Het Sirius-bestuur met Lotte Cloostermans als tweede van links.
Why don’t you tell us something about the history of Sirius?
‘Sirius was founded in 1977 and turned 35 this February. There are different stories going around how the association received its name. Some say it is named after the brightest star in the sky, others think that the founder of Sirius read the name somewhere and just thought it was nice. I am an advocate of the second theory though. Sirius started out as an association for Public Administration and over the years Health Sciences and finally European Studies joined in 2005.’
What do you see in the future of the association?
‘I have a very positive view on the future of Sirius, but I am obviously a little biased. I think the number of members will grow and even though many things change in our external environment, Sirius will never get a problem with getting students active or stimulate them to do a board year. Creative solutions have to be developed, like a good compensation system for activism.
This year, we have put a stronger focus on the carrier aspect of the association and I would like to see those changes still be visible in a couple of years, but that’s for the up-coming boards to decide.’
What is your view on internationalization? Especially within study associations?
‘Within Sirius, there are many International students, most of them studying European Studies. I would say that we are more focused on International students now. Everything needs to be accessible for non- Dutch speaking members. Consequently the communication towards the members needs to be in English, like all the promotion posters. A positive trend is that many of the Public Administration and Health Sciences students get more used to speaking English to non-Dutch Sirius members. We also have many activities aimed at integration between the International and Dutch students.’
What is your opinion on the discussions that less International students should come to the Netherlands?
‘I am myself an European Studies student and I think that especially at universities, students should be able to integrate with students from other nationalities. That helps broaden our horizons.’
What is the highlight of the Sirius anniversary program?
‘We have a bunch of big as well as small activities. I think the gala and the symposium are the highlights. I am personally really looking forward to the gala since Sirius doesn’t have one every year, that makes it special. I am also really excited about the symposium, Maarten van Rossem will give a lecture and I am curious to see how the whole day will turn out.’
Who organized the whole week?
‘The Anniversary Committee did. The program was ready three months in advance, the planning started like a year ago. The committee is pretty mixed with students of all ages. To promote the anniversary week, they tied the flyers to milky ways, since the topic of the week is ‘space is the limit’. That was a big success.’
Anna Migge
Anniversary program of study association Sirius:
14th of March Opening party, Pakkerij
15th of March Lip dub, Ravelijn
15th of March Almanac Presentation, Ravelijn
16th of March Paintball, Starworld Indoor
17th of March Parents Day, Ravelijn
19th of March Ice-skating, Station Drienerlo
20th of March Symposium, Waaier
21st of March Cabaret, Café de Pijp
22nd of March Gala, Vier Jaargetijden
