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How was the student union established?

The Foundation Student Union was established on July 2nd, 1999. This was preceded by a process initiated by the then Executive Board. Eventually, an establishment plan (in Dutch) served as a guideline for the foundation to be formed and its statutes.

In 1997 a start was made with a reorientation on Campus and the student facilities. The reason for this was the desire to stimulate the students and their organisations at the University of Twente. Since 1997, students and staff have therefore been working with the university on a new organisation for the Campus and student facilities.

In May 1998, the Policy Document on Student Housing UT was published. In this policy, the Executive Board states that it has opted for an organisation of the campus facilities in which the student board is given form within the broad academic education that is being pursued. The student board also received maximum responsibility. The student board has three buildings under its management: The Bastille, the Pakkerij, and the Watersportscomplex. The Student Affairs department, the current Student & Education Service Centre (R&D) will further support the student board in its tasks. In May 1998, the Executive Board decided on the new organisational form of the new student board: Th Student Union.

Following this decision by the Executive Board, the interim Board Student Campus went to work in September 1998 They started with an assignment that consisted of three parts:

Eventually this resulted in the current shape of the Student Union. In this process, the ideas and wishes of the students and employees have been considered. Before the structure of the Student Union was shaped, there was a lot fo consultation with students and staff.

In January 1999, the final proposal for the Student Union was send to the Executive Board. On July 2nd, 1999, after being agreed upon by the Board and the Central StudentCouncil and the statutes were submitted to the notary, the Student Union University of Twente was a fact.

The Council for Campus Facilities (RCV) was the precedor of the Student Union. The RCV had 15 seats of which 13 were occupied by students, these students were chosen by the students at the university. Three different political parties provided the students for the RCV. On behalf of the Univeristy Council, the RCV and the Campus College (CC) together from the board of the Campus. The CampusCollege consisted of 2 students who worked full-time. The CC prepared the policy and once a month the RCV came together to make decisions. The policy was implemented by the Campus facilities department, this service was later changed to Student and Campus Services together with the service Student Affairs. Student Affairs was responsible, among other things, for the registration, the desk with psychologists for students, and the deans. The Campus Facilities department included the management of the facilities in the area of Culture and Sport. There were many bottlenecks in this organisational form. One of the bottlenecks was that the service was headed by the Campus Facilities Director, who, on the one hand, was accountable to the Executive Boards and, on the other hand, to the RCV. In addition, this organisational form was no longer enforceable with the introduction of the Modernisation University Governing Act. Governing bodies such as the University Council and the RCV had to expire, this was replaced with the co-determination act. 

Look at this page for the current structure of the Student Union.