Text Yvonne de Hilster illustration Henk van Ruitenbeek
Timo Jonker,Third-year student of Biology
‘In the first few weeks of the academic year, when the weather was still nice, I had more of a campus feeling than now. The campus is nicer than it used to be, with the market square at the Forum and the food trucks. It’s nice that you can sit outdoors on benches now. It’s the people that make it a sociable place. To me it’s a real university campus now. I don’t notice that there are industrial companies here too. As for the campus calendar, I wouldn’t put it in bins as a folder or on a separate website, but just in Resource. Apart from that I mainly look on the internet to see what activities are coming up.’
Frank Elbers, Product developer at FrieslandCampina
‘People from FrieslandCampina generally just drive from the roundabout to the building and go through the barrier at the end of the day to go home. I don’t have time to attend events. I do go for a walk every lunch hour with a few colleagues. The campus is certainly becoming more and more attractive. I’ve been working here since our building was first finished and the footpaths that have been created are a big improvement. And it has become greener and more landscaped. I think Campus Plaza with its apartments and shops really belongs here.’
Anja van Holland, Secretary at the Laboratory for Microbiology
‘It is nicer here than at the Dreijen, where we were until the start of this year. There is more going on; it is very dynamic. And I feel more involved in WUR here. I do have a sense of a campus here. I am familiar with the campus calendar, I’ve had a look through it to see if there’s anything on that’s up our street. There is something to do at Impulse every week, I think: I often see announcements of events. My colleague and I want to go along some time but we don’t usually have time. You have to plan for these things.’
Vera Bunt
, First-year Master’s student of Nutrition and health
‘I like the fact that there are lunchtime concerts
. It’s nice to go to them in the break. It gets you out of the Forum for a while but it’s not far to go. I saw an announcement about this concert when I went out to get something to eat with a friend last week.’
Dave van Hemert, Advisor on marketing and communication at Schuttelaar & partners in Plus Ultra
‘What gives me a campus feeling is a brown café you can wander into on a Friday afternoon. Where it still smells of the party the night before.
That’s all part of a campus to me, and it’s missing here. The campus is a bit too clean as it is. But it’s one up on the Agrobusinesspark at least.’
Victor Roos, Minor student at Communication sciences
‘I am at Breda university of applied sciences and I’ve been here for three months now. The campus is a safe environment: all the degree programmes together and you can see into the lecture rooms. But I don’t see much sign of creativity in the Forum: as a housemate of mine said, there are only nerds working here. In Breda we sometimes have a week where you are given a sentence or a key word and you do what you want with it. I miss that kind of space for self-development at WUR. Whereas creativity is important in science too, as well as in the interaction with society. There is a creative atmosphere at Impulse though. I’m at this lunch concert now because I saw something about it on a screen. A folder is an outdated medium. And who looks at posters nowadays?
Liyou Dong, Fresh food & chains, Wageningen Food & Biobased Research
‘I haven’t been here long but I love the campus
. Nice people everywhere. I feel at home here. But I never go to activities. I do go to the sports centre for basketball or to use the gym. I didn’t know there was an activities calendar, but I think it’s a good initiative.’
Antonia Lagarde, Taste panel member at FrieslandCampina
‘The atmosphere on campus feels lively to me: a positive atmosphere, different from the town. Everyone here is busy with research, you can sense that. It is open and invigorating here, as you could expect anything to happen and you could always find someone to go to with a new idea. But I have no idea what there is to do on the campus. And that is a pity because town residents and researchers could enrich each other’s lives. So share that Wageningen campus calendar with the rest of the town through Wageningen websites.’
Peter Ravensburger , Business developer at Wageningen Food & Biobased Research
‘On a working day I don’t usually get further than Impulse to have lunch with colleagues.
Sometimes I walk along the footpath past the amphitheatre. It’s good we’ve got Impulse. There is always something going on here. But I tend to just hang around after coming here for lunch, rather than specifically coming for an event. My colleague thinks the bus stop and the AH on campus are the biggest improvements.’
Ruben Kuije
r, Intern at Green Dino in Plus Ultra
‘Here inside I don’t get a campus feeling: it is just an office. I only see students when I look outside. I didn’t know there were all sorts of things to do here.’