I nearly choked on my peanut butter sandwich when I read the news article. TU/e and the municipality of Roermond are exploring whether students can be housed in the Limburg city. My first reaction? I checked the top of the page for the logo of De Speld (a satirical website like The Onion). But it turned out to be serious.

Apparently, the housing shortage in Eindhoven has become so severe that we are not just reaching the limits of the region, but stretching them considerably. If we no longer fit into a container on campus, then we’ll just move into an apartment block in Central Limburg.

The press release speaks optimistically about “common areas” and “foosball tables.” It sounds appealing, but a game of ping pong can hardly make up for the daily pilgrimage with NS (when it’s running).

The numbers show that this problem can no longer be ignored. Look at the influx of new first-year students: Eindhoven attracts around 2,500 freshmen each year, Delft nearly 1,000 more. Delft is larger, yes. But there is no shortage of technical students.

The question is whether Eindhoven still has something to offer them. After all, a student does not just choose a degree program, but a social foundation. A city where you actually live together in student houses, instead of sitting alone in an anonymous studio in a distant commuter town.

It is therefore painful to see that Eindhoven politics is not pushing harder on this issue. This lack of interest was clearly noticeable during the most recent municipal elections. Only a few parties had a dedicated page for students in their programs. In the others, the word “student” mainly appeared in lifeless lists, tucked away somewhere between seniors and first-time buyers.

We want to be a university that attracts talent, but we now risk parking those same students at a distance that makes any form of spontaneity impossible. In Roermond, you do not build a connection with Eindhoven. Anyone who only takes the train for lectures is no longer a resident of the city, but a commuter. And a commuter does not know the city—they know the train schedule.

Wob Knaap is a Data Science student at TU/e. The views expressed in this column are his own.

This column was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor.