Student life

Maastricht has a very young but ambitious and fast growing university, and naturally, when you have a university, you have students. At the moment there are about 15.000 students in Maastricht, and many of them are a member of one of the student associations (at least the Dutch). These student associations should not be mistaken for study-associations, which are related to a specific study! One might think of student associations as very large fraternities and sororities, but this is not totally correct. Actually there are a lot of fraternities and sororities called ‘disputen’ that can be related to an association, but they can easily be independent as well. Members of the many (more than 80!) disputen in Maastricht are very recognizable as they usually wear pronounced custom jackets and jerseys. The many fraternities and sororities always try to beat the rest and proclaim to be the very best at their game.

 
As Dutch students think of fighting as a very primitive way to solve matters they invented another way to solve disputes (this similarity of words is not just a coincidence). Instead of fighting, students in the Netherlands resolve these issues by ‘zooien’. One grabs the opponent by the lapels of his or her jacket end try to swing them to the ground. Every kind of judo move is prohibited and the game stops immediately when someone is pulled or pushed to the ground. Of course,  the winner pays his victim a drink to patch up the quarrel at the bar. As you will experience soon enough, Dutch students have many more strange habits which they prefer to call traditions and being ‘studentikoos’ (loosely translated 'like students'). Most of these so-called traditions are a logical consequence of the laid-back lifestyle students normally have. The origins of other traditions go way back in time. However, most of all, being ‘studentikoos’ is a perfect excuse for  all the stupid things you do when you are a student! Large student associations like MSV Tragos, Circumflex, KoKo and Saurus all have their own special rules which are called mores (based on the latin word mos/mores which means rules). Mores can be considered as a special kind of rules, which are (usually) intended to be humorous. An example of such a rule is that every member of Circumflex or Tragos should wear a suit and a club tie when going to their association. Other common mores are: never order one beer (as you always drink with your friends) or never lean with your back against the bar (as this is considered impolite to the bar personnel). The older members of the more traditional associations Circumflex and Tragos also rely a lot on their acquired ‘anciënniteit’. This is the hierarchical ranking which means in practice that the longer you are a member the more you may do or let others do for you. Other student associations and disputen can choose not to use any kind of anciënniteit, as they believe all students should be equal. ESN agrees with this latter opinion, as we are all part of one big exchange family.