Good morning. Welcome back to Erasmus TV.
The Dutch government announced a roadmap to easing
the measurements against the coronavirus. But is EUR following those directions?
Hans Smits, Chair of the Executive Board, what news do you bring for us?
From 15 June, I think there will be some opening of the university.
We are now preparing a plan, which is quite a challenge.
For every building, every floor, elevators, staircases, the campus here, the areas,
we have to design the area for the 1.5-metre university.
That will be done before 15 June so that we are ready to open up a little bit.
So you have a month to prepare. What does this mean for working from home or
using study spaces, or perhaps for the entrepreneurs here on campus?
Working from home remains the priority until 1 September.
But for our students' well-being, the library partially reopened last Monday.
We will again create study places for the students,
and then also workplaces for our employees.
We found out in our survey that it is very important for their well-being
to open up for them. From 15 June, we will do that.
I think for the library already next week we will step by step open up for students.
The survey showed that a lot of employees and students are feeling very stressed.
Is it also a result from the survey that opening up would help them?
Definitely. Specifically for the students, but also for our employees.
Another thing: we've created platforms, we've discussed it many times here,
but apparently, there are obstacles to pick up the phone and to ask for help
or to look for somebody to talk to. So maybe an idea is to form teams.
30% of the students can cope very well with being lonely, studying from home.
Maybe they could form teams to help their peers who have more difficulties.
Somebody who could help is here on the other side of the table.
Elvira Bruinen, you're from Erasmus Sport. Playing sports outside is allowed again.
Are people already running to you because they want to do something again?
It's true. From today on, you can make a reservation
for the tennis and beach volleyball courts on campus. Students can use them again.
From upcoming Monday, we have a schedule for some bodyfit classes, e.g.
yoga, high-intensity training or Zumba. That would be great to start again.
We do already have some reservations for today's time slots for the courts,
so that's great.
How will you try to keep this safe? We still have to keep our distance.
True. Some people from Erasmus Sport will check the RIVM and EUR rules.
So, that will be fine. We do make some squares on the ground
to make sure that everyone is keeping their distance,
so I think that will be okay.
For everybody who is wondering what this restarting campus looks like,
for example the library, because you can bring and collect books at the moment,
we have this short video for you.
Before we come back to the survey on how stressed students and employees are,
I was wondering: did Erasmus Sport lose a lot of income
during the two months that you had to stay closed?
We don't have a clear view of the financial damage yet,
but I can already say that it hurts. I think that's the case for many companies.
I hope everything will be fine and I think it will.
Does this also mean that you can't compensate students
who, for example, have a Sport pass for the entire year?
We do have a kind of compensation. We promise all the students to offer them
a discount when they buy a new pass during the September deal next September.
But in some cases, we do have to find a customised solution.
It's good news that we can start up a bit on campus. We can play sports again.
Some people will perhaps in a month be able to come back to study here.
It must be good news that people were apparently craving.
The survey showed that 2/3rds of students and employees were feeling quite stressed.
A lot of people were feeling anxiety or experiencing loneliness.
Does that worry you, as chair of this university?
Definitely it worries us. We talk a lot about it
in the Executive Board, but also with the deans and vice-deans of education.
We do all that we can do, but you cannot help all.
Coming back to sports, scientific research again and again teaches us that
walking outside, doing sports, is one of the best remedies to feel better
and to not have pessimistic feelings and to not feel lonely.
I do hope that in the next weeks, we will have reasonably good weather.
That our students will go outside and do sports, no matter what they do.
It's one of the best things to do to feel better.
Just before the show, you were telling us that you were also exercising outside
in the park, just to be outside.
Not everybody might have that luxury. Can they also come here, on campus?
Sure they can. We have parks here in the neighbourhood.
If there is enough interest, we also said to Erasmus Sport, we have trainers.
If, for instance, 20-30 students, with distance, of course,
want to have a walk in the Kralingse Bos or around the lake, we can arrange that.
Why not? Not only on the campus, but in another place in Rotterdam.
If they want, we will be there for them.
You also mentioned that, since the beginning of this crisis,
we have been discussing here at this very table on Erasmus TV
the worries the university has for employees' and students' well-being.
Does this mean you already have plans to tackle this problem the survey showed?
We are also discussing it with experts. The university has logical know-how.
We have four experts. We asked them, 'Please help us.
What can we do more or differently than we have done up until now?'
We are doing that. Maybe some new measures will be taken.
One of the things which intrigues me is that students can help each other.
To form buddies for each other. If we can take those kinds of measures,
I think that would be helpful too. -Is there also something that perhaps
the university should do more and employees or students should do less?
Can't you take away some tasks or assignments for students, for example?
We discussed this for our employees yesterday with the deans.
We said to them, 'If we can help by having more people...'
Because it's all extra work. The work pressure is extra.
There was a high work pressure and it has increased, even.
So, 'If we can help you with new people for online training, exams, etc.,
we will have more people to help all our employees,
so that we at least reduce the extra workload they have now.'
We will come back to you when the measures are definite.
We will keep asking. In the meantime, I might have to book a class
at Erasmus Sport just to be fit again to be back here on Monday,
because on Monday, we'll have the next episode of Erasmus TV.
Thank you for watching.