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jaargang 42, 29 juni 2000 English page

TUE Starts Swimming Pool Construction Last week TUE started the construction of a swimming pool at the Studenten Sport Centrum. Currently, the foundations are being laid. The pool should be completed by March of 2001. It will measure 15 x 25 meters and will regularly be the venue for competitions. The first of these will be the ‘Groot Nederlands Studenten Kampioenschap’, to be held in Eindhoven in May 2001. Managing director of the Studenten Sport Centrum Jacques de Mooij is watching how the foundations of the swimming pool are being laid. Photo: Bart van Overbeeke The pool is being built on the location of the old ‘balloon’ hall. The cycle path in this part of the campus is being rerouted. “The city has decided to permanently open the bike tunnel under the ring road,” says ing. Marten Dijkshoorn, project head at TUE real estate staff department. “We had hoped the cycle route would go directly by the pool, and would be realised at the same time. But the city is still working on its plans. The new swimming pool will be used solely for competitions and training. “There will be competitive swimming, water polo, aqua fitness and exercises with compressed air. We do not foresee any room for recreation.” It will be possible to adjust the depth of the pool by moving part of the floor up or down, this will provide the right conditions for aqua jogging and handicapped swimmers. There will be two sets of men’s and women’s changing rooms which can also be used by wheelchair users. The pool needs 35% less energy than is the norm for swimming pools, Dijkshoorn explains. “We have an edge because of the sensor lighting that switches on whenever anyone comes in and also reacts to daylight. If there’s a lot of light from outside, the lamps burn less brightly, and vice versa.” Apart from this, the walls and roof will be well insulated; the filter installation will be an open sand filter, which uses less pump capacity; and the water will be heated by a WKO (warm/cold) installation built on TUE campus. Because building a swimming pool is a very specialised enterprise, TUE has asked Sportfondsen Nederland for advice. The pool’s design was approved the second time by the city of Eindhoven’s special building code committee. The committee said the original design was not in harmony with the rest of the sports centre. The first roof started out rounded, instead of square like the sports centre roof. /.

Evaluation Academic Staff To Be More Business-like TUE is planning to change the way academic staff are evaluated annually. As of January 2001, so-called ‘performance indicators’ will be used to measure effectiveness. Annual interviews will become more business-like. Concrete goals will be formulated and duly evaluated. Until now different methods were used in these interviews. The new formula should standardise the process. According to prof.dr.ir. Wim van Bokhoven of the Electrical Engineering department, and one of the people who has worked hard on the performance indicator project, it is past time to make these annual interviews more result-oriented and consistent for all staff. The new approach is geared to improve the quality and performance of lecturers, senior lecturers and professors. The Best “This is a way to get the best from and for our academic staff,” he says. “Let me explain. Evaluation interviews are often badly structured and remain too vague and noncommittal. This kind of talk should cover performance in all areas of the job – teaching, research, management and administration. This is the central idea in our new approach. By creating a clear structure, nothing is forgotten. This will enable us to obtain a clear picture of our researchers’ core competencies over a longer period. Moreover, some performance aspects may be seen to improve and academic staff may more easily link their own ambitions to our organisation’s goals.” Specific Situation Asked whether foreigners should fear for their jobs if performance indicators show, for example, that their teaching skills in English or Dutch could be better, Van Bokhoven shakes his head. “You should remember that this is between an academic staff member and his or her boss. Every staff member is different and the new method gives us a lot of room to take into account someone’s specific situation. For instance, if someone has learnt good Dutch in only three months, or has written an excellent reader in English, these things will contribute to a good evaluation. The idea is to make sure you don’t forget to talk about any aspects of the job that could be important.” In order to evaluate teaching, students will also be asked to contribute their opinion. The content of teaching materials and whether ICT materials were used, will count. The way a staff member handles practical training, projects, traineeships and graduations will be important. As will awards and development of teaching materials. Publications Research will be evaluated by projects initiated, funding, whether or not someone led a research group, good administration of funds, international collaboration, supervision of graduates and scientific publications. No absolute scales are built-in for this last aspect, as the value of publishing may be different in different fields, says Van Bokhoven. The unions’ first reaction to the plans is mostly positive, although there are a few points on which they disagree with Van Bokhoven. OPTUE’s Martin van Gessel says more consistency in annual evaluation interviews should clarify the reasons for differences in salaries. But he thinks a number of points may be dangerous, he says he would not like to see the current confidential interview turned into a kind of public appraisal./.

First Female Board For the first time in the history of TUE, a student association’s board will be completely female – the association in question is Intermate. This makes the board somewhat noticeable. But the new board members don’t really understand what the fuss is all about. “We’re just six women who want to do our best for Intermate. The fact that we’re all female is just a coincidence,” says one of the board members. “We’re not planning any special women’s activities or anything.” “At first people are surprised, then they start to joke around, but now they see we are taking care of business,” says another. TUE’ers Win New Venture Student Prize Business students Paul van den Berg and Roel Meewis have won a prize of 10,000 guilders in the New Venture business plan competition. The students sent in a business plan they had produced during an exchange visit to a Canadian university. They collaborated with Canadians Rick Mangat and Cedric Penner. Their plan was made for HeartLook, a medical invention by graduate student Mangat, that can be used during by-pass operations. This is not the first time the four won a prize for HeartLook. They did very well in similar business plan competitions in America and Canada.