Letter to the ducktor (yes we got mail!)
If you also have anything intelligible to share, do submit to itcblog@outlook.com and we will publish with due ducktorship.
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From the indigenous people of Itcland:
Island thoughts
“Mensen die nog aan de
Hengelosestraat (ITC) werken, vormen toch een soort eilandje”… “De afstand tot
de UT is letterlijk en figuurlijk te groot” (UT Nieuws, november 2013)
Dear UT-ists, knowledgeable or ignorant of
ITC, we salute you,
There exists a considered and considerable vision for ITC to
join with the rest of the UT. It was decided with great consideration, drinks
and dinner that being in close proximity to each other would promote cooperation.
Sure. This is clear from the fact that within any faculty the various departments
know very well what everyone else is up to and that on campus faculties who
live closest together develop most cooperation. Highly esteemed opponents: we
beg to differ.
At least, according to experience of ITC we
know that without coffee machines there is no communication. If there were no
regular coffee breaks at ITC no one, except the highly learned opponents, would know
how everybody is interfering with each other. In addition, ITC is a small
village full of gossip where the Dean’s wife cannot even move her car without
everyone knowing. Therefore quickly deducing given the absence of fixed gossip breaks or
continuity of governance, at other faculties internal communication is expected
not to be any better than at ITC.
Closeness is also not nurtured at the
Campus. The magnetism of the Spiegel is reversed, repulsing stronger any object
that draws closer. Perhaps therefore, in the past four years, ITC did not feel
very much attracted to the Campus. What does it have to offer? In many cases only a reinvention of the wheel or a duplication of (administrative) effort. ITC has traditionally
stronger ties with departments and faculties in Delft , Wageningen and
Amsterdam than with those in Drienerlo. These ties have intentionally been macerated
somewhat to allow for more intensive local engagement, but well, what a warm
welcome did we get. In the most strategic reviews of the UT ITC still missing.
The partnerships and ties that the ITC does have with the UT mostly predate the
merger. Meanwhile ITC is doing fairly well financially under stable governance.
Most of its internal procedures have been adapted to the UT model and the work
continues. The island looks to be in quite a good shape as seen from both inside and out. The other faculties
have their own problems. But they are islands just as well.
The UT is a neat archipelago with each
island boasting its own population, flora, fauna and resources. There are ferry
services and pipelines between the islands and there is a communication
infrastructure. In the rare event that islanders physically have to another
island the distance between the islands matter only little. It's all possible by
car, boat, plane or bike in a few minutes, and most trips are made from the
mainland in any case, because they mostly work from home. The ITC island however lies closest to the
mainland. Closer to the station, near to government, even closer to the societal
relevance we dare say. Step of the ITC island and you're in the middle of town,
step out of the Spiegel and you're on an industrial estate. Perhaps the ITC
offers an opportunity to the UT. It could bring UT closer to the global society. Near ITC there is a direct train to internationalization, Eastward to Europe and beyond to where otherwise be dragons AND West venturing far beyond Vriezenveen. The Island looks pretty representative. The
island also has some room to spare (if need be we will evict a few non-indigenous people) so the other islands
can locate trading posts there. Call it the
UT City Campus, put some student housing nearby (ah right, we already have that
covered) and see it as a "stepping stone" to the rest of Drienerlo to
pollinate the campus from the heart of Enschede. Like!
The ITC definitely would like to become part of
the UT archipelago. Of course we also see merit in this merger. But we do get the feeling that some of the archipelago’s
inhabitants, some of them even indigenous to Itcland, still have a bit of a strange worldview. Strange interpretations of geography or the mechanismas of inter-island enterprise. Like regarding to what revolves
around what or to who depends on who? The largest island of the archipelago is probably
inhabited by the service departments and their concern(ed)directorates. This could have given some of their inhabitants the impression they are
also on the most important island. Consequently faculties are then mobilized to
achieve the goals of the services rather than the other way around. Perhaps in their
greatness they therefore also assume to know what is good for the other
islands. ICT then prescribes the choice of hard and software for researchers
and FM determines the layout of the classrooms for teachers.
But nevertheless
experience shows that each faculty arranges her affairs differently. Each
faculty has made its own island by-laws, creating almost more political
governance structures in the archipelago than there are in the Netherlands
Antilles, anarchy included. There is probably no faculty that meanwhile has conformed so well to
the UT processes and regulations as has ITC. We are committed to be the most diligent
pupil in class, so much do we like to become part of the archipellago.
But in view of the above, why this fixation on total assimilation? Why must travel rules for
Hanoi be equalized with that of Münster? Why trade an A-location in the city for
a dilapidated and abandoned building on campus? Let each island do what it does best, and
let each service do what it does best to make the islands flourish and achieve
their goals. ITC has a few niche areas of excellence in education and research,
particularly in the international arena. It has invested in that longer than UT even
exists. If it somehow appears that a few procedures are not directly applicable
to this island, or when the residents feel they have good reason to redesigning
their home to their standards, so what? Let them be, respect the knowledge and
experience of the local population and have trust in the knowledge that this will
help them achieving their goals and that of the great Academipelago of Twente.
The indigenous people of Itcland
