Free Inquiry. That is what VUB stands for. But what does this mean? Bram Moriën and Emma Asselman of the Studiekring Vrij Onderzoek (VO) tell you how they give an open-minded twist to their time as students. Do you want to know more about the Studiekring Vrij Onderzoek? Then check out their website (only in Dutch). Every Monday evening they debate, discuss and philosophise about the most diverse subjects. Everyone is more than welcome to join!
Encourage other VUB students to dare to think critically and to learn to reason in a rather inquisitive way
Emma Asselman (20) is in her 2nd bachelor Psychology, is from Antwerp and has her kot in Brussels.
Bram Moriën (21) is in the third Bachelor of Law and lives in Brussels with his girlfriend.
What does an ideal day look like?
Bram: For me personally that would be a Monday and ideally I have plenty of time to get up and read the newspaper with a cup of coffee. Afterwards, I’ll go for a run and then it’s time to go to campus for class. I do miss the lectures and classes on campus. After class I would meet up with some VO-students or other friends for lunch. If I remember correctly from other years, there would probably be another class after lunch. And then our VO meeting at 8pm. A good chat, some philosophising and discussion, maybe a little arguing and we share a few beers now and then, but there is also som hard work like writing recommendations for the student council. Usually the evening continues into the early hours. Some existential pondering, that works for me all night. If I can end the day like this, it will gives me a fantastic feeling.
Emma: I can definitely relate to that. I've only really experienced VO on campus for one semester and then I could really enjoy those Monday evenings, even if it was sometimes a bit late. Personally, I mostly enjoy the little things like nice weather, and for me snow counts as nice weather as well. But, like most people, I’m also happy when the sun shines. An ideal day is one where I really feel like what I’m doing is something I really like and am passionate about. An hour swimming can also make me happy, but nowadays it’s a little more difficult due to the current circumstances.
Are there things that frustrate you?
Bram: Perhaps I’ll let my VO mindset speak for itself. I sometimes get frustrated by the concept of participation some organisations have. We are often asked to put our name to a project or hand out flyers, but that can be frustrating, because participating is actually working together actively. Brainstorming together and giving it your all together. We are often only contacted at the end of a project instead of getting some kind of co-ownership.
Emma: I agree, but I can also get a little frustrated by people who are pessimistic. Everyone can have a bad day and you don't always have to be positive, but try to make the best of it. This also emerges when fellow students never ask questions during the classes and just accept anything a professor says. This is even more prevalent in online classes, because the lack of interaction means that you are not really actively engaged in the subject matter and this seems to lead to less critical thinking.
Which day or moment would you like to relive?
Bram: For me, that was the massablok (group study). It was still organised at Pleinlaan 9 two years ago and you had to get up early to get a seat there. So we motivated each other to meet at the entrance on time every day and after a day of pretty hard studying we closed the massablok venue at 9 pm and went for a few beers in a bar, when that was still allowed. We drank a maximum of three beers and all of this created a kind of solidarity. We also made sure that we didn't drink more than a couple of glasses, as we had to be at the massablok entrance on time to get our spot the next day. This really helped me a lot and I got pretty good results that term.
Emma: My moment is completely different and it goes back to a holiday in Sardinia. There was a place with huge hollowed-out rocks and if you sat on top of them you had a magnificent view of the sea. For some reason I suddenly had the feeling that I was very small, but at the same also as one with the earth. This was during a period in which I felt somewhat restless, but that was a moment of total inner peace and I have always remembered it. If I wanted to experience something again, that would be it.
It doesn't always have to be super-heavy philosophy
Are there any cultural things you can recommend?
Bram: It is a running joke at VO that everyone has an existential crisis and that is why the myth of Sisyphus is always passed around, the essay by Camus. It's about the fact that everything is actually absurd and that you have to find your own way. I have a copy of that book and I have also given it away, received it again and lent it out several times. So that fits.
