‘More places needed at student societies’

The Landelijke Kamer van Verengingen (LKvV, National Chamber of Associations) wants student societies to be able to accept more members. Because of the great interest during Covid-19, they now must refuse too many students. This also applies to the student societies in Rotterdam.

The introduction weeks are not even all over yet, but it is already clear to the LKvV: for the second year in a row, student societies are very popular. Last year the number of applications already rose by 50 per cent and this year there will also be ‘more than before corona time’, says LKvV president Denise van de Sant. “Students are tired of sitting at home and want to keep up their social life through student associations.”

Lottery

The umbrella organisation for student societies is pleased with the great enthusiasm, but also sees that it creates problems. They have to organise a lottery, for example, and some first-year students are excluded from an association up to three times. “That is very frustrating when you just start studying”, says Van de Sant. “Ideally, we would like to offer everyone a place.”

The LKvV therefore wants to talk to universities and municipalities to see if more places or new associations can be added. “Without financial support and the agreement of institutions and municipalities, it is difficult to establish or expand associations.”

‘Bizarre number of applications'

The partly physical introduction weeks are especially important for the small, lesser-known associations to draw the attention of new students. They can taste the atmosphere at an association and see if they feel at home there.

The introduction weeks are also important for large societies, but they do not need them as much to attract members, because ‘they are really overflowing’ according to the LKvV. Last week, for example, Laurentius had to introduce a membership stop because of ‘a bizarre number of applications’.

Other Rotterdam societies deal with a comparable situation. At RSG, the maximum number of registrations was never reached so early in the week. And SSR decided in the middle of the week to implement a ‘women stop’.