By Kama Wojtuszko To eat or not to eat – a question that students ask themselves before every canteen purchase. With almost five euros for a sandwich, not every student can afford to eat at the Academic Building, but with finals approaching, it becomes difficult both time- and energy-wise to cook for every meal. Here…

By Hazal Karaagac The iconic motto of AUC, “Excellence and Diversity in a Global City”, has recently been lifted. Its absence on the AUC website is currently filled with “Studying liberal arts and sciences in a global city” as a mere replacement phrase. Behind this change was the agenda of the AUCNext initiative. The Herring…

By Anna Debeye In 2021, the Jonge Akademie, a platform of young scholars, released a report describing how teachers and students in the Netherlands are unhappy with the current structure and length of the academic year. The Minister of Education, Robbert Dijkgraaf, has therefore asked Dutch universities to design a ‘smarter academic year’ in order…

By Pola Folwarczny In recent years, there have not been enough candidates for AUC to hold elections for its Student Council, a participatory governing body of the university. This year, however, six determined and enthusiastic candidates are running to become the new representatives of the student body in the 2023-2024 academic year. Students will be…

By Ben Kiem The self-checkout – the reification of one person’s fears and the other’s dreams – has replaced much of the traditional cash register and reshaped the way we buy our groceries. On its conquest of the retail world, it has increased revenue, efficiency… and shoplifting. It also found its way into our local…

By Franciszek Dziduch Collage by Veronika Bejczy After two years of holding the class online, this year’s AUC students taking Peace Lab in the January intensive, for the first time went to Rwanda. The trip was preceded by a week of four-hour classes, during which students received an in-depth preparative education about the history of…

By Ben Kiem Paco Crofts, a third-year Humanities major, sits in the living room of his 4-person dorm room, wearing a purple knit pullover and a pair of green, flared trousers. It is a late Thursday evening. As he receives a push-notification on his phone reminding him to pick up a Balenciaga jacket he bought…

By Pola Folwarczny In May 2022, the current second- and third-year students received an email informing them of a major change in the grading system. As of 1 September 2022, the letter grades would be replaced with a numerical system, in accordance with the Dutch grading system. Some students noticed immediately that – as a…

Interview by Ronja Boer Academic building, second floor: In the kitchen area next to the management department, new Director of Education Dr. Marianne Riphagen hastily eats an avocado – a quick break before her next appointment. Since 1 February, she has replaced Dr. Michiel van Drunen, who has started a new position as Director of…

Couldn’t make it to the Budget GA? No worries, The Herring’s Live Blog will keep you updated its happenings, starting from 10:00.

By Anna Debeye and Ronja Boer Shortly after the start of this academic year, the AUC Student Council sent out a survey called “Free Menstrual Products Interest Survey” to gauge whether students wish for the Academic Building to offer free menstrual products in its bathrooms. The response was an overwhelming consensus: of the 257 people…

By Lisa Jesudas The familiar scent of espresso wafts through the corridor outside room 770 of the AUC student dorms on the fifth floor. Inside, third-year student and coffee aficionado Eva Nieuwenhuijs is vigorously rotating the handle of a manual coffee grinder while her four-hundred euro, refurbished espresso machine heats up. A light drizzle patters…

By Adesholla Bishop At a time of year when short days and long nights are accompanied by the bleak weather that is characteristic of Amsterdam, finding new ways to enjoy spending time indoors becomes a goal of many at AUC. And what better way to make winter a bit cosier than to fill your room…

By Adesholla Bishop Satire Through rain and shine, during night and day, AUC students can be seen trudging between the dorms and the Academic Building (AB), a 500-metre trek that, though physically taxing and emotionally exhausting, they must make in order to attend on-campus lectures. Yet, it seems the end is in sight: In its…