Intreeweek checks with push message if first year students feel safe
Sports day, museum night and the final party, Intreeweek has followed a set pattern for years. Yet there is something new: a check-in moment for freshmen via a push message on their phones. It is a way of keeping an eye on social safety.
“Let us know how you are doing after yesterday”s programme,” Aïsha Snider (21), first-year psychobiology student read the push message on her phone in the morning when she woke up. Opening the message, by logging into her UvA account, she came to a form with questions: “How do you feel after yesterday’s programme? And did you feel safe?” It is a Welfare check-in, which the Intreeweek committee is sending to all first-year students for the first time this year, following the example of introduction weeks at other universities.
Many students don’t reply to the push messages, or did not even notice them due to the daily flood of notifications on their phones. “We don’t expect many responses either, because it’s really aimed at people who feel socially unsafe,” explains Intree committee chair Thijs Christiaan Bouwman. “The check-in moment is meant to briefly ask participants if they have experienced anything unpleasant or if they feel uncomfortable for any reason. We also mention the channels they can then turn to, such as the UvA’s confidential advisor.”
With the help of those checks, Intreeweek can gather information on whether there were parts of the programme that felt unsafe. “That way we know for future years what we can improve,” Bouwman said. The evaluation of the whole week will only follow after Intreeweek is over.
Student Snider thinks it is a good initiative. “Although I wonder if it’s really a are-you-okay check or if it’s about how you rate the Intree committee. I really like the former, though. Not necessarily for myself: I experienced all the events so far as very safe, including the party Monday night. It is all organised for students by students and there is also security present.”
Social safety
Social safety has been a theme at introduction weeks since the House of Representatives agreed in summer 2023 that students should actually be given MeToo lessons during introduction weeks. Since then, several universities have already had training for first-year mentors and other initiatives. At TU Eindhoven, there was also an interactive theatre performance on the subject this year.
