The Faces of EVE University are colorful and intriguing. With this interview series we want to bring to light some of the personalities that make up the staff of our alma mater, who tirelessly work to the advancement of learning.

To kick off our series, we want to start with a member of staff who is instrumental in the planning of the upcoming 14th anniversary of EVE University: Turlough Dominian, our events manager. As one of the most approachable people in EVE University, he was a crucial contact for the Street Team, our PR special interest group, right from the start and always had great advice. We continue to work closely together and we are all honored with the time and effort he devotes to the Uni.

Hideo Date: Thank you very much for taking the time.

Turlough Dominian: No problem at all, please be gentle!

Hideo:  For those who do not know you, could you briefly tell us who you are and what you do in EVE University?

Turlough: Well EVE wise I am Turlough Dominian, also known as Turtle. The things I enjoy mainly are blowing people up and watching people blow up. Not a big fan of mining yucky rocks. I have been playing on and off since 2011, always in EVE University as the player-owned organisation I live with, as they are awesome for helping new players, and I enjoy the content and community. As for what I do? I am the events manager, previously the assistant manager. I basically help organise people to run their events, if they need help, and encourage others to do the same thing.  We have our own department with a number of really good staff who make unique events, there is a lot more to it than that but the main thing is helping to get more events out there for content and learning.

Hideo:  With the 14th anniversary of EVE University coming up, I think it is a good time to reminisce. Looking back at your own time in EVE University, do you have some highpoints and special memories you remember fondly?

Turlough: There is a huge list. For sure a high point probably being one of the Red vs Blue wars where I got to murderise a lot of them. But don’t get me wrong – I died a good bit, and it was a good consensual war that was 3 or 4 years ago. As for special memories, a good few as well, but the first main one is  Korr’Tanas: that dude was my first FC and lead us many many times to our death.That was a really good experience. He also loved doing weird things like conga lines and shooting fireworks. Perhaps he is my inspiration.

Hideo: We realize that our staff dedicate a lot of man hours on a volunteer basis and that its always a labor of love. What is it about Eve University that always makes the work worthwhile?

Turlough: I suppose like a lot of EVE Online topics, it depends. For myself, I still recall being a helpless noob. Like, man, I did every mistake you could think of, so so many mistakes, and like many others I try to help other people avoid as many of my mistakes as possible. Another thing for me would be that EVE is like a hobby at this stage. It gives me something to do and relax in my down time, I do like chatting a lot, it is definitely not the pay that’s for sure – 0.0000 ISK! – but still worth while!

Hideo: So could you say the people of EVE University make it worthwhile for you?

Turlough: In a sense yes, they give me something to do and I enjoy helping people, a beacon of light in the darkness of space!

Hideo: Ok, now looking towards the upcoming event: You got the most trusted person in all of EVE to show up on our 14th anniversary, could you enlighten us how you got in contact with Chribba and persuaded him to grace us with his presence?

Turlough: Short story, really: I got in contact with one of my long-term friends and previous EVE University member Danielle en Divalone. She happens to be the CEO of  Licence To Kill now. She is good fun and mad as a march hare! So for a few weeks we shared mails back and forth while she got in touch with Chribba for me; she knows a lot of cool people. Then myself and Chribba got talking. No persuading was needed – he was up for it right from the start. Again another EVE Online player who loves to chat and help others.

Hideo: Wonderful to hear that this great icon is so approachable! Do you have anything else you would like to tell us about the upcoming anniversary?

Turlough: Lots of fireworks! Pretty sure I am taking some people into lowsec, those poor poor souls. We are all going to die in a great ball of fire. It is a weekday this year so that is bad timing for many people big sorry to those who got to work that day.

Hideo: Alright, thank you very much for your time! I am looking forward to see the events unfold. Thank you for all the heart and soul you put into the events department!

Turlough: No problem at all. My next event will be “Awox the Hideo Date.” Have a nice day, buddy.

“I founded EVE University to create a place where new players could get together and be appreciated for who they were. Classes and doing things together were important but nothing was, and is, more important than the positive attitude towards new players.”
I personally think that this quote from none other than Morning Maniac, the founder of EVE University, encapsulates our mindset to this day. We are the oldest organisation in EVE Online that is entirely focused on teaching and learning and are continuing to successfully induct players into the awesome Universe of New Eden. Many things have changed over the years, but this mindset as well as our complete neutrality have remained the cornerstone of our organisation. We are now nearing the midterm of our second decade in bringing the best learning experience to EVE players in all walks of life. Of course, that calls for a little celebration!

With March here, our 14th anniversary is coming up and, our very own Events Department has planned something fun for March 15: we are going to do a fireworks conga line! Our fleet will fly by our campuses, starting in Amygnon and moving from there through to Uphallant. If you let us live that long we might even go through Nullsec unto PC9. We hope to see other people join in the fun as well and bring their own fireworks, preferably the non-lethal type of course, but we fully expect to all die either way.

Our tireless manager of events, Turlough Dominian, lover of turtles, has also been hard at work to get in contact with the most trusted person in EVE: Chribba. And as the awesome man that Chribba is, he has kindly accepted to be available for our anniversary. We will be visiting his famous Veldnaught and give it lots of hugs! But he will be more than just a target dummy. We will all be able to sit around the fire on our public mumble and talk to him directly. A special shoutout goes to Danielle en Divalone who helped to establish the contact to Chribba!

There will be more events and fleets coming up, so stay tuned on our Facebook page and keep an eye on our Twitter!

Please join EVE University in celebrating its 14th anniversary on March 15 (don’t mix those numbers up!). We would be glad to have you all there! This is a perfect opportunity for everybody to clean out there hangars of all those pesky fireworks!

Space is big and dangerous, every Pilot start's somewhere, every Capsuleer can learn a new trick. Congratulations to EVE University, 14 years of making New Eden a little easier for everyone. https://t.co/LFa8tI31Gj pic.twitter.com/Qf83k3Uizp

— EVE Online (@EveOnline) March 10, 2018