Emma: We also have regular movie nights. It's usually a fairly light-hearted film, but we do try to include a topic that can be discussed. Recently, we screened a film about the algorithms behind social media. That was very interesting. And last time we showed Lolita. So it doesn't always have to be super-heavy philosophy.
With whom would you like to go out for a drink one day?
Emma: That's a very difficult question because there are so many interesting people and I don't want to come across as too psychology nerdy, because I would like to what goes around in the mind of a number of interesting scientists. For example, super famous people like Freud, but also Adler and Jung. Especially these kinds of researchers, just to find out who the person behind the theory is. But there are also plenty of current researchers with whom a personal conversation could be very interesting.
Bram: I would have liked to speak to Maurice de Wilde. He was an investigative journalist and received an honorary doctorate from the VUB, among other things. He made all kinds of documentaries about the collaboration and the repression in Flanders. These documentaries were not exactly appreciated by the political landscape as well as the top of the VRT (Flemish Broadcasting Company) at the time. They are strong works and very interesting. I would love to have had the opportunity to have a drink with him and ask him how he managed to keep this up for so long. He was never rewarded professionally. In my opinion, these are subjects that remain underexposed during secondary school. Fortunately, all documentaries are now on VRT NU.
When is a student time at VO successful?
Bram: Those Monday evenings with the culture and atmosphere and so on. For me, that was something completely new and something I didn’t experience in secondary school. That methodology of questioning everything and also questioning yourself. If VO and that way of thinking can continue to exist for the next generations of students, I think that would already be a success.
Emma: Partly the same. For me it’s twofold. On the one hand, it is a personal process. My personal membership of VO would already be successful if I can take this into the future. I have learned a lot in the meantime. I can form opinions, reason and question myself and my own views. I can also learn a lot from others. On the other hand, I think it is an important aspect of VO to encourage other VUB students to dare to think critically and to learn to reason in a rather inquisitive way. If we can create more knowledge and awareness about this with VO, that would be great.
What impact did the pandemic have on VO?
Bram: I am surprised that so many new people found their way to VO. Sometimes there are even more people in an online VO meeting than would fit in our room on campus. Of course, it’s not always easy to convey the vintage VO feeling online.
Emma: When the new board was elected, the uncertainty made it a bit difficult at first. Should we continue online or would there be more on-campus possibilities? We were able to get over this fairly quickly and settled in to our year as board members. This year, we also thought about the internal workings of VO. Currently, our annual event "What is free inquiry?" has been split into several smaller online events. Our administrative operation is also a little more on point. We have tried to create an advantage of Covid and make the best of a lesser situation.
Bram: At the start of the year we said that we didn’t have too many high expectations, but we were going to do the things we could still do well. We questioned ourselves and thoroughly reconsidered our place within VUB. We took a close look at our mission, vision and goals and subdivided them into areas we still need to work on.
Emma: Actually, there are still many things you can do, like inviting a speaker from America to an online event. You just have to take the time difference into account, but otherwise that's something interesting that we can organise reasonably easily if we have to do it online.
Are there any Corona workarounds that you would like to continue after the pandemic?
Bram: For me, that would be the digital meetings. It used to be hell trying to find a moment besides the regular meetings to get together with the board and talk things through. Now you can just schedule a short online meeting to sort all this out. Then everything can be discussed and finalised. Sometimes we are also expected to participate in, for example, the board of moral services or something similar and those meetings are then on a random Thursday evening in the centre of Brussels. Now I can just join in on Zoom and my whole evening isn’t wasted. It may be a little less fun, but it saves a lot of time.
Emma: You can now react quickly if something goes wrong. The threshold to call someone to solve it seems a bit lower now that everything is online anyway. We have now scheduled things some more. On Mondays, it's the events or the rather philosophical meetings and on another day we take care of the practical matters. This is something we also want to maintain when we can meet on campus again.
Bram: We also take care that notes are taken so everyone is always aware of decisions.
Imagine you are elected rector of the VUB one day. What would your first policy change be?
