Headlines

The Supervisory Board has appointed Willem Kardux to theUniversity Board, the university's highest management body. Histerm of office began on January 1, 2000. Kardux (56) studiedphysics in Utrecht and has been associated with UU since 1974. Hisareas of responsibility as a member of the Board include HumanResources, Finance and university organization. With regard to thelatter, a priority issue is the development of a more importantrole for the education and research institutes. Kardux succeeds Dr.B. van Vucht Tijssen, who stood down at the end of last year afterserving on the board for eight years.

Anniversary

Utrecht University will be celebrating its 365th anniversaryfrom Foundation Day on March 26, 2001 until the beginning of thenext academic year in September 2001. An anniversary committee wasrecently established and is busily preparing for the celebrations."The committee will convey that UU is an institution to be proudof", according to the chairman, professor of medicine Dr Tj.B. vanWimersma Greidanus. The bulk of the activities will be held in theopening week at the time of the university's anniversary at the endof March. The program is to include a large-scale knowledge market,an anniversary party and an alumni day.

Beliefs

Nearly a quarter of all students do not believe in God, butalmost half feel a connection with Christianity. Nearly 67 percentof students believe in life after death. These are just a few ofthe results of a survey carried out by the Utrecht student unionsCSFR and Ichthus among some one thousand first-year HBO anduniversity students. The students were less sure about what lifeafter death is like: "There's something but I don't know what!" wasa common answer. Nearly one-fifth of students think there is aheaven; one-tenth see more in reincarnation, an existence as anon-individual or in a spirit world. Conversely, 14.5 percent arecertain that there is no life after death. Social scientists andHBO students, in particular, are active churchgoers and Biblereaders. More than one-quarter of students go to church at leastonce a year, usually on religious holidays such as Christmas.