The Common Room, the area in the Bunker where international students meet, has over twenty volunteers who organize various events. To be able to structure that process, organize even more activities and help out international student more often and better, an association has been installed, with four board members. Jacky Janes, a student of Industrial Design who spent most of her life in Germany, will be the chairwoman. The German Thomas Milde (student of Business Information Systems) will be both communications manager and secretary, Angeliki Sioliou from Greece (Industrial Design) will be responsible for external communication, and Indian-born Rajiv Hemani (Sustainable Energy Technology) will be manager of student affairs.


The association wants to celebrate holidays from different countries and watch international sports events together. Jacky: “We’re flexible, we feel almost anything is possible. It would be great if Dutch students were to participate as well, so we could all cook Dutch dishes, for example.”The association wants to work together with other associations, and they want to be there for students and doctorate candidates who have questions. Thomas: “Many international students have questions about housing, for example.”
 
The students hope and expect the Common Room will become more of a hotspot after the move to MetaForum. Jacky: “If all goes according to plan, we’ll be moving there in October. It’ll be easier for students to find us there – right now we’re pretty much tucked away in the Bunker.”
 
The students will be brainstorming on a new name for their association. The official launch, the anniversary of the Common Room and the move will all be celebrated at once. The date for the party depends on the moving date, however.

Want to get in touch? Visit www.facebook.com/Tue.Common.Room or send an e-mail to commonroom@tue.nl.