On Wednesday May 16 2012, it will officially be one year ago that Fortuna, LUC’s student association, came into legal existence. To celebrate our Dies Natalis, we will be having a special Fortunight (our beloved tradition of having casual drinks and fun in the Common Room), and more importantly, Board elections for the year 2012-2013!

Seventeen Fortuna members are running for the seven various positions within the board, and the results of the elections will be announced during the Fortunight at around 21:30 in the Common Room of the Klok.

The Fortuna Board would like to wish all the candidates good luck today! May the most fortunate win!

The sports themselves started at 10 PM. There were 4 different sports played at different locations. Hockey was played outside while volleyball, basketball and football were organised indoors. Though all students were highly motivated, they lacked the repeated training that had toughened up the other UCs for the last years. As such not many matches were ended with victory, but there was one team that stood out. While LUC became known for its underdog position, the volleyball team was able to show the other UCs what we are worth. They beat every single college and ended up in the finals. The game was thrilling beyond compare. You could heard chanting throughout the entire complex. Drums in the deep repeatedly shouting L-U-C, L-U-C. Everybody from LUC was there cheering for their team and their college. Only by bad luck was our group eventually beaten by the same team they had already swept of the field a couple of games earlier.

Half-broken from all that hard work all colleges travelled to the UCU campus grounds. They then guided us to an old barrack where we would compete in a new field: improvisation. Laura, Jori, Limo and Liam were there to represent LUC and they did a darn good job. All of them received laughs and applause many times. A final improvisation showdown between the colleges was won by our own Limo. Multiple characters were thought up on the spot and he managed to bring them all to live. His impersonation of a Latina woman was envisioned perfectly and will not soon be forgotten.

After such a long day students were getting hungry. Luckily dinner was already served in the UCU cafeteria. And how much was there to choose from! LUC doesn’t have a regular night time buffet, but at UCU there is a large diversity of dishes to choose from ranging from soup to pasta, meat to veggies, and desert to fruit.

With completely filled bellies we all returned towards the Main Stage, a grass field in the middle of the campus grounds. It was already dark when the other competitions started: the Battle of the Bands and the Chugging Competition. While we didn’t win any of them, we did manage to get second in Chugging (especially our very own Chair Jules showed very adept in making beer look like water as he chugged it away). The Battle of the Bands was very exciting as our entire band played better than ever before. Roos captured the attention with her nightingale voice, just as the team up of rapper MC Liam and Samuel, of which the latter took care of a sick beat for rapper Liam to spit his self-written lyrics on. All received well deserved large rounds of applause afterwards.

At midnight there was the highly anticipated Inter-UC Party. The theme was Arabian Nights & The Wild Wild West but was only really followed by some of our own students. Several ladies were seen in belly dancing costumes and our own treasurer Jake wore a Western outfit with both cowboy boots and suspenders. People danced the whole night through in celebration of such an awesome weekend.

Along with the sun the students rose from their improvised beds. Breakfast equalled the large amount of food available for dinner. While everybody woke slowly, preparations were made on a grass field in the middle of the campus grounds. Everybody was called to the Main Stage to witness the different Boards face off in the very first Battle of the Boards organised by Fortuna. The first match was a classic game of Tug of War. Many exciting battles ensued but LUC came out victorious. The next field in which to compete was a student version of Relay Run. All boards gathered 4 of their members on a line to race to the other side individually and let each of their members perform a different task. The first one would chug a bottle of water (Jules already showed that he mastered this and proved it here again) and run back to tag the second person. She (mandatory that it was a girl) had to knot a tie on a volunteer and tag the third person. That person had to turn 10 times around a hockey stick and run back with their world shifting around them. The final person was to undo a bra with one hand and run back to the finish. As you can see it was a true student version of Relay Run. As such everybody was cheering for their college. LUC won again which ensured their spot in the finals: a game of dodge ball. There was however a tied second place, but a final game of tug of war gave UCU the second spot in the finals over RA. The dodge ball final was the most intense and fast-paced thing any college has ever seen. Both teams lined up on one side of the field. After an intense silence a storm followed that is hard to describe. Both teams rushed towards the three balls in the middle sliding through the grass for the last meters. Red balls flew through the air and before we knew it the UCU side of the field was empty and LUC came out victorious. History was made that day, as LUC won the very first Battle of the Boards. The trophy was given to the Fortuna Board and the crowd went wild.

