New living room offers ‘first aid’ for stressed-out students

If your studies are starting to stress you out, or you simply need to relax for a bit, there’s a place on campus that might help. You’re welcome to go up to The Living Room, which recently opened on the 12^th floor of the Tinbergen Building. It’s intended as a place where you can talk with fellow students or play a board game or the like to unwind. The room is jointly managed by five student organisations.

The living room has been set up for and by EUR’s students and is found at H12-32. This is a temporary arrangement though: in February 2020, the student living room will be assigned a new, definite location in the same building.

The room isn’t intended for studying but for relaxation, conversation and connecting with others – as is announced on a big sign near the entrance. The sign also includes a friendly request not to take any furniture from the room. The couches may look a bit tatty, but the students like having them there anyway. The room also has a large table with chairs, a cupboard full of board games and a video projector. They’re still working on a stereo.

The Living Room is jointly operated by a number of different student organisations and is intended to promote student welfare. The students believe that when student life is starting to get you down, simply being able to stop in somewhere could make a huge difference. And EUR didn’t mind making a room on campus available for this purpose.

The new living room comes out of a partnership between The Us Space, Happy Students Society, Erasmus School of Colour, Meditation Enthusiasts and Extraordinary Life. The organisations also plan to organise lectures, workshops, debates and other events in the room. You can check upcoming activities on their joint Facebook page.

The five organisations will be trying to have a representative on location every day. Trying – because they still need to confer on this matter. The students only heard one week before the opening that this room would become available. The people behind the initiative didn’t want to wait until February, because that would take far too long. They believe there’s a clear need for a room where students can drop by for support and a sympathetic ear.