The year is coming to an end. As part of its recap series, Vox wanted to provide its readers with an update. Part 2: Mark Vlek de Coningh on installing six bench swings on the campus.

In June 2015, an unexpected reduction in on-campus printing rates generated a financial windfall for the University Student Council (USR), at that time led by student Mark Vlek de Coningh. The USR suddenly found itself with 8,000 euros in spending money, but the question was: what should they spend it on? To help answer this question, the USR launched an idea competition, with the winning proposal being bench swings on campus.

The USRs bench swings were included in this year’s New Year’s address. According to Gerard Meijer, president of the Executive Board, the benches were definitely going to be installed and a special meeting had already been scheduled. The question is: were they installed?

Five bench swings
Vox spoke to Mark Vlek de Coningh, the then president of the USR, to discuss the issue. As it turns out, the final benches were installed on Monday, several months after the first ’test bench’ was installed near the Grotius building. There was just enough money to order five of them, with a little help from the university. The benches were installed at five locations: behind the Huygens building, behind the Collegezalencomplex, behind the Gymnasion building and on the lawn in front of the Faculty of Medicine. The university made good on its New Year’s promise, with the exception of one bench.

Nevertheless, it did take quite some time for the benches to be installed. “The benches had to be made before they could be installed,” explains Vlek de Coningh. “We started cautiously, with just one bench. We wanted to make sure that people would actually use them before were installed all five. This pilot project took quite some time. But after a positive response, we decided to make the rest of the benches as well.”

It was a bit of a wait, but certainly worth it. The old USR president is very positive. “I really like that there’s one at the medical faculty as well. Medical students tend to get overlooked when it comes to this sort of thing, but not this time.”