History of Study Association VIP

VIP was founded in 1981. Even before the 80’s though, the K.I.P, Kommissie Introductie Psychologie (Committee Introduction Psychology) already existed. This committee had no official status and was ran by a couple of students who were trying to give first-year students of Psychology a proper and fun introduction. This was also when the first introduction camps were organized. To make sure these camps could also be organized in the future, the K.I.P. had to transform into an association. As said, this took place in 1981. From this time, it was possible for students to become a member of the Vereniging Introductie Psychology (VIP, Association Introduction Psychology) for only 5 guilders.

Since the official start in 1981, VIP has grown enormously. Where we once started with organizing an introduction and some Psychology parties, we slowly added more and more activities to our calendar. In 1982, movie nights and sporting events were organized. The association grew slowly in her first years. Only one person showed up at the ‘perpernotenpingpongtoernooi’, a table tennis tournament in the spirit of ‘Sinterklaas’. In 1986 we saw the first book market, as well as the first Christmas dinner. There were ideas for lectures and excursions, which were carried out later as well. In the early 90’s VIP started with some new and important activities. For example, the first book sale which took place in 1990. This gave members the opportunity to get a 10% discount on their book prices. Besides this, VIP also slowly started organizing some more socially related activities focused on students, like a beer relay race in cooperation with the study association of English Languages in 1991. The number of members grew faster and faster, and the same can be said about the number of activities VIP was organizing. Although VIP grew more and more into an acknowledged association, this was not immediately recognized by the faculty who took away the rooms VIP used at that time. As a protest, VIP occupied two rooms in the Munting building in 2002. Right after this, the association merged with among others the STOSO (the association for students of Social- and Organisation Psychology), which became a committee of VIP. At the moment VIP has two rooms of her own, around 1500 members, 400 alumni and more than 170 active members, spread over more than 30 sub organs (committees, communities, and structures).

Committees

The introduction committee is only a small part of the association as it exists today. VIP organizes a broad spectrum of activities aimed at Psychology students, all with a social as well as a study related aspect. Some examples are the student exchange which takes place every year, the trip to a university in a foreign country, the well-known Psychology parties, the annual Diesweek in which we celebrate VIP’s birthday and of course, the introduction weekend to Ameland! More study related are our lectures, movies, and workshops with a psychological aspect, two yearly conferences and our career nights where you can learn where you can end up with a specific master. By the means of congresses and career days, VIP also tries to give their students a good view of the (future) labor market. The association also takes care of book sale. Besides this is our yearly play and of course Zwemfest, a music festival that is organized yearly in cooperation with Ubbo Emmius (study association of History) and GLV Idun (study association of Life sciences). The majority of Psychology students of the RUG are a member of VIP.

Interested in becoming a member of VIP and profit from a discount on your books and visits to activities? Please mail us at vip.gmw@rug.nl and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!