Rector Floris Hamann is furious with the students
Vindicat ignores corona rules, police fines 15
Around one in the morning, the police received a report that there was possibly a party going on. The police sent four squad cars to the Grote Markt, where officers encountered fifteen students in the building. They have all been fined.
‘I’m glad the police put a stop to it. We want nothing to do with this’, said an upset rector Floris Hamann. ‘It’s important that everyone follows the rules, and that includes students. I don’t understand this behaviour and I’m extremely angry.’
Suspended
Hamann says the fifteen students were all friends, one of whom had a key to the building. ‘They’ve been suspended from the association’, said Hamann.
Whether the suspension will turn into a permanent expulsion, he didn’t yet know. ‘I was woken up by the news and the first thing I did was talk to mayor Koen Schuiling and UG rector Cisca Wijmenga. Apart from the abactis, I haven’t talked to any of my own people, so I need to do that first. We’ll determine the exact punishment over the next few days. But know that we will not be going easy on them.’
Disappointment
The incident is a disappointment for Vindicat. On Friday, Hamann had been talking to various parties about how well the association is adapting to the corona measures. ‘We were so happy, and the discussion with the city about whether student houses count as households was going so well. Then something like this happens. It’s just unbelievable.’
The student association published a statement on their own website. ‘We are extremely displeased about the incident that took place last night. It was an illegal and especially irresponsible thing to do, completely against both the government and Vindicat’s own corona policies’, the association writes.
Criminal record
A fine for violating the corona measures can have serious consequences, warned Amsterdam lawyer Justin Kötter earlier last week after seventeen students from the Vrije Universiteit were fined for not staying five feet away from each other.
It’s not the kind of fine you’re rid of once you’ve paid it, he said. It’s a punitive order that will be noted on the fined person’s criminal record. ‘Violating a new emergency decree almost always automatically leads to a criminal record’, says Kötter.