The first-year students participating in INKOM for the next academic year will finish one day earlier. The introduction week will again be closed with the Heineken Silver Night, a party in the MECC building, but this time on Thursday evening. “It was decided by Student Services Centre to shorten INKOM,” chairperson of the INKOM working group Lotte Kaesler said. “Student associations can then use their own initiatives on Friday to show what they are all about.”
She is vague about which associations will be present, but KoKo, Tragos, Circumflex, and Saurus will definitely be there. The latter have plenty of opportunities to make themselves known to the first-year students during the introduction week, via their mentor groups and their presence at all kinds of INKOM activities. But the information market at Tapijn on Monday will have to do without ‘the big four’. “We want to highlight the new and small associations such as Maastricht Asian Society and Fugax” Kaesler explains.
Another drastic change is the lack of the annual cantus, a typical student party focussed around drinking beer and singing. For decades, it was one of the three major events at MECC during the introduction week, but according to Kaesler, it didn’t fit in this year. “We don’t want three identical evenings with the same kind of music. That is why we chose to have bands playing live music on Tuesday. There will be DJs on Thursday.”
During a cantus, mainly Dutch music is played. The concept of security is mentioned. Is this maybe not guaranteed due to the large number of participants? No answer was given. But social safety is such a big theme in the university world that it most certainly was a subject of discussion for the INKOM working group.