An obvious choice: The eleven cities tour
Of course “my colleagues” at the University of Amsterdam had detected that we were very successful with the foundation. One of them was promoted into the board of the University and ordered on a personal basis, using his position, an investigation of the financial relationship between our foundation and the university. An accountant of the university came to the foundation to check this. We provided all relevant information. There were only some activities by the foundation done for the university and vice versa. All was well documented and there were no illegal activities. Then followed a letter that the “board of the university” required a complete search of the finances of the foundation. I thought that this went too far. I expected that this was a personal action of “my colleague” in the board. To stop this situation I wrote a letter to the chancellor of the university, explained what was going on and that I was most willing to allow this investigation but only if he personally would request this research. With this mail ended this process.
Budget commission
On the other hand I was asked as a member of a university budget commission to discuss the division of the university budget across the different faculties. Perhaps I got this honor because I had complained in my first public lecture about the unequal division of the budget across the faculties. The discussions in this commission were quite hopeless: most of the budget went to science although they had less and less students and the social sciences more and more students. In the discussions this did not matter, the number of representatives of science was such that the other faculties could not expect any change. The final decision of the commission would be made on February 26, 1986. That was the day that the "Eleven cities tour" would take place. This is a skating tour of 200 km during one day that only very seldom took place and which all skaters would like to skate if they had the opportunity.
On the other hand I was asked as a member of a university budget commission to discuss the division of the university budget across the different faculties. Perhaps I got this honor because I had complained in my first public lecture about the unequal division of the budget across the faculties. The discussions in this commission were quite hopeless: most of the budget went to science although they had less and less students and the social sciences more and more students. In the discussions this did not matter, the number of representatives of science was such that the other faculties could not expect any change. The final decision of the commission would be made on February 26, 1986. That was the day that the "Eleven cities tour" would take place. This is a skating tour of 200 km during one day that only very seldom took place and which all skaters would like to skate if they had the opportunity.
What to decide?
I was a fanatic skater. I had participated in the most difficult tour in 1963 when I was 20 years old. Then I could not finish it because the weather was so bad that we were stopped by the police to prevent freezing to death. This year, being 43, was for me the second opportunity to participate. It was uncertain whether I would get another opportunity to participate in this famous tour. Given this situation and the fact that in the university commission the wrong decision would be made anyway if I were there or not, I decided to forget about the commission and went to Friesland in the North of the Netherlands. At least in this tour I was successful. I finished the tour in time but it was not easy as I have described elsewhere.
I was a fanatic skater. I had participated in the most difficult tour in 1963 when I was 20 years old. Then I could not finish it because the weather was so bad that we were stopped by the police to prevent freezing to death. This year, being 43, was for me the second opportunity to participate. It was uncertain whether I would get another opportunity to participate in this famous tour. Given this situation and the fact that in the university commission the wrong decision would be made anyway if I were there or not, I decided to forget about the commission and went to Friesland in the North of the Netherlands. At least in this tour I was successful. I finished the tour in time but it was not easy as I have described elsewhere.
One more decision
There was still one issue that bothered me with respect to the university. I did not think that my students would get a proper education if they only participated in courses of my own department. By my contacts in the social science section of the Association for Statistics I knew that The Netherlands as a whole had sufficient knowhow about methods and statistics for the social sciences. Therefore I contacted my colleague at the psychology department, Don Mellenbergh, with the question whether it would not be useful to make an organization which provides courses in research methods and statistics for students who like to specialize in this direction. Together we brought the specialists of the different universities together and the Interuniversity Graduate School of Psychometrics and Sociometrics (IOPS) has been created. This organization still exists and provides the necessary courses for people who want to specialize in methods and statistics for social sciences. In the past I had to go abroad to obtain this information (that was not so bad) but now the knowledge also could be obtained in the Netherlands through the IOPS courses.
There was still one issue that bothered me with respect to the university. I did not think that my students would get a proper education if they only participated in courses of my own department. By my contacts in the social science section of the Association for Statistics I knew that The Netherlands as a whole had sufficient knowhow about methods and statistics for the social sciences. Therefore I contacted my colleague at the psychology department, Don Mellenbergh, with the question whether it would not be useful to make an organization which provides courses in research methods and statistics for students who like to specialize in this direction. Together we brought the specialists of the different universities together and the Interuniversity Graduate School of Psychometrics and Sociometrics (IOPS) has been created. This organization still exists and provides the necessary courses for people who want to specialize in methods and statistics for social sciences. In the past I had to go abroad to obtain this information (that was not so bad) but now the knowledge also could be obtained in the Netherlands through the IOPS courses.
Time to relax
For the time being my situation was clear: I would give my courses at the University of Amsterdam and the IOPS. I would do my research with my students at the SRF. I had my contacts within the Netherlands and abroad and I could look for a new topic for further research. But first I had to finish this intense and partially annoying and successful period with a nice trip abroad.
For the time being my situation was clear: I would give my courses at the University of Amsterdam and the IOPS. I would do my research with my students at the SRF. I had my contacts within the Netherlands and abroad and I could look for a new topic for further research. But first I had to finish this intense and partially annoying and successful period with a nice trip abroad.
As I have described before that I had very good contacts with Anuska Ferligoy in Ljubljana. She had invited us to visit her. We went even further south with her to the house of her mother in Piran which is a very nice town at the mediterranian sea. It was a great pleasure to be in such a different atmosphere.
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Round trip in Veneto
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Later we went also to Venice which was not so far from Ljubljana. This was a very special experience too. In the video below you will see that in the Guggenheim museum in Venice at the entrance they have a statue of a man on a horse. The man has a very long penis. They told us that they could remove the penis when religious people came along.
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Thereafter we made a long trip through Veneto looking for possible skating rinks for the next winters when there would be no ice in the Netherlands and we also visited beautiful towns like Padua, Treviso , Verona and Vicenza. After this long trip, we went back by car train from Milan to the Netherlands and we were ready for new activities.