Alkymisten’s Conseil

Alkymisten’s Conseil is a modernized tradition from the studen associoation Alkymisten called Alkymisten’s Promotions. This was Alkymisten’s counterpart to Volvox’s knightly order, The Red Wolf. This tradition dates back to November 1973, one year after Alkymisten’s founding on the 19th October 1972. The Promotions was an honouring of students in Alkymisten, or professors at the institute, that distinguished themselves for the association, often with a humourous focus. The promoted were appointed an element, chemical compound or other chemistry references that reflected their contributions. Every promotion also came with a poem that described the person and why they were nominated; with humour, satire and internal references. These Promotions were most often awarded under Alkymisten’s christmas ball. Alkymisten’s board had the duty to appoint the Conseils and hold their ceremony. From 1973 until 1985 a total of 41 Alkymists were promoted, since the tradition died after 1986. Every name, titles and some of the poems are archived in Volvox & Alkymisten’s internal archive.

After the revival of The Red Wolf in the early 2000s, were the Alkymisten’s counterpart reintroduced to Volvox & Alkymisten in 2013, where the first modern promotions, now called Alkymisten’s Conseil, took place at the Krabbefest 2014. The modern revision allows only a maximum of two first-year students of recieving the honour, while all the other details around the reasons, titles and poems were kept almost the exact same as their predecessor. The only differences being the titles now able to be biological species names, trivial names and references, as well as the two first-years not being allowed to be in The Board, since The Board decides who gets the honour. After the Covid-pandemic there were noone given the honour until 2023 because the Krabbefest was cancelled, but in 2020 the entire year’s first-year students recieved the Conseil with the title of Phoenix, because of the surrounding situation. There have also been some instances of older students recieving the Conseil.