While loud music fills the Campus Market and student organizations pull out all the stops to attract new members, students at the Blauwe Loper are seeking some peace and quiet on Tuesday afternoon. At the Hangout, they can get to know student organizations at their own pace, play a game or simply escape the bustle of Intro for a while.

The Campus Lounge is part of Intro Unwind, the low-key program that runs alongside the regular Intro program this year. Students can decide for themselves what suits them at any given moment: lots of people and stimulation, or a little more peace and quiet in a smaller group.

A push notification

The contrast is clear on Tuesday afternoon. At the Campus Market, student organizations try to attract the attention of passing Intro participants with shouting, loud music and eye-catching activities. At the Campus Lounge, things are noticeably quiet at first. After an hour, only around 20 students have stopped by. It turns out that the wrong map was uploaded to the Intro app, leaving the Hangout off the map.

A push notification changes that. Before long, dozens of students fill the space. Some join the Japanese student organization Kinjin for a game of mahjong — a Chinese-origin board game that is very popular across Asia. “It’s not very difficult, but you need to get the hang of it,” explains one of Kinjin’s members.

Others decorate fans during a creative workshop. At student organization SSRE and board game club Knights of the Kitchen Table, students play board games. “Our go-to low-key favorite at events like this is Flip 7,” says Kees from the Knights. The rules are simple, and the game revolves around strategy and taking risks.

At the Campus Market, his fellow members take a very different approach: they stage sword fights in costume. “That’s very in-your-face. For the Campus Lounge, we keep it a little more low-key, with a chat and a game,” Kees says.

Expanded

That contrast is exactly what Intro Unwind is about, according to its organizers. The program was created through a collaboration between the CIC and Donatues Foundation, which supports neurodivergent and gifted students in education. Mara Gianotten, Thijs Hendal and Jesse van Meer make up the Donatues team behind Intro Unwind.

In previous years, the Intro already included some quieter activities. They were called the Tranquilo Track and Tangent Track in successive years and mainly ran alongside the evening activities.

This year, the program has been expanded. In addition to the Campus Lounge, which takes place at the same time as the Campus Market, Thursday’s City Tour also has a more relaxed counterpart: Explore at Ease. Intro Unwind is also present during the evening activities. From Monday through Thursday evening, students can head to Neuron for various activities, ranging from computer games and board games to coloring, crafts and more.

Not a plan B

The name has also changed. According to Mara Gianotten, the quieter programs in previous years each had a name connected to that year’s Intro theme. That made them seem like separate, temporary elements rather than a permanent part of the program. With Intro Unwind, the university wants to create a single overarching name that can return every year.

But the organizers want to change more than just the name. According to Jesse van Meer, Intro Unwind should not be seen as an alternative or Plan B to the regular program, but as a full-fledged part of it. The two can easily exist alongside each other.

“You can choose whatever suits you best at that moment. You could spend an hour going out first and then still join Intro Unwind for a board game.”

No pressure to join in

At the Campus Lounge, that idea seems to work in practice. There is plenty to do, but no pressure to join in. Students can join a game or workshop, have a chat with a student association, or simply settle down on a sofa. The living-room-like atmosphere of the Hangout is deliberately designed to feel welcoming and accessible.

TINT, a community focused on well-being and personal growth, is also there. The group invites students to take part in a conversation game. The setting fits the way TINT wants to connect with people: in small groups and with room for meaningful conversations.

The quiet atmosphere of the Lounge appeals to a range of students. Pien and Jasmijn deliberately seek out a place where things are a little calmer during Intro. “The campus can sometimes be too busy for me, so I like having somewhere to completely unwind,” Jasmijn says. Since she is not much of a party person, she is happy with the Unwind program. She prefers quieter activities, such as crafting.

Jun, an Applied Mathematics student from China, is also excited about everything happening on campus, but he is not particularly drawn to partying. He has found his place at Kinjin’s mahjong table. “I’ve played many different kinds of mahjong in China, so this is really something for me.”