A town hall meeting, that’s how Robert-Jan Smits describes it. A weekly event at which members from the public get a chance to ask their local officials questions, or to present them with ideas of initiatives. “The lunch sessions organized by the Executive Board at TU/e during the last few years, among other things to get feedback on our Vision 2030, are somewhat in line with that. We were just about to set up a new series, but naturally these new sessions could not take place due to the current circumstances.”

That is why the Executive Board will organize a live Question & Answer session in Teams on May the 14th, between 13:00 and 14:00 hrs. during which students and staff members can directly put their questions before the board. Smits: “It’s useful for us to do it this way, without all kinds of hierarchical layers in between. Because a lot of things can get lost in that process. I expect we will also notice that not everything we decide and subsequently put forward will be immediately understood by everyone. We in turn can learn from that.”

Indicator

Smits understands that most of the questions asked during Thursday’s session will be about the corona crisis and the measures TU/e had to take to deal with it. “I also expect that people will want to have more clarity on what the future holds. Will all education still be offered online after the summer holiday, what will still be possible on campus, will international students still come to Eindhoven? It’s a good indicator for us in any case to quickly learn more about the questions people in our community ask themselves.”

Smits promises that all input coming from the session will be seriously looked at. “Which doesn’t mean that we will get to work on everything, or that we will automatically implement the proposed measures. That depends on a large number of factors at this moment. But we do aim to send a reply to people’s questions or proposals within a few days in case we were unable to provide them with an answer during the session.”

On the basis of how things go during the session on Thursday the Executive Board will decide when they will organize the next session. Smits thinks that after the corona crisis a live session like this one could be an effective way to directly share ideas about important matters of policy with the TU/e community as well.

The first Question & Answer session with the Executive Board is planned for Thursday, May the 14th between 13:00 and 14:00 hrs. People who would like to take part can send an email to strategy@remove-this.tue.nl. You will then be invited to join the Teams meeting. You can ask your questions during the meeting via the chat. Everyone is free to ask what he or she wants. Science Communication Officer Barry Fitzgerald and general editor of Cursor Han Konings will moderate the session.