When the cheering had settled we went on to the final event of the Championship, namely the Inter-UC-Quiz. Again Fortuna was responsible for setting this up and the Board has assigned Limo, who earlier showed his improvisation skills, to lead as quizmaster. Statements were given and the quizmaster asked whether these were true or false. The grass pitch was divided in two sides, one side representing the answer ‘true’, the other ‘false’. Statements ranged from “The time travelling car in Back to the Future was a DeLorean” to “A round in boxing is 5 minutes long”. The final standing student would be the winner. It was such a success that we ended up doing the quiz multiple times. With over a hundred questions at the quizmaster disposal the fun was luckily able to continue.

With the Championship at an end everybody returned home exhausted but filled with a lot of new amazing experiences. Above all LUC returned with two trophies: for Painting and the Battle of the Boards. We will practise all year long to make sure we win even more trophies next year. One thing is sure: we will be back.

Fortuna General Board Member,
Pieter Johannes Goethart

A group of LUC students will be attending this exclusive event, if you want to be one of these, apply via: http://www.veerstichting.nl/aanmelden/aanmeldformulier. Deadline is Sunday 6th May and consist of a short essay/article about the theme. The program will be in Dutch.

If you are applying or have any question, please contact Flip Kylian Adams.

http://www.veerstichting.nl/

For the updated schedule see: Fortunity Week Schedule

 - reported by Sofia Lotto Persio for PAX Magazine

Fortuna’s third General Assembly of 2011-2012 was held Wednesday the 19^th at the Lange Houtstraat. The GA’s agenda included the discussion and approval of a new Board Member, the “officialisation” of the current Fortuna Board, the official approval of the Huishoudelijk Reglement (Policy Manual) and amendments to the Statute and the Huishoudelijk Reglement.

The Board members worked very hard to make the General Assembly a more relaxed, efficient and transparent event than the previous one. They asked support from other members of Fortuna to form a presidium (constituted by Britt van der Donk, Phyleen Mattaar and Boaz Manger) to run the GA and a voting committee (made up by Flip Kylian Adams, Sanne Nusselder and Marc Nelissen) responsible to count the votes. “It was necessary”, Phyleen said in her speech, “to do something about the chaos of the previous GA and to improve its efficiency.”

104 people were present or had authorised another person to vote for them, therefore making the vote legal.

Changes were made

The GA organisation and voting procedures were a matter of discussion in this GA. An amendment proposed by Liam Klein aimed at reducing the influence of the Board on the voting, inhibiting the Board members to express a voting advice on amendments. However, Liam’s amendment did not pass.

Unlike the previous GA, all amendments proposed by the Board and its members were passed. These are the most important changes: firstly, the amount of people required to make the GA’s vote on the Statutes legal has been decreased from half to one third of the Fortuna members. In the previous GA, this amendment did not pass and was much debated. Even this time the Assembly expressed some concerns, but a great majority eventually approved of it with 72 and 66 votes as amendments to the Huishoudelijk Reglement and the Statute respectively

Secondly, due to an amendment proposed by Georgina Kuipers, abstentions will not be considered in the count of total votes: that is, if a 2/3 majority is needed to pass a proposal, and there are 100 people voting, and 40 people are abstaining the 2/3 of the vote will only count those 60 people that were either in favour or against.

Finally, even if nobody has mentioned this, the new Huishoudelijk Reglement states that a new GA will take place on the fifth week of the final block to present the candidates to student representatives elections, which will be held one week after that. This means that LUC students have to elect the new Fortuna Board members in about a month time.

Financial Report

The financial report presented by Jake was also matter of discussion in the Assembly. Two things were most noted: the Christmas Committee expenses, which however were justified by the Treasurer, and the €1800 of membership fees still missing from some Second Years. This means that 36 students have still not paid the €50 membership fee despite the three emails already sent by the Board. To Martijn Otten’s question regarding the consequences for these people, Jake diplomatically replied “I am not allowed to talk about this yet.”

Updates from the Board

Fortuna Board members each gave a brief speech to update the Assembly on what they have been working on so far.

Jules van der Sneppen, current Chair of Fortuna, reminded the assembly of the Deans’ debate success, of the UCSRN summit and the upcoming UC tournament in Utrecht. He also says that, as representative of LUCTH student body, he has been talking to Leiden’s Vice Rector to work on a programme to reward students’ academic and extra-curricular excellence. He promised LUC students would hear more about it in the next months.

Anouk van Loo, Secretary of Fortuna, has been working on improving the efficiency and transparency on both GA and Fortuna Board meetings. Minutes of both events will soon be available on the website.

