Headlines

Students learn to drink. This is the conclusion of a survey 'AdFundum' by the National Institute for Health and PreventiveMedicine. Heavy drinking seems to be a part of student life. Ittakes some practice in the beginning, but halfway throughuniversity most students are able to hold their liquor with thebest of them. It's particularly fraternity members who can knockthe pints back. The average third-year society 'dickhead' imbibesat least twenty units (beers) a week, compared with an average ofeleven across the board for the students interviewed in thesurvey.

Peace conference

Last Monday saw the beginning of the UNITWIN internationalstudent network's four-day peace conference in 'Parnassos'.Throughout the week the sixty students from six West-European andsix southern African countries, will discuss the theme of 'Cultureof Peace': a philosophy of peaceful conflict resolution. How canstudents and universities bring about and further a peace culture?After the discussions concrete guidelines will be drawn up forUNITWIN members to take back to their own countries.

Fire

On Sunday morning fifteen students had to be evacuated from astudent house at the Amsterdamsestraatweg. The cause was a blazingfire, which was probably started by one of the tenants. He had lefthis room shortly before the fire broke out. The adjacent housessuffered considerable water damage; the total damage is estimatedat one million guilders.

Research

The national research organization NWO wants a kickback from thecountry's economic prosperity. It is asking for 500 million extrato prevent Dutch scientific research from losing its position inthe scientific league table. NWO is lobbying politicians in TheHague with a document entitled 'Back to the top'. The scientificresearch budget has been shrinking for more than ten years, whilethe government is to share out billions of guilders during thecoming weeks.