“We received some emails I’d like to discuss with you, see if there’s anything worth pursuing,” colleague Deborah Blekkenhorst said after our Monday morning meeting. She opened the general Observant inbox that she maintains. Lots of spam, of course, but mixed in is a handful of emails about books, lectures, a new company for students, and an event. We sift through them quickly: yes, no, maybe (needs more information first).
The inbox is empty, but when I cast half an eye over my desk, I see that it is overflowing with Post-it notes and other scraps of paper scrawled over with handwritten notes about potential topics: “new policy for professors”, “University College Venlo”, “language requirements for lecturers”, “toe nails”, “illegal tenancy agreements”, “vulnerability of lecturers” (a very yellowed piece of paper), “the horror of student evaluations”, “recognition and reward”. We’ve been told there’s a lot of to-do about that last one. According to sources, the programme, aimed at effecting a culture change by allowing researchers to develop the skills they are good at – teaching, or leadership, for example – would only lead to increases in bureaucracy, workload and distrust. We’ll look into it.
And those toe nails, you might be thinking, what’s that about?! It would be a fantastic subject for our series the times they are (not) a-changin’, in which we delve into the Observant archives. Since as far back as 1986, the Netherlands Cohort Study on diet and cancer has been gathering human tissue, including toe nails. They are stored somewhere in a UM building, nearly a hundred thousand strong. Are they of such great scientific value? Why would you keep them? Questions that still need answering – we still need to make an appointment with the ‘project leader’.
There are some new Post-it notes this week, thanks to our editorial council, which came together to discuss the latest editions of Observant. Those meetings are always fertile grounds for new topics. “Defence”, about the ministry’s investment in teaching and research – will UM be taking part? Or what about one faculty’s decision to end ‘small’ Master’s programmes and another faculty’s decision to continue no matter what (even if there are only five or ten students)? There are set to be local elections in 2026: “That might be an interesting topic”, said one of the council members. And of course, fifty years of UM. “Are you doing anything with that yet? Maybe you should talk about PBL, is that even still relevant today?”
I am frequently asked (by people who don’t know the academic world at all) what my job actually entails. “A university newspaper, how interesting,” I hear them say. Often followed by a somewhat wary, “But is there really that much to write about?” I try to explain that we write about more than just the academic research, about student life or about policy matters, for example, and that yes, there are lots of things to write about. But it probably still seems impossible to comprehend.
I have a solution. I’ve taken a picture of my desk, focusing particularly on all the Post-it notes, papers and the open diary.
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
The editor-in-chief gives a look behind the scenes at the editorial office