Jake van Baarsel, the Treasurer, mentioned his involvement in the Serious Request committee and has proudly announced that Fortuna now has money in the bank account. He has been busy refunding all those students whom have made expenses, either last, or this year, for their committees.

Georgina Kuipers, Academic Representative, officially presented the plan for the upcoming Fortunity week, which will be held from May 5^th to May 11^th with the aim of reinforcing LUC students’ bonds and the feeling of community. Also, she announced that new sample lectures of professors applying for teaching positions will be held starting coming Friday; the topics of these lectures have currently been announced by e-mail.

Rebeca Salcedo, of the Housing Council, reminded the Assembly of the development of the Peer-Mentoring System. She has been in touch with other UCs to learn more about their system and to make sure the Housing Council can provide a support for this initiative.

Pieter Goethart, General Board member, talked about his role as PR of Fortuna, as he is in charge of the website and the newsletter, is willing to help with any commitees’ events promotion and he is the contact person for any LUC merchandising idea. Also, he informed the Assembly about upcoming inter-UCs sport tournaments.

Finally, Hilde Woker, afterwards officially approved as new SSC-Fortuna Board member, since Mandy Nguyen resigned, reminded the audience of the flow charts sent by tutors, explaining what the procedures are in case a student experiences problems with a course, and that the new course evaluation system seems to be more efficient.

As you most probably already know, in less than three weeks the Inter-UC tournament will take place in Utrecht (5-6 May). The Sports Committee is busy organizing training session in order compete successfully against the other UCs. Please join the LUC Football, Volleyball, Basketball, Hockey and Frisbee page on Facebook in order to receive information:

Football: http://www.facebook.com/groups/343656322340627/

Volleyball: http://www.facebook.com/groups/295965403799899/

Basketball: http://www.facebook.com/groups/388161881197408/

Hockey: http://www.facebook.com/groups/113464642112574/

Frisbee: http://www.facebook.com/groups/272051552885325/

Additionally you can find sign-up lists in the college lounge until Friday,20th April, 6.15pm, where everyone who wants to join a sports team is obliged to sign up. Sign-ups will also be possible today during the General Assembly (GA).

You will receive more information regarding training sessions and eventual “selection” trainings on Sunday night. Please make sure to come to at least to one training session.

All the best,
Your SportsCom

We had a great time organizing it and were very excited by the positive responses we got throughout the day; we hope all other UCs were just as content with the outcome of the day and that we’ve all helped each other out somehow! Finally we’d like to give a huge amount of thanks to Aileen, Lea, Marc, Anne D., Jori, Boudewijn and Imane for helping us out with the food during the day — all attendees were severely impressed!
Hilde, Rebeca & Georgina

For more info on the UCSRN, check out the official website: http://www.ucsrn.nl/

The Board of Faculty Campus Den Haag is looking for a new student assessor for the upcoming academic year (2012/2013)!

Since 1 January 2011 Campus Den Haag has been a Faculty of Leiden University. The Faculty consists out of the Institute of Public Administration, Leiden University College, Research Centers and activities from other Faculties of Leiden University. The Board of the Faculty consists out of the Dean (Jouke de Vries), the Vice-Dean (Bernard Steunenberg), the Dean of LUC (Chris Goto-Jones), the Managing Director (Rolf Oosterloo) and the Student Assessor (Britt van der Donk). The board is in charge of the daily management of the Faculty, and meets once a week in a board meeting. The student assessor represents the students of the Faculty in the Board.

Job description:

-          You represent the interests of students in the Board;

-          You are a full member of the Faculty Board, and you participate in the decision-making process of the daily management;

-          You have regular contact with the student associations and student/staff committees of the different studies at the Faculty and with the Faculty Council;

-          You attend regular meetings with your colleague student assessors from the other Faculties of Leiden University;

-          You help and guide student associations, student/staff committees and active students with applying for financial compensation, subsidies and other practical issues.

Job requirements:

-          Interest in administrative processes and some experience in these, preferably in the Faculty;

-          (Passive) knowledge of the Dutch language and active knowledge of the English language;

-          Interest in faculty- and university business;

-          Good communication skills;

-          A flexible schedule

The position of student assessor will require approximately 8-12 hours per week in consultancy with the candidate. A financial compensation is rewarded.

If you are interested in the function, please send your motivation letter and CV to assessor@cdh.leidenuniv.nl before April 20, 2012. The admission committee will review all applicants and inform them about the next steps.