It was supposed to be a discussion evening for both students and staff, but only two students turned up at the debate organised by the Young Academy Groningen (YAG) on student protest rules at universities on Monday night.
A total of about twenty people attended the Usva theatre. ‘It wasn’t really advertised to students, I don’t know why’, said YAG coordinator Christina Englert. ‘There was no Brightspace message, no email.’
And so it was mostly a debate about students, and not with students, because the speakers were all staff too.
Fundamental right
Assistant professor at the Faculty of Law Berend Roorda kicked off with an introduction of the basic principles of Dutch protest law. ‘Protesting is a fundamental right, and it can only be limited if really necessary,’ he said. ‘And sometimes, punishable offences are allowed in light of a demonstration.’
Stephan van Galen, general director of the UG, explained the house rules the university introduced for demonstrations earlier this year. ‘It’s about finding the balance between what you allow and what you don’t, a difficult decision we have to keep making as a university. Protest rules make this transparent for all’, he said. ‘We have them because the university is private property and we are held accountable for the safety of the people there.’
Arbitrary
A dissenting voice came from university council member Manuel Reyes. ‘The house rules are not neutral, but seem arbitrary and unnecessarily hostile to any and all possible protests at the UG’, they said. And: ‘This little frame of private law, to me, it’s wrong. For a better situation, we need to allow the protests the space within our neo-liberal university to manifest themselves.’
Staff in the audience were also critical, such as the associate professor of international relations who called the rules ‘political’ and ambiguous. ‘In what ways is the university deciding what you are and aren’t allowed to protest?’
The fourth speaker, Maeve McKeown of Campus Fryslân, had to cancel due to illness. She had been scheduled to comment on behalf of the Young Academy on the guidelines issued by umbrella organisation Universities of the Netherlands on student protests.