Emma: They are already working on it and there is student involvement, but I would focus on more transparency. Some students react very emotional and/or negative to decisions. But if a student council member tells you what has gone into the decision process and what has been taken into account, then that is already a much more nuanced picture and then I can personally understand why something was decided. It's just interesting to understand how certain decisions come about. Of course it is normal that not everything can be shared, otherwise there would be no time left to do anything else. So, official documents should be clearly available to students. Where are they? How can we access them? Of course, there are students who never read their emails and don’t care, but it should be clearer how you get certain information. The student council is already doing a good job, but they still often get negative comments. They don't deserve this because they make the effort to represent us. Do you think they are not doing a good enough job? Then you have to run for student council yourself. Or voice your opinion in a respectful way.
Bram: I have a slightly more radical idea. At least once a year, I would like to organise a massive speed date. The campus would be full of tables and everyone - the staff of the student restaurant, marcom staff, the rector, ... - would sit at a table and explain how the VUB works and what their personal history at VUB is. I am in VO myself and it took me a long time to understand how the VUB really works and what the ins and outs at our university are. There is a lot of communication, butnot enough actual talking within the VUB.
As a young person, you need to take responsibility for important issues in our world
What can a VUB student mean to the world?
Bram: Standing up for your opinion with a good dose of self-confidence. I may have thought it through or maybe not, but this is my opinion. We are going to debate and we will see where it takes us. As a university, you should be able teach your students this kind of confidence, a sort of citizenship, and the realisation that their opinion matters and they can now articulate it. Students should be able to do something with this knowledge and these skills. Don't be afraid to voice it. If you have an idea that is important to you and you have thought about it, like climate change, do something positive with it. As a young person, you need to take responsibility for important the issues in our world.
Emma: You are given information at a university. You are taught what the current state of affairs is on certain subjects. They show you the research that has already been done on certain subjects. This is the knowledge that has already been accumulated. Don't just reproduce it, don't just apply it, but think about it and put your own stamp on it. Get creative. Find new angles. Try to look at it in a completely different way. It doesn’t matter if you are proven wrong by other studies you find, it is all about thinking about it in a different way. You don't necessarily have to question everything, but dare to think about it and dare to do something with it. You are trained and given all kinds of information. It’s normal that you don’t know everything and that you’ll never be able to know everything. But make a contribution, whether this is in practice or in your personal life. VUB tries to train students to think outside the box and they give us that freedom.
Bram: For me it's mainly about being proud of the humanist way of thinking and being proud of what you stand for. When I had to choose where to study, I looked up VUB and it was a pioneer in the abortion and euthanasia debate. This was and still is the VUB.
What are your plans after VUB?
Emma: I have always been very interested in research. In the meantime, I wonder if it would really be something for me, because you are always under a certain pressure. I am also very interested in neuro-diversity. I myself have been diagnosed with ASD and I think this is also a very interesting subject because, apart from the disadvantages, I can also derive positive aspects from it. I realise that my brain works in a specific way, but I can also make this my strength. There are many different ways in which a brain works and ASD is a diagnosis we have a lot of information and research on. Of course, this is not scientific, but sometimes I talk to others and I notice when someone thinks in a similar way to me. So I would find it interesting to study this in a non-clinical population and investigate the implications. On the other hand, I also find applying everything I learn to everyday life very interesting. For now, I am still enjoying studying too much. I am trying to grow in this field and to think critically about it. I try to construct my own ideas about it. The bottom line is that I actually enjoy studying.
Bram: I really don't know what I'm going to do after my studies yet. I do want to try and take that radical democratic atmosphere of VO to the job that I will do in the future. What I definitely want to avoid is becoming a bureaucrat who has become detached from reality. Although that could always be a possibility for a law student. I would also like to keep a VO for adults somewhere.
Would you like to find your purpose as well? And is doing your own thing or thinking critically something for you? Then take a look at The World Needs You under Poincaré.