“Sometimes I think the girls must still be living here, there's so much noise”
This Intree Week it may seem like something that has nothing to do with you, but there will come a time when you, too, will be an alumnus. On the fourth floor of the Maagdenhuis, under the scorching hot roof of the poorly insulated building, the focus is on ex-UvA graduates. Funda van der Lugt works there as project leader Alumni Relations.
The Maagdenhuis is home to various UvA administrative departments such as the Communication Office, the Legal Affairs Department, the Supervisory Board Office and the Alumni Relations and University Fund (AUF) Department. Funda van der Lugt, a project manager, works at the alumni office. She has a room on the fourth floor, which is sort of the attic of the Maagdenhuis. For a long time, this was the archive of the Department of Documentary Information (DIV) until the AUF department also took up residence there.
Age: 50 years old
Function: Project manager at the Alumni Relations Office
Office: Fourth floor
Has been working in the Maagdenhuis for 10 years
The protesters also occupied the “fourth” during the Maagdenhuis occupation in February 2015 and promptly sank through the floor. But none of that is visible anymore. The attic was refurbished, the shutters were opened, the walls and cock beams were painted, posh furniture was rolled out and a private coffee corner with espresso was created. The DIV department left; the AUF stayed. Then Funda van der Lugt also “came upstairs”.
10 years on
“I’ve been working in the Maagdenhuis for about 10 years now,” says Van der Lugt. “A long time ago – I wasn’t even working at the UvA yet – I was walking with my boyfriend along the Spui. As we passed the Maagdenhuis, I told him that I hoped one day to be able to work in that imposing historic building. Shortly afterward, an advertisement came along announcing that the UvA was looking for a temporary worker to replace the executive secretaries. I applied, even though I had no idea that I would be working in the Maagdenhuis. But that turned out to be the case.”
“After my time as a temporary worker, I eventually got a permanent contract and worked in different departments and floors, so I know people everywhere in the building. I worked on the second floor in the business office of Renée Bakkerus, who has since passed away. I also worked in administrative support on the third floor when Louise Gunning, the president of the university, still worked there. The occupation of the Maagdenhuis building that I experienced at the time was really intense, but because I reacted in a rather down-to-earth and stress-resistant manner, former AUF director Carolyn Wever asked me to come to work in her department. That’s how I ended up on the fourth floor.”
Girls
“The nice thing about the Maagdenhuis is that every floor is different. On the second and third floors, you can walk around the entire square building via the galleries and from the second floor you can look straight into the hall. The fourth floor is very special with all kinds of small and low corridors where you can easily lose your way. In winter it quickly feels dark here, so reflective red light plates, similar to bicycle tail lights, are attached to many beams in the corridors.”
“You also have a good view from here of what used to be the courtyard of the orphanage, where the children went out to get fresh air. You can also see the outside clock, which has been stopped at five to twelve for years. Sometimes I think the girls must still be living here, there's so much noise. It's because of the wind, which blows and whooshes through cracks, holes and pipes. In certain places – for example near the toilets – there is so much noise that I think: which one of the girls could that be?”
“It is quieter in the Maagdenhuis than it used to be. This is mainly due to corona, which means that many people have started working from home for part of the week. On top of that, flexible working has taken off in a big way. Of course, we are a department that works for the entire UvA, but sometimes I miss the students because they are not here. Fortunately, there are now enough flexible workstations throughout the UvA, so I sometimes work somewhere in the REC.”
