Since the café was opened officially on 15 May it has had a name: The Spot. ‘Because it is the place to be,’ explains committee member Kim Dieleman. But it also refers to a gimmick: there is going to be a spotlight in the large space of the café, which can be directed at anything that deserves extra attention. ‘A nice beer that’s on offer, or a beautiful artwork,’ says Jiska van der Reest. The student café will be run by the students themselves as far as possible. The committee members run the bar themselves, discuss the menu with the caterer OSP and deal with requests for drinks dos and parties. They have already had requests for drinks parties from several student societies. The students want to organize activities themselves. Jiska: ‘We want to get bands to play here, run speed-dating sessions and for major sports competitions we want a beamer so that students can watch together.’ Jiska and Kim hope The Spot will become the place to meet after lectures for a beer or a coffee. Kim: ‘From the start we lobbied like mad for a good coffee machine. That really was our main demand.’ The good coffee has come; the job now is to create a bit of atmosphere in the café. Jiska: ‘It is not ready yet, that is why it still looks a bit bare. But there are going to be LCD screens and an indoor garden with plants and I think a fountain. There will be more tables and chairs on the terrace too.’ LvdN
The hot Spot: a new student hangout
The first lectures have been delivered and the lifts have been checked out. The next thing on the agenda is to make the student café in the new teaching building Orion the place to be. A special Orion committee consisting of four enthusiastic students is hard at work to put the café on the map.
