Curiosity connects. But how?
TU/e started out with just 220 students. Today, the number of first-year students is almost ten times higher. So there’s a greater chance of finding fellow students you click with, right? Or does it not work that way? Edith Snelders asked a student from 2026, as well as one from 1956.
More than 2,100 new students have once again started at TU/e. They’re off to a good start, as the new academic year is dedicated to the lustrum. The lustrum slogan, Curiosity Connects, is a beautiful thought. But what does it actually mean for students? And does the difference between being connected and having connections get in the way?
A lustrum is an invitation to look back. Take the experiences of alumnus Wim van de Heuvel, for example. In 1956, he was one of the 220 first students. “Connections didn’t happen automatically,” he says. “You had to create them yourself, for example through study associations, sports clubs and initiatives.” Wim helped establish associations and immersed himself in rowing. After a while, he knew all 220 students by sight and many of them by name.
Seventy years later, there are almost seventy times as many students at TU/e. Great, you might think: that means seventy times as many opportunities to make connections. But is that really the case? We may be more connected to one another in a digital sense, but in reality we are less engaged.
When I ask our student assistant Ties Mommersteeg, he estimates that he has around 300 contacts in his phone. But if he needed help in the middle of the night, he thinks he could probably turn to only about ten of them. And in the end, perhaps only two would actually show up at his door.
So if curiosity connects people, what could students do more often to find stronger connections? According to Wim, the answer is surprisingly simple: be on campus, among other people. Ideas, plans and friendships often emerge right at the coffee corner. That’s because you study together, talk together and build something together.
It was already like that seventy years ago, and that hasn’t changed.
The lustrum is a wonderful opportunity to make connections. The many activities still to come will bring students, staff and alumni together. Not because curiosity automatically connects people, but because curiosity creates opportunities to meet.
Edith Snelders is head of office for Alumni Relations and University Fund Eindhoven. The views expressed in this column are her own.
This column was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor.
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