From long queues to festivals: Intreeweek throughout the years in ten photos
For more than fifty years, first-year students have been welcomed to Amsterdam during Intreeweek, that starts again today. Once the week was full of educational evenings and political messages, nowadays it is mainly about fun. A small history of Intreeweek in ten photos.
The very first edition of Intreeweek in 1972 was announced with much fanfare. Even the NOS covered it. The first edition was also the biggest in a long time: 2,500 freshmen travelled to the Roeterseilandcampus for the welcome day, the introduction booklet and a speech by the rector. The programme that week was not very exciting: there were talks on science and society, contact moments with student deans, psychologists, doctors and spiritual counsellors, and student union Asva was also present to inspire students with political messages. Although then there was also a final party, it only took place in early October.
In the following years, enrolments declined rapidly. In 1974, there were only 1,200 students participating - partly because the introduction booklets were delivered too late by the PTT. But even the students who did attend were not always paying attention to the programme, Johnny Kuiper from Crea concluded in Folia at the time. He wanted to thoroughly go through the ‘Intree formula’, especially its non-committal nature. “Some first-year students thought decorating their rooms was more important than our cultural programme.”
And at the same time, little has changed in that respect. There are still students who have other priorities than the Intreeweek: of the more than eight thousand freshmen who start at the UvA every year, just under four thousand students run Intreeweek.
A year after the very first Intreeweek, cultural organisations, museums and theatres were happy to join the Intreeweek, so the budget increased substantially, reaching one tonne in 1973. Organisationally, it was a tough job: 20 per cent of the freshmen still had no place to sleep when they arrived, so the Intreeweek committee called all the youth hotels in the city to sort out contracts with them. In short, organising Intreeweek in the early years was “a matter of improvisational talent and loads of energy,” writes the editor on duty in Folia.
Droves of freshmen crowd in front of the Oudeman House Gate to register in 1990. That year, 2,400 students take part in Intreeweek, a record number and a hundred more than the previous year.
Students in the 1992 Intreeweek look suspiciously similar, according to the editor of Folia: “uniformly dressed in brand new or just old frayed jeans”. Batik T-shirts, platform soles and Naf Naf sweatshirts were also popular that year.
By these years, Intreeweek had long since ceased to be used for political messages, as was the case in the early years. Students were increasingly turning out to be scholars and had become “passive consumers of education”, reads a Folia from that time. “The professor has to adjust to this: the birth of the video-prof. Above all, students do not want to discuss, but to copy the education material.”
From the late 1990s, Intreeweek was still mainly about fun. Joining the Asva, students only wanted to become members if there was something in return, sighed brand-new Asva president Floor Milikowski. “It is very bad that you first have to offer a service before people become members.” Twister also makes its appearance during Intreeweek. In 2001, the entire Olympic stadium is filled with contending freshmen.
In 2004, 2,200 students participated in Intreeweek, 400 more than the committee had expected. According to a member of the organising committee, this increase had to do with the approach. For the first time, the mentoring groups were divided by their study. “That’s much more useful to you as a student.”
Intreeweek grows steadily with the also growing university. In 2016, there were so many applications (about 3,500) that the opening in Carré had to be done twice, not everyone could fit into the gigantic theatre hall.
In 2018, Intreeweek sold out in no time. The committee is instructed to increase the number of participants by 500. In 2019, with 4,300 participants, the biggest Intreeweek ever starts.
