Drift '66

It all started in 1908, when the Geographical Institute was founded. From that year Geographical education in Utrecht became a fact. Yet it took until 1922 for the geography students to organize themselves. On October 13 that year, the Utrecht Club for Geography was founded, which would later become the V.U.G.S. The V.U.G.S was founded to increase the scientific knowledge of geographers and to be a network for after the study. In the 1950s and early 1960s, V.U.G.S. aquired fraternities. As a new member you were assigned to one of those fraternities, so there was a good mix between the physical and the social geographers.

One of those sororities was 11 and 30, founded on October 28, 1949. Coincidentally, there was a relatively large proportion of physical geographers there, and soon the need arose to get rid of the social geographers and to set up their own sorority. In 1966 that happened, and under the leadership of Sjef IJzermans, Marjan Uijterwijck and Ed Weiss it was announced that Drift ’66 was founded.

The V.U.G.S. was initially not happy about the split within its members, but it was the 1960s - change was in the air - and democratization was the magic word. Sjef IJzermans convinced the V.U.G.S. that a physical geographer fraternity was desirable.

In the academic year 1967-1968 Drift ’66 is listed in the study guide as an official fraternity of the V.U.G.S. The main activity in those early years was drinking sherry, while listening to fieldwork lectures by recent or recent graduates in physical geography. But Drift '66 continued to grow, and with more and more members more and more activities were added, and in the 1970s the Drift was even separated from the V.U.G.S. and continued to exist, in dire straits. Other fraternities of the V.U.G.S. disappeared, because of disinterest of members.

In 1977, the Lustrum Committee determined that De Drift was in a coma. In 1981, Drift ’66 was again forced by financial problems to merge with the V.U.G.S. as a special fraternity. The years that followed are years of prosperity for Drift '66, and the growing number of members makes it untenable to stay a special fraternity of the V.U.G.S. In April 1992, a reorganization was therefore chosen. An umbrella association, V.U.G.S. 22 and two departments, Drift'66 and V.U.G.S. Students become members of Drift ’66 or VUGS. To become a member of V.U.G.S. 22 is not possible.

In 1996 Drift ’66 became an independent association, because the bond between the physical and social geographers was becoming less and less felt and V.U.G.S. 22 was not easy to link to Drift ’66. In 2000 a new challenge arose for the physical geographers. The independent study of Physical Geography was canceled and continued as a specialization under the new study of Earth Sciences. This meant that Physical Geography was not chosen in the first year and that there had to be cooperation with the Utrecht Geologists Association to make the new students happy as well.

In 2010, the first fraternity of Drift ’66 arose: A.-Z. Baklava. This fraternity consisted of members with a predilection for cooking and baking. From that moment on, Drift ’66 was regularly supplied with tasty snacks. Among other things, a pancake eating competition (“het Pannenkoekenfest”) was one of the biggest activities of Drift ’66.
On 1 September 2012, Drift ’66 merged with the Utrecht Geologists Association to form the Utrecht Earth Sciences Association. In the 2010-2011 academic year, the Omega board started setting up the merger. The board of SYZYGY took over the following year to complete the merger. This would be the last year of Drift ’66 and it was therefore closed on a grand note with, among other things, the 9th lustrum. A gala in the Dom tower and a real reunion, where all (former) members had the chance to chat with Sjef IJzermans, were part of the activities. During this year, the second fraternity of Drift ’66 arose: the Speleologen. Within this fraternity there is room for members with an interest in Role Playing Games and Trading Card Games.

Under the leadership of Tim Schuring, Jasper Leuven, Inge Phernambucq, Willem-Bart Bartels, Rick Verberne and Rick Seldenrijk, the General Assembly voted in favor of the merger on 9 May 2012. The last year of Drift ’66 ended with a bang with a 66-hour party in June 2012 and a wonderful trip to the Arctic Circle in July 2012.