The CAR Portfolios

As defined in CAR’s founding statutes, the board operates through a portfolio system. Before the academic year begins, we divide the 7 portfolios between our members. This allocation is made clear to the student body (on this website and on our social media pages). It is imperative to CAR’s functioning that the communication between themselves and the students is as efficient as possible, and the transparency of the portfolio system facilitates this well.

Each portfolio has a board member responsible for it. This person takes the lead on projects and communication surrounding that portfolio. This makes it easier for students to find out who to approach regarding any portfolio-related suggestions or concerns they may have. All students are invited to approach us for any such reason, because we are always interested in hearing from the people we are elected to represent.

Portfolios 2021-2022

Housing

Board Member: Naomi

Housing is the original portfolio of the Campus Affairs Representatives and remains an integral part of our function. Housing is a broad portfolio, encompassing everything related to units, rooms, campus fees, housing deposits and much more. We try to represent students in discussions such as unfair fines, assisting in finding the relevant contacts for issues faced and overall voicing student issues to those in charge.

Catering

Board Member: Naomi

CAR works alongside Eurest to improve catering to fit the needs of the students. As we regularly meet with a Eurest representative, we are very interested in hearing about your opinions and experiences in regards to catering. This includes the food selection, cost, events and everything else related to catering on our campus. Although we do not work for Eurest, we act as the voice of the students within our meetings and thus welcome you to talk to us about these things.

Facilities & Security

Board Member: Minke

The communal areas and facilities on Campus are vital to our Campus life. The organisation of these areas is very complex, because some are owned and managed by Lekstede, UU, UCU, or even the UCSA. CAR seeks to mediate with all of these groups to make sure these facilities best serve the students for which they are meant.

With our open-gate policy, allowing our neighbours to enjoy our beautiful Campus with us, we also open the door on some more nefarious strangers. Unfortunately some of these people have been known to steal from us, which we take very seriously. The Security portfolio aims to improve the communication between the UCU Security staff and the campus’ inhabitants. Luckily crime is still incredibly rare on our campus, but we must always remain vigilant to prevent any other occurrences. If you need assistance from (non-)Emergency Security, you can contact them directly by calling:

Emergencies: +31 30 253 4444

Non-emergencies: +31 30 253 1300

Wellbeing & Accessibility

Board Member: Karolien

The main aim of this portfolio is ensuring that campus is accessible to everyone who lives, studies, and comes to visit here. An example of this is making sure that the elevators are functional. In addition, this portfolio is also closely related to the housing portfolio, since certain students require specific accommodations to fit their accessibility needs. 

In terms of Wellbeing, CAR uses this portfolio to work with the Wellbeing Platform; a team consisting of a representative of the UCSA, UC Student Council, the Wellbeing Team, and Peer Support. This team meets to discuss the state of student wellbeing over time and work on ways to improve it.

Establishing CAR

Board Member: Karolien

Since CAR as it is today was first founded in 2018, it is a relatively new board on campus. Due to this, there are still some hurdles for us to overcome in becoming recognised, both by the student body, College Hall, and the UU. The main aim of this portfolio is to keep us thinking actively on ways to advance our position on campus, in order to better help the student body. Projects and tasks in this portfolio include meeting with new organisations and people, organising events to promote CAR, and PR to the student body.

One of the biggest projects in this portfolio has been gaining official recognition with the UU, which would bring us to the same institutional level as the UCSA and UC Student Council. Luckily, starting in Fall 2021, there will be no students on campus who haven’t been introduced to our board during introweek!

Future Campus

Board Member: Minke

As the board that aims to represent students on campus matters, CAR is involved in the process of looking for future options for the location of campus. In the Campus relocation working group, CAR works together with representatives from the UCSA and UC Student Council in a group called CampusCo. This group, which then brings information along to the Management Team and further involved parties, is the main point of student input regarding the campus relocation. As is the case with any project we take on, we would love to hear your suggestions for UCU’s future campus!

Sustainability

Board Member: Karolien

With this portfolio, CAR seeks to lower the negative environmental impact of UCU in any way possible. Considering how many people live on campus, this is a very worthwhile effort. The energy consumption on campus is incredibly high. CAR has been studying why this is the case, and possible solutions for campus to become more sustainable. Some of our current projects revolve around establishing a sustainability assessment framework on campus and finding a greener alternative to one of the biggest energy expenditures: dryers. This year we will also start working with the UU Green Office on a new initiative: faculty Green Teams.