Hi everybody, My name is Wout Spierts and I am

Hi everybody,
My name is Wout Spierts and I am a third year student Communication and Information Sciences at
our faculty. Some of you might know me as member of the board of Flow, the study association of
Communication and Information Sciences. I am also working at the university at the ‘Studentenpool’,
where I make future students enthusiastic about our university and try to convince them of studying
here.
Last year as a member of the board of Flow I have frequently been in contact with the faculty, which
raised my interest to apply for the faculty council. I noticed I became very enthusiast in representing
the ideas and point of view of the students. By being critical and having the courage to give
commentary, it is possible to point out important things to the faculty and convince them about
those. Because Fractie Dante is representative of all studies of our faculty, it gives the opportunity to
represent the interests of all TSH students.
It is important that the council as well as Fractie Dante are visible and present for the students. In
case of any problems, a student should have the feeling to be free to share this with us. Hereby, good
cooperation with the study associations and education committees is very important. As a
communication student, I think the communication between faculty and students could be more
transparent and improvable. Fractie Dante can, by the use of social media, improve this, so that
students know more about what is going on within our faculty. Moreover, I see opportunities for
different studies to intensify their cooperation, for example in ACW and CIW where some topics
show overlay.
Therefore, I hope to count on your vote!
Dear Humanities students,
I am Erik ten Brinke. From April 14 until April 17, I will be eligible for the faculty council of Tilburg
School of Humanities. I'm a Liberal Arts and Sciences student running for this position because in my
opinion the faculty council holds a very important role in the decision-making process of the faculty.
When elected, I will strive for quality improvements and a further internationalization of the faculty.
It is a thorn in my flesh that Tilburg University structurally achieves the lowest scores in international
comparisons between all Dutch universities in terms of quality. In addition the Tilburg School of
Humanities scores structurally lower than the other faculties of Tilburg University. Naturally, there
are education committees which control for quality in individual cases. However, in my opinion the
problems are faculty wide and structural by nature. The faculty council can play an important
advisory role towards the Faculty Board on these issues. This is why I think it is important to give
more attention to quality in the faculty council.
In addition, we have the ‘strong international position’, which in my eyes is a campaign slogan that is
not yet fully realized. I want to more justice to this slogan. For example, I find it absolutely
unacceptable that the faculty council meetings have to be in Dutch. This puts all (international)
students who are not fluent in Dutch out of action. These students are exactly the students who can
have an added value when discussing the international policy of the faculty. Next to that it is wrong
in principle to exclude a significant part of the student body from participating, it is also hinting at a
structural problem in the attitude of the faculty board.
I think I am the right person for this position because I am very analytical and willing to speak my
mind. Next to this, I am able to formulate my criticism in a productive and useful way. As a person I
am competitive and ambitious. I think my personality is a good fit with the targets I have set.
My name is Milou Rabelink. I am 21 years old and I have been a philosophy student at Tilburg
University for the past three years. I have been actively involved as member and chairman of the
student association for philosophy, Sapientia Ludenda. I have applied to be a candidate for the
faculty council because I believe it is important that as many students as possible are represented
during the big changes in the faculty of Humanities. In the past year there was no philosophy student
member of the faculty council and I would like to change that this year. Because of my function
within the student association I know a lot of students and I know what is going within the different
cohorts and within the faculty.
Dear fellow students of TSH,
My name is Diana Sonnemans and I am 22 years old. Currently I am in the last year of the bachelor
Cultural Studies. Because I want to become a teacher in Dutch, I am currently following an educative
minor. As a part of this minor, I am already doing a traineeship at a secondary school in Tilburg.
You might know me as the treasurer of the study association of Cultural Studies “Animo”. Next to
that, I am active as a Studentpooler. This means that I advise pupils of secondary schools about what
to expect from Tilburg University and how to make a considered choice in higher education. Next
year I will start the master study Children’s Literature and after I graduated I want to obtain my post
graduate teacher certificate.
As mentioned above, I am very interested in education. In addition, I care about the way in which
education is organized and characterized within Tilburg School of Humanities. I want to take up the
challenge to think about education from a different perspective. Because I am a board member of
Animo and because this is my fourth year at Tilburg University, I know a lot of students of TSH. So I
think I can be an appropriate intermediary between TSH students and the faculty board of TSH. That
is why I decided to apply for the faculty council. I am receptive to new ideas of every TSH student. So
if you want an open-minded and critical student in the faculty council, vote for me!
Dear Humanities students,
My name is Tom van de Wijgert, a second year bachelor student philosophy, and this year, I have put
myself up in the elections for Fraction Dante.
Through Fraction Dante students are able to voice their thoughts on the decisions made within the
faculty. It is of great importance to me that there are elected representatives to convey these
thoughts to the faculty’s management. In order to do this, the fraction needs to know the most
pressing issues that are present among the students. Therefore I will put all of my efforts in the
communication between the student body and the fraction.
This year only five candidates are in the running on the faculty’s election list, and given there are also
five seats to be filled on the board, the election’s results will hardly be surprising. However, this does
not undermine the importance of voting. After all, it shows that students are well and truly involved
with their faculty’s on goings.
Hereby, I urge all students Humanities to vote for these elections to show their interest, their
involvement and hopefully their support of me.

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