Untitled Document
/Unions Plan to Sue TU/e
Unions at TU/e are threatening legal action against the Executive
Board. They say salaries for new research assistants (AIOs) are
lower than was agreed upon. Research assistants hired after December
1 are paid according to the labour agreement for Ph.D. students.
But the 'old' Ph.D. students are still getting an extra grant,
over and above their new and higher salary as stipulated in the
labour agreement. The Executive Board decided to pay an extra
grant to research assistants earlier because of high salaries
in the market. The unions, joined in OPTUE, are angry that the
Board scrapped the extra grant for new research assistants without
telling them. This is the first time the Executive Board is being
sued by the unions.
/Group One Wins
Student elections have not caused much change. Student party Group
One is again the largest party and won five of the nine student
seats on the University Council. Turnout at the elections dropped
by 0.3 per cent to 29 per cent.
Party leader Dimitri Gilissen is happy with the results. "I
hope our people in the Council can get students to be more active
in TU/e politics," he commented. Their opponents at PF are
not too disappointed, says Jelle de Jong. "We have the four
seats we need, and we are pleased with that. We held a new type
of campaign this year, so we were curious to see how it would
go. We'll be there again next year!"
/Extension Electricity Grid
The Christmas holidays are starting early for the Chemical Engineering
department. The building will be closed to staff and students
as of 1.00 p.m. on Friday December 22. The electrical grid needs
more capacity due to new air-conditioning and other improvements.
The grid will also be extended at the Student Sports Centre, this
will take place on Friday morning. This will not cause any inconvenience,
as a generator will be used.
/New Cultural Centre
"If you compare the cultural climate in Eindhoven to other
student cities, something is definitely missing. This is the reason
we are planning more cultural activities in student centre Scala
and Studium Generale," says Yolanda Koppejan. She is the
chairman of the cultural section of Stichting Studentenvoorzieningen
Eindhoven (SSE). SSE's cultural section is planning a number of
courses in January together with Studium Generale. This will be
the first step towards a cultural centre on campus, which will
be called 'Virtueel Cultureel Centrum'. "This is to be a
new building in the front part of the campus, near the new Architecture
department. The cultural centre will not only offer short courses,
but will also give cultural student associations a roof over their
heads," says Koppejan.
/Professor Cramers Says Goodbye
At 65 years of age and after 42 years of employment at TU/e, prof.ir.
Karel Cramer is probably one of the people with the longest history
of employment at TU/e. His official farewell last week was with
mixed feelings, as his department of Analytical Chemistry is to
be closed. At the end of his farewell speech, Cramers summed up
the output of his department in the last 42 years: 321 graduates,
60 Ph.D.s and 1300 published scientific papers. He said he regretted
the closing of the Analytical Chemistry department. Especially
so, since he has been seeing a strong increase in interest in
analytical methodology development (for example in pharmacy and
bio-technology) at conferences.
AKSIE Tries to Sabotage Elections
Using the slogan 'Don't Vote, Fight', AKSIE tried to get students
to sabotage the elections last week. AKSIE is a leftist student
association that was originally part of the Eindhovense Studenten
Vakbond. According to them, the University Council is part of
a fake democracy and voting at the elections for Council members
is legitimising the system. There were not many students who listened
to this group. The number of invalid votes was about the same
as other years. "We want to shake things up a bit. Get people
to start thinking, because there is really not much democracy
at this university. This is not due to the political parties,
but to the whole system, which is wrong," says Mark Beks,
referring to MUB, a recent law on higher education that has meant
less democracy at universities.
Joint Advisory Board for All
Services
There is to be just one advisory board for all new central services.
Last Monday, the University Council agreed to a plan by the Executive
Board to join all three existing boards in one employee participation
board to advise all services. The fact that the number of employee
boards for services is under discussion has to do with AVA, the
reorganisation of services. In future, service departments will
be smaller. It is therefore no longer efficient to have an advisory
board for every service area. According to the Executive Board,
it is hard to find enough people for the existing boards. There
were mixed reactions from the existing employee participation
boards. Unions at TU/e are against the plans. "Co-management
by employees should follow management," says spokesman Martin
van Gessel, summarising his idea that employee participation should
be as close to the services in question as possible. Otherwise
any discussion among the members of the board may become too abstract.
Dr.
Giovanna Cacciola from Sicily in Italy is one of the innovative
researchers at the Biomedical Technology department (BMT). She
is working on artificial heart valve protheses, which are made
of fibre reinforced polymers. The artificial heart valves will
have a longer life cycle than their surgical alternative: biological
valves from pigs, which usually last about seven to ten years.
"The first prototypes have been made and we have already
adapted them somewhat. But we still have a lot of testing to do
before we can patent," she explains.