Jonna Brantjes in front of the Wageningen municipality. Photo Sterre-Lotte Lemereis/
Larissa Mulder WUR student Jonna Brantjes (24) started work on 1 September as Wageningen municipality’s first student officer. ‘Lots of policy issues affect students.’
Why does Wageningen need a student officer?
‘The municipality doesn’t particularly want to take a target group approach, but students are quite a special group. Students make up over a quarter of Wageningen’s population and a lot of policy issues affect this group. That’s why it seemed a good idea to the municipality to appoint someone who can pick up signals among students and alert the municipality. Some other cities already have a student officer so I think that’s where Wageningen municipality got the idea.’
How did you get appointed student officer?
‘I saw the vacancy last year and thought: that’s something I could do. I was previously study commissioner for the Food Sciences study association Nicolas Appert, which meant acting as the link between the students and lecturers.
I hope to cultivate students’ connection with the rest of Wageningen
This is similar, only now I’m the link between students and the municipality. I applied, and after a round of speed dates and an interview, I got offered the job. It’s for eight hours a week, so I can’t take on any really big projects. Anyway, I’m doing this alongside my thesis.’
Do you have your own desk in the Town Hall?
‘Oh, no! Almost nobody does as they have hot-desking, but it’s also because the job is very flexible and you can decide yourself how to spend your hours. At the moment I’m still in the induction stage and getting to know my fellow workers at the municipality. I also sit in on meetings with the university and Idealis, I attend talks and I maintain contacts with societies.’
Are there student issues you already plan bringing up with the municipality?
‘I’m currently looking at the possible closure of the bars in the student flats. Students are worried about this. Annie’s is due to close soon, but students are afraid Woeste Hoeve and the Bunker will be next. The flat bars are owned by Idealis but are also used by students who don’t live in that block of flats. In the planned refurbishment of the flats, Idealis wants to make those areas better suited to the need of the flat occupants. Which is understandable but the bars serve an important wider social function in Wageningen, for example for small societies that don’t have their own premises.
In the end, everyone — the municipality, Idealis and the university — benefits when students have a place in which to organize activities. I think they therefore also have a shared responsibility to ensure such spaces are available. I want to see what the municipality can do in that regard. In an issue like this, I also ask student officers in other cities for advice.’
What do you hope to achieve this year?
‘I hope to cultivate students’ connection with the rest of Wageningen. Apart from that, it’s all very well having ambitious aims but the main thing is to make sure people know this new position exists and they know how to find me if there is anything.’
You can contact the student officer at studentambtenaar@wageningen.nl.
