list. Students crave activities right now.’
Finding board members for Thymos last year was challenging. There are only four board members this year instead of the customary six. ‘This is likely due to the fact that Sports Centre De Bongerd was closed for quite some time and activities were cancelled. This made Thymos less visible among students.’ Whether recruiting board members will once again be challenging this year is difficult to say. ‘We have only just started looking for successors. We expect quite some interest for all the cool activities we will be organising over the coming months.’
Difficult to plan
Organising activities is more difficult than usual, says Luc Koning (22), a student of Business and Consumer sciences who acts as an activities coordinator for the international student association IxESN Wageningen. ‘The constantly changing covid measures require us to be creative. Planning ahead is preferable, but very difficult with constantly changing measures.’ Nevertheless, Koning is happy he opted for a year on a board. ‘There is plenty to do. The work continues. If I had not chosen this, I would now be following classes behind my laptop at home. Now, I have more distractions and social interaction, which is much more fun.’
If I had not chosen this, I would now be following classes behind my laptop at home
Luc Koning of the ESN-board
There is hope for students who prefer a ‘normal’ year on a board, Koning feels. ‘We had an easier time than last year when the lockdown was much stricter. And I expect the next year to be better still.’
