Esplanade building

There is a ballet hall, a music room and a theater space: the Black Box. On the second floor is the culture garden, with workplaces, meeting and rehearsal rooms for the cultural associations: student theater association De Koffer (the oldest), theater sports association Rataplan, musical foundation On Stage, Epic Popkoor, and KUBUS Popkoepel. On the first and second floors are the rooms of various (study) associations and the parties of the University Council.

It is to that Council — and especially to the students in it — that the student center is indebted for its existence.

Until 1998, the growing number of student associations were housed in temporary barracks, which had long been nominated for demolition. When that happened, the question was raised whether the university should build its own student center, or whether student organizations—primarily the cultural ones—would not do better to find a place in the city center. There were venues and stages available there, and it would strengthen relations between the university and the city. Nevertheless, the University Council decided in 1997 that the campus would be the place to be.