By Cille Kaiser
— On Thursday night, Amsterdam University College’s Student Association (AUCSA) and Student Council welcomed approximately 70 guests from universities across the country to the annual Constitution Drinks. The purpose of the event, a tradition for Dutch study associations, was for AUCSA and the Student Council to formally introduce themselves and to network with their counterparts at other University Colleges.
Co-chair of the Student Council, Sofija Stefanović, said the aim for the event was to get to know the other associations and councils better, inform them of their ambitions, and open up room for potential collaboration.
Among the attendees were representatives from other University Colleges, including Leiden, Utrecht, Twente and Middelburg (Roosevelt). Additionally, student representatives of AUC’s parent universities UvA and VU were present, as well as several representatives from AUCSA’s own committees. AUC’s Dean, Prof. Dr. Murray Pratt, and Managing Director Belinda Stratton also attended at the event, along with several AUCSA/SC alumni.
Although the event, hosted in the Academic Building, was formal, AUCSA Secretary Lasse Rogie said the evening was mostly about socializing. “Here it’s just mingling — the networking comes later,” Rogie said. AUCSA Treasurer Andy O. Daab said it was especially important to “make sure that we have access to a platform where we can exchange ideas.”
Indeed, the evening was more than introductions and an open bar. The Student Council’s Secretary, Sarah Stapel, shared its plans and priorities for the upcoming academic year, including the student-run canteen project that is set to launch in January 2017.
Committee Affairs Officer for UCU’s Student Association (UCSA) Carolina Silva described the evening as “very intimate” and enjoyed bonding with AUC’s associations. UCSA hosted its Constitution Drinks at the end of September this year, which AUCSA attended. “Our event was way more traditional in the Dutch sense,” Silva said, referring to a greater emphasis on drinking, “but I actually quite like this.”
Rob Verbeek, the Treasurer for University College Twente’s study association, Atlas, also enjoyed the evening. “I heard from our previous board that it was super fancy [last year], but it’s really fun actually,” Verbeek said. Atlas hosted its own Constitution Drinks in June this year; one AUCSA member attended.
AUCSA President Lance Bosch said he was happy with the turnout and called the event an “overall success”. Student Council’s Internal Communications Officer Rayan Vugdalic said it was nice to see all the faces behind the emails they have been sending back and forth between the councils, and said the event was “what we had in mind.”
The writer of this story serves on the board of AUCafé, which ran the bar at this event, but she was not involved in any way in the organization process.
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