The Groninger Student Union (GSb) is starting a petition against a possible faculty merger and calls on students and staff to sign it.
The GSb is doing this following, among others, student party Pro Geo in the faculty council of the Faculty of Spatial Sciences, one of the faculties that may have to merge with a larger one.
Pro Geo wrote a statement on the merger and handed it to Arthur Mol, the former rector of Wageningen University & Research who is supervising the process, on Thursday. The statement comes on top of the letter from the complete Faculty Council of Spatial Sciences a fortnight ago. Mol’s recommendation is expected in early July.
Criticism
The GSb and the student delegation of eight faculty councils join the increasingly loud criticism. Like the faculties of spatial sciences and philosophy, the student representatives do not see the point of reclassification.
‘Why exactly now, when we’re in a year of budget cuts and political turmoil?’ asks GSb president Jitske Wielers. ‘Philosophy and religious studies have existed as long as the UG itself. Besides, the four faculties are unique in the Netherlands.’
The students acknowledge that decision-making at the uni is slow and could be more efficient, but do not agree with the board’s preference: merging the small faculties of spatial sciences, philosophy and religion, culture and society with a large faculty (arts, law, economics and business or behavioural and social sciences).
Anonymous and bureaucratic
Wielers: ‘For students, studying will become more anonymous and bureaucratic. In philosophy, I can just walk into the secretariat now. With the central student support department, on the other hand, there’s always a hassle.’
According to the students a reorganisation would mean the university would lose the unique academic community of the small faculties, as well as a piece of recognisable identity. It would also erode personal support and student welfare and disrupt international partnerships.