Introduction week for first-year students at the UvA has begun
After a long summer break, students returned to campus today, starting with the first-year students: today marks the start of Intreeweek, a week in which first-year students get to know each other informally for the first time through a wide range of activities on campus and in the city.
Long queues of first-year students gathered this morning in front of the entrance to the ABC building and other buildings on the Roeterseilandcampus (REC) to register for Intreeweek, the annual introduction week for first-year students. It is the traditional start of the academic year for first-year students, at least for those who register for it. There are now quite a few of them: nearly five thousand, recognisable throughout the city this week by their yellow goodie bags containing practical information about life at the UvA, including a special paper edition of Folia.
Started in 1972, Intreeweek has since become a phenomenon: initially an information event for first-year students, it became increasingly political in the late 1970s, with political parties participating actively and getting involved in first-year activities. At the end of the 1990s, fun finally made its entrance at the UvA: since then, Intreeweek has mainly been about socialising. Of course, that had always been the main focus, but political issues had completely disappeared from the agenda.
Even more than in previous years, “service” was the magic word, as was evident in 2002: where is the trendiest hairdresser, where is the nicest restaurant, the ABC of student life and where is the cheapest beer? Of course, as every year, the Asva was ready to recruit new members, but that proved not so easy without offering something in return, sighed the then brand-new Asva chair Floor Milikowski. It has always remained a friendly place, even though political issues are now high on the agenda again. So high, in fact, that political activities during Intreeweek are not allowed, much to the displeasure of political youth organisations.
Museum Morning & Night
This week’s programme is as varied as it is traditional: a welcome speech by Rector Peter-Paul Verbeek in Theater Carré, a spectacular party at the NDSM shipyard this evening, a Museum Morning, the annual Student Fair (this year for the first time in the brand-new University Library in the University Quarter), a joint meal on the Roeterseiland campus, workshops, games and a night in the Groote Museum or the Allard Pierson. The Intreeweek would not be the Intreeweek without a spectacular closing party. And indeed: Friday in Chin Chin Club, the Melkweg or Paradiso. Click here for the full programme.
