What will happen to the tricycle?
‘We will sell it, together with the stencil machine and the materials for making passport photographs. Our second-hand bookshop will be taken over by the Wageningen Environmental Platform. That was a Pulse working group, now it will be carrying on independently. The HousingDesk will remain open.’
And the archive?
‘A small part will be going to the university archive, the rest will be lost. That includes a lot of banners and fantastic posters, some of which are 30 years old. We still have a shelf of stuff from the 1970s that has come from the Wageningen Student Organization (WSO) HQ at Droevendaal. For anyone who is interested, we still have 16 fluorescent orange vests left over from last year’s big student protest. ‘
Doesn’t Veste represent student interests? What will we miss with Pulse gone?
‘Veste is a party with seats on the student council, a mandatory official body. It has a say in university policy. A student union has a much broader remit, and is more independent of the university administration. It stands up for students in practical matters, for example by arranging housing benefit for foreign students, organizing demonstrations, making a delivery bike available and campaigning for more work places for students in their graduation year.’
Can Pulse ever rise from the ashes?
‘We are setting up a foundation called Stichting Arion (Arion Foundation) to manage the remaining funds. Anyone wishing to set up a student union in future should get in touch with them.’ NM