The Cuban missile crisis and student life
I went in September 1962 to the University of Utrecht to study Sociology but instead of studying we sat together behind the TV in the house of one study friend, hoping that Kennedy and Khrushchev would not decide to destroy the world with their arsenals of atomic bombs. In October the world was confronted with the Cuban missile crisis. What happened behind doors was not known at that moment. Later we have looked at the arguments that were used in the transcripts of the meetings and we saw that the world by chance escaped complete destruction. A later page will show how this happened. In 1962 I got a lot of admiration for Kennedy and Khrushchev that they were so wise not to let the situation get out of control.
An interesting study of arms races and conflict resolution
This event stimulated me and some colleagues at the university to participate in a study and discussion about arms races and conflict resolution, guided by the inspirational Ben ter Veer. An important issue we discussed was the problem that a nuclear war could occur just by accident. The history of the cold war has shown that we escaped by chance several of such accidents.
Later Ben ter Veer taught this topic in the University of Groningen and he was many years president of the “Interkerkelijk Vredesberaad”, (a peace organization of the Churches in the Netherlands).
This event stimulated me and some colleagues at the university to participate in a study and discussion about arms races and conflict resolution, guided by the inspirational Ben ter Veer. An important issue we discussed was the problem that a nuclear war could occur just by accident. The history of the cold war has shown that we escaped by chance several of such accidents.
Later Ben ter Veer taught this topic in the University of Groningen and he was many years president of the “Interkerkelijk Vredesberaad”, (a peace organization of the Churches in the Netherlands).
More sport and fun instead of study
In the mean time I was attending courses in sociology. I was not very impressed by what I heard and read. I still thought that the book I read about sociology by my self during school time was better. I saw little proof for all the theories that were presented. Because I could not speed up my study, I started to do the things I liked more. In 1963 I participated in the most difficult ever Eleven Cities Skating Tour and through the years I played hockey and cricket. Playing cricket I liked the most during my university studies therefore I will write a separate story about this.
Besides that I was active in the student Union Veritas. I was in the editorial board of the journal, created a new center for men and women, that was new in the Union, and became a member of the board of the Union. We detected that the Union had large deficits over the years and also in the year that we were in the board. When I heard that Utrecht did not have enough hotel accommodation for the European Swimming Championships that would be held there, I suggested to organize a student hotel in the summer. This accidental decision turned out to be of considerable influence on my personal life as will be seen in the next story.
In the mean time I was attending courses in sociology. I was not very impressed by what I heard and read. I still thought that the book I read about sociology by my self during school time was better. I saw little proof for all the theories that were presented. Because I could not speed up my study, I started to do the things I liked more. In 1963 I participated in the most difficult ever Eleven Cities Skating Tour and through the years I played hockey and cricket. Playing cricket I liked the most during my university studies therefore I will write a separate story about this.
Besides that I was active in the student Union Veritas. I was in the editorial board of the journal, created a new center for men and women, that was new in the Union, and became a member of the board of the Union. We detected that the Union had large deficits over the years and also in the year that we were in the board. When I heard that Utrecht did not have enough hotel accommodation for the European Swimming Championships that would be held there, I suggested to organize a student hotel in the summer. This accidental decision turned out to be of considerable influence on my personal life as will be seen in the next story.
Finally a challenging topic
At the same time I had to decide in what direction I wanted to go in my master study. I thought that the best was to learn more about research methods because I was very frustrated with the way sociological theories were developed.
Take for example a very common idea that “higher income leads to more satisfaction”. This is not so simple to “prove” (if one can prove anything). Imagine that we find people who got an increase in salary then we have to determine whether they also became more satisfied. So we have to have a measure of satisfaction before and after the income increase. This measure should be so precise that the difference in satisfaction before and after the change in income can be detected. However there is more. The salary increase can also come from a new position with more responsibility or just by an increase in age. These factors can also influence satisfaction. So these factors have to be controlled.
These methodological problems I liked a lot. They required logical thinking and statistical knowledge. So I decided to learn more about research methods and statistics. This was the first time that I was really intellectually challenged and decided to spend more time on learning about these issues than on sport. However, before really starting this study I first had to manage the student hotel in the summer of 1966.
At the same time I had to decide in what direction I wanted to go in my master study. I thought that the best was to learn more about research methods because I was very frustrated with the way sociological theories were developed.
Take for example a very common idea that “higher income leads to more satisfaction”. This is not so simple to “prove” (if one can prove anything). Imagine that we find people who got an increase in salary then we have to determine whether they also became more satisfied. So we have to have a measure of satisfaction before and after the income increase. This measure should be so precise that the difference in satisfaction before and after the change in income can be detected. However there is more. The salary increase can also come from a new position with more responsibility or just by an increase in age. These factors can also influence satisfaction. So these factors have to be controlled.
These methodological problems I liked a lot. They required logical thinking and statistical knowledge. So I decided to learn more about research methods and statistics. This was the first time that I was really intellectually challenged and decided to spend more time on learning about these issues than on sport. However, before really starting this study I first had to manage the student hotel in the summer of 1966.