Executive Board orders review of agreement between police and TU Delft

The Executive Board issued a new statement on Friday afternoon, 13 March, regarding the sharing of personal data with the police. In it, the Board takes full responsibility for sharing the name of (now former) Delta columnist Bob van Vliet with the police. This occurred in 2024, because he had attended a peaceful demonstration the year before and, some time before that, had written a column about climate vandalism.

“We support the right to demonstrate and freedom of the press,” the Executive Board now writes. “The fact that someone writes critical columns should not be a reason to disclose their personal data.”

Limited apology

A few hours before the statement was posted online, Van Vliet had been invited to meet with Executive Board Chair Ingrid Thijssen, where she apologised. When asked, Van Vliet says he appreciates this, but points out that the apology only applies ‘to the role that writing a column played in this whole affair’. “That is very limited.”

The sharing of personal data with the police is laid down in an agreement that has been in place for eleven years. The Executive Board says it is deeply troubled by its implementation. However, it is not (yet) terminating the agreement, even though the Works Council has advised it to do so. The Executive Board is asking for patience, as ‘an external party’ is to carry out an investigation. According to a spokesperson, it has not yet been decided which party this will be. The external party will assess ‘whether the terms are accurate, appropriate, feasible and, crucially, still necessary’.

Unacceptable

Furthermore, the Executive Board writes, it must be established ‘how the agreement has been implemented in recent years, and if any unacceptable practices have occurred during this time.’

That is remarkable. An earlier statement from the Executive Board stated that the sharing of personal data in the case of demonstrations is not a standard practice and that this has only occurred once in the past two years: the instance that Delta has revealed. It appears there is not such certainty after all. And that is in line with the very first response Delta received from the TU: we do not keep a record.

The external party will have to come up with some sort of record. “If further issues come to light, we will apologise for them”, the statement adds.

Target of surveillance

Van Vliet believes the focus is too much on the agreement, something he has also told Thijssen. He sees a broader problem, ‘which is that demonstrators and activists are targets of surveillance by the university and are viewed solely as a security risk’. “There is hardly any attