Even though the UB promised everybody would be allowed in – visitors from outside the university could get a day pass – UG-students who cannot produce their pass are still banned. Even when a printed copy of their card allows them to loan books, it doesn’t grant them entry to the library itself.
When American student Tanner saw the signs about the new UB rules, he quickly applied for a new student card – but ten days later, he still doesn’t have it. Now, he can’t access the library.
Tanner was told by the I Shop that a signed proof of enrolment would be enough to grant him entry, but UB staff still turned him away last Wednesday. ‘The supervisor said, “It’s easier for me if you’re not allowed in.”
‘Do I have to kick you out?’
‘That not a reasonable justification at all’, says Tanner. ‘The university is effectively attacking one of its students by not allowing me to enter the library, which I not only pay for, but also need in order to succeed in school.’ He saw at least two other international students being denied entry to the UB.
Another student, Rick Jan, saw a girl getting kicked out as she had used her friend’s pass to enter. ‘I heard the security guard saying to her: “Are you leaving yourself, or do I have to kick you out?”’, says Rick Jan. ‘The new system is fucked up as it is, but applying such a rude policy right away is not justifiable at all.’
The day passes the UB offers to non-UG visitors are only available to non-RUG students who have made an appointment in advance.
Rules are rules
UB receptionist and security guard Lunsing Cazemier says that printed copies or signed letters from the I Shop don’t work. ‘The UB has informed them that it’s not working’, says Cazemier. ‘The library makes its own rules, they don’t make our rules.’
But Frank den Hollander, communication officer at the UB, thinks that temporary passes will be allowed in future. ‘That would be reasonable, because you can borrow books with a temporary pass, so students should be allowed to get the books from the shelves’, he says.
The student administration desk received multiple complaints from students already. But Den Hollander hopes the problems will disappear once the new system becomes more familiar. ‘I imagine that there will be a solution, because I thought the library was open for everyone’, he says.