Education policies of Erasmus University Rotterdam are changing, and not for everyone’s benefit. To be specific, the new system that is to be integrated coming September entails passing all your classes (60 ECTS per year) before continuing with your next academic year. This hinders, among others, those who organise Eurekaweek and the Erasmus Recruiting Days.

This Friday the 13^th, the Rotterdamse Kamer van Verenigingen (Rotterdam Chamber of Associations), which is the coordinating organ of six Dutch student associations in Rotterdam[1] is organising a demonstration against this policy. The Chamber argues that student associations are not considered in the university’s decision-making.

The demonstration will take place from 03:00P.M. to 05:00P.M on Tinbergen Plaza. First, Ruben Woelders, chair of the Rotterdam Chamber of Associations (RKvV), will talk about EUR’s plans. Second, Jan Boers, chair of the National Chamber of Associations (LKvV) will highlight the importance of an active student life.

You can join the demonstration event on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/events/130689867055716/.

Statements on a group’s voice not being heard immediately raise questions about democracy. In this case: how democratic is the management of our university? Let us look at the hierarchical structure of our university’s management in the following organogram:

The Supervisory Board supervises administration and management of the Executive Board, who prepares and implements policy and management of the Erasmus University. Although student associations feel their voices are not being heard, those of their fellow students who are members of the University Council are. The Council consists of twelve students and twelve staff members who represent all the faculties and central services. If it does not give its consent on a particular plan or strategy proposed by the Executive Board, the decision cannot be taken.

I personally encourage students who are interested in letting their voice be heard to contact the University Council at universiteitsraad@abd.eur.nl, who is eager to hear about your complaints and ideas. You can even attend their meetings at request! I don’t really think the problem is top-down reluctance of the Executive Board to take students’ wishes into consideration as much as it is the extent to which students are massively willing and interested in becoming involved in decision-making or not. If we don’t inform them about what we want, how can we expect them to represent us?