Spring Fest 2012: May 7-12
Spring Fest 2012 will take place from Monday, May 7 to Saturday, May 12. The evening concert, arranged by the Spring Fest Organization Committee, will be held at the ODEON on May 12. Tickets will be required. Note that the concert is only for Bilkent University students, personnel and alumni.
Student ID cards must be presented when purchasing tickets. Each student may only purchase one ticket, and it is not possible to buy group tickets. Please remember that at the entrance to the concert students will need to show their IDs with their tickets. Tickets are unnumbered, and there will be no ticket returns.
Ticket sales will begin on Thursday, May 3, between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., at the following locations:
- Main Campus - entrance to Kıraç/Speed Cafes
- Main Campus - B Building entrance
- East Campus - Catering Center
- East Campus - Coffee Break
Concert Date & Time:
Saturday, May 12 at 9 p.m.
Performer: Hadise
Ticket Price: 15 TL
continue reading for the Spring Fest 2012 Program
Election Campaign Continues in Departments
A total of 105 candidates are running for election to the Bilkent University Student Council as Department Representatives. The campaign is now underway and will continue until 5:30 p.m. on April 29. The winning candidates will be representing you, their fellow students. In order to make a more informed decision, get to know the candidates before voting! Visit www.bilkent.edu.tr/konsey for names, photographs and the departments the candidates are hoping to represent.
The first round of elections for Department Representatives will take place on Monday, April 30. If voter turnout on that date is less than 60 percent, the election will continue with a second and a third round. These will be held Wednesday, May 2 and Thursday, May 3, respectively.
"Quay West" by Koltès at Bilkent
Over the next two weeks, the Bilkent Theater Hall stage will be home to "Quay West" (Quai Ouest), a work by French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltès, performed here by fourth-year students from the Department of Theater.
Most of Koltès's plays center on the tragedy of being alone, and deal with the theme of otherness in the context of what he called the "thrill of estrangement." "Quay West," one of his later works, focuses on the story of a brother and sister situated in a culture foreign to them.
The play premieres on Friday, April 27, with additional performances on April 30, May 4 and May 8. All performances will take place at 8 p.m. in the FMPA Theater Hall.
Ticket Sales: FMPA ticket office ext. 1775
Ticket Price: 10 TL
Playwright: Bernard-Marie Koltès
Translation: Yiğit Bener
Director: Işıl Kasapoğlu
Co-Director: Esma Çankaya
Dramaturg: Özcan Özer
Costume and Set Design:
Hakan Dündar
Lighting: Işıl Kasapoğlu,
Yılmaz Ertekin Cast: Ceren Narinoğlu, Ebru Demirdöven, Efe Erkekli, Emre Eren Turan, Mertcan Semerci, Merve Ünal, Muzaffer Saygı, Sedat Yılmaz, Tunca Soysal, Tunç Efe.
EU Official from Brussels Meets with MIAPP EU Diplomacy Students
Heike Gerstbrein, an EU official from the EU Commission-Turkey Team/Political Desk in Brussels, visited Bilkent University and had a meeting with IR-MIAPP (Master of International Affairs and Public Policy) students on Friday, April 20. Ms. Gerstbrein was invited by instructor Yeter Yaman as part of the MIAPP program on EU Diplomacy.
Introducing the speaker, Ms. Yaman made reference to the most recent Transatlantic Trends survey published by the German Marshall Fund, in which only 48 percent of Turkish respondents said that they thought that EU membership would be a good thing, compared to 73 percent in 2004. In view of the declining public support in Turkey for the EU process, she expressed the hope that this kind of public diplomacy event and direct contact with EU officials would help promote a better understanding of EU issues in Turkey and also correct some misperceptions.
In her presentation, Ms. Gerstbrein gave an overview of Turkey’s EU accession process and then answered students’ questions, highlighting the benefits of EU integration for both sides, and also the challenges ahead. Ms. Gerstbrein acknowledged there were frustrations on both sides but stressed that the EU accession process is a project worth pursuing to obtain results in the interests of both sides. In this context, she presented facts and figures showing the importance of the interlinkage between the EU and Turkey.
The meeting provided a good opportunity for students to obtain firsthand information from an EU official and engage with her in an open dialogue on EU matters. Many questions concerned the Cyprus issue, with students wondering if this was the main reason for the process being blocked. They also raised concerns over the EU visa policy vis-à-vis Turkey, the EU accession criteria and political reforms.
In addition to Ms. Gerstbrein, other external speakers have also contributed to the MIAPP program: Gülnur Aybet from Kent University in the UK, Aydan Karamanoğlu from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and François Naucodie from the EU delegation in Ankara.