The university council wants to introduce the option of voting anonymously in the future to prevent conflicts from arising between council members and their supervisors in their own faculties or departments when dealing with sensitive issues.
At present, council members vote openly, either as a faction or individually, so it is clear who is for or against a particular issue. However, according to Manuel Reyes from the Personeelsfractie, this can lead to problems when a council member’s opinion conflicts with that of their supervisor.
Name change
Such a situation resulted in the discussion about the name change of the Faculty of Arts being held behind closed doors in April. ‘That was a disgrace,’ says Reyes. ‘It should have been an open discussion.’ The possibility of anonymous voting, Reyes believes, could prevent a repeat of this situation.
So far, it has been unclear why the name change of the Faculty of Arts was discussed confidentially. The council seemed to regard it as a formality. Nevertheless, critical questions were raised with the faculty board. These were made public, but the discussion itself took place behind closed doors.
Eventually, the board of directors withdrew the proposal for the name change. The exact reason for this remains unknown due to the confidential nature of the discussion.
Special cases
According to Aart Korten, head of General Administrative & Legal Affairs, there are no fundamental objections to adding the possibility of anonymous voting to the Council’s Rules of Procedure. ‘Although this slightly undermines the idea behind voting, I will see what needs to be changed.’
Council chair Bob Bergsma emphasises that this new option should not be used too hastily. ‘Only in special cases and then only if the necessity can be properly justified.’