Desperate search for RUG 400 volunteers

The RUG needs thousands of volunteers for its upcoming 400th anniversary – especially people with experience in food services and event support – but only 130 people have signed up with a month to go.

For a gala on 15 May alone, 150 volunteers are needed. Maybe it’s a good idea to hire some paid help? ‘Lots of students have part-time jobs in restaurants, and we hope that they will feel compelled to help out’, says anniversary committee member, Anke Kersting. If you would like to volunteer, sign up through the anniversary committee.

Janitors protest

Demanding better working conditions, janitorial workers at the RUG protested in the Academy Building on Tuesday morning. The workers feel they have to work too many hours for too little pay. They want the university to put their employer – OSB – under pressure to improve their contracts.

The well-coordinated and unannounced protest yielded quick results: Bert Verveld, director of the University office, told the workers that the University would call OSB to discuss the situation, and promised to bring OSB and the union together to the negotiating table next week.

Rookie Prize for UK: Yoran Staas wins!

Yoran Staas, one of the UK’s student reporters, was awarded the 2014 Rookie prize – and 500 Euros – from the Groningen Press Association. The award recognizes up-and-coming journalistic talent.

Staas, a history student, distinguishes himself from other video journalists with his telling style of film making, according to the jury: ‘He is able to create a beautiful and intelligent portrait in two minutes.’ UK writers Rosa Timmer and Alain Dekker have won the Rookie award previously, and a team from the UK won the Groninger Press Prize in 2011.

More fraud means more rules

There are more and more cases of students cheating during labs and exams, an inquiry by the University into exam commissions has revealed. As a result, consequences for cheating have been made more explicit in the RUG’s Education and Exam Rules.

Students caught cheating – which could be anything from tampering with lab conditions and plagiarism to copying off another student – could be banned from sitting for exams for a year, if not expelled from the university altogether. However, no student has ever been expelled from the RUG for cheating.

Social Science library will move after all

The Behavioural and Social Science faculty didn’t want to lose their library, but the faculty board has decided to move the department’s collection to the UB.

The move is a part of the renovations to the UB, and several faculties around the city center have already moved their collections there in order to improve the central library’s efficiency. A majority of the staff will move in along with the books, and study rooms will fill the space left behind at the department.