By GIULIA FABRIZI, INGRID STEFAN EN JOANA ABREU MORAIS
Around 2,500 employees and students joined the Groningen edition of the relay strike against the millions in budget cuts to higher education on Tuesday.
What started as various small-scale actions spread across multiple UG faculties turned into a large gathering at the Grote Markt, with people marching from Zernike to the Groningen city centre.
Early birds
The first strikers showed up early: ‘I was so excited I couldn’t sleep’, says an economics PhD student who was already at Zernike before eight in the morning to hand out flyers about the strike. Although she is committed to the strike, she does not want her name mentioned in the newspaper, fearing it could harm her research career, which is just starting out.
‘These cuts are going to impact the quality of education a lot, and students will receive a poorer education. And it’s also a problem for researchers because academia is already a sector where overtime is structural’, she says.
Handing out flyers
At the Faculty of Arts in the city centre, the first strikers were also up early. Preparations at the Harmonie square started around seven in the morning. Although a handful of people wanted to distribute flyers, the visitors for whom the flyers were intended were still nowhere to be seen.
While each faculty organised its own activities in the morning, the anti-budget-cut sentiment remained the same: ‘Education is an easy department to take money from, but in the long term, it will harm us all’, says PhD student Ivo Meins from the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences (BSS). ‘Society can’t develop fully without proper education.’
‘Education = Future’
BSS lecturer Annemarie Huyghen agrees. She’s holding a sign with the text ‘education = future.’ She made the sign earlier at one of the designated protest sign stations. ‘I think it’s very important to make our voices heard against the cuts and join forces together’, she says. ‘It’s the only way we can change anything.’
As the morning drew to a close, a protest march began from Zernike, heading toward the Grote Markt. The march passed through various faculties, where more people joined each time. By the time the march reached the Harmonie square in the city centre, it consisted of more than a thousand people.
Speeches
The protesters and strikers gathered at the Grote Markt, where according to the organisers, more than three thousand people had assembled. As people delivered speeches, information booths were set up. The organisers hoped to reach not only university staff but also people outside the university.
The entire university’s board of directors was also present in the crowd, along with many administrators from various faculties. It was uncertain whether the board members would attend, although they had stated they supported the strike’s purpose. By Tuesday afternoon, it was clear that the board was impressed by the number of people gathered at the Grote Markt.