In October, the RUG and Hanze University of Applied Sciences decided to subject student associations to an accreditation process. In this process, the social clubs need to prove that there is no more violence, intimidation or humiliation during the introductions in order to be eligible for a student representatives scholarship. Sports and study societies may be facing the same.
‘We are still debating whether or not this will also apply to other associations’, RUG president Sibrand Poppema said in the University Council on Thursday.
Hazing
After the abuse at Vindicat last summer and Minister of Education Bussemaker’s harsh criticism of the university’s ‘completely inadequate’ reaction, the RUG and the Hanze decided that hazing needed to end. From now on, student associations must organise ‘proper introduction periods’, the university board recently wrote in a memo to the University Council. If it turns out that other associations are also hazing, then they will be subjected to the same process.
‘Whether or not we will have an accreditation process for other associations than student associations depends on the meeting with the Advies Commissie Introductietijden (Advisory Committee for Introduction Periods) and whether or not they have been informed of these types of practices in other associations. If this is not the case, then we can save ourselves the trouble’, Poppema says.
Self-reflection
In October, it turned out that student associations will now have to write a critical self-reflection in order to be eligible for funds from the graduation fund, the budget from which scholarships for student representatives are paid.
A five-person committee will assess the critical self-reflections, but also investigates. The committee then reports to the executive board of the RUG and the Hanze. ‘And if the boards are not satisfied, then no funding from the graduation fund will be provided’, Poppema says.
Student association Vindicat is a guinea pig for this system. The committee will report on the association by 1 March. According to Poppema, Albertus Magnus is on the list for next year.
Photo: G.S.A.V.V. Forward