In the early sixties of the past century people started to recognize that fresh water was running out. So the department of Cultural Technology thought it was necessary to create the orientation of Water Purification. A chamber, two people and some bubbling barrels characterized this period. In 1962 the study Water Purification was officially established. Professor Mulder of the department Microbiology and professor Hellinga of the department Cultural Technology made great efforts to make it so. Mr. Fohr became the professor of the new department.
Two students who started their study in 1962 were the main-spring of establishing Actiefslib: Pita Meijn and Quirino Richardson. The latter became the first chairman of Actiefslib. Actiefslib was officially established on 13th December 1966. The objectives of the union were twofold. First there was a need for information supplied by the university. This information, partly acquired by lectures, gave rouse to students criticizing the study programs and the social conditions. The other objective was to bring students together who knew each other from the lectures only or not at all.
In 1970/1971 Water Purification became Environmental Studies. Actiefslib had a hard time because of the combination of several orientations. The study became more general than before. However, Actiefslib survived. Many activities were organized: ranging from film-evenings to a demonstration against the building of the nuclear reactor in Kalkar.
The name of the union changed from Actiefslib to Aktief Slip in 1977. Although linguistic not entirely correct it was in accordance with the time-spirit. The p instead of b refers to underwear in Dutch. After decay in the 80's when the union had shrunk to the size of a archive-case, it arose from her ashes like a phoenix in the 90's. The study Environmental sciences sometimes was in difficult times, sometimes even at the brink of being wiped out by efficiency programs. Often students themselves prevented this.
At the brink of the millenium the study was flourishing again, only to be followed by a sharp decay in students. In 2003 the first Chinese students arrived, which was cause for an internationalisation debate within Aktief Slip. The language changed to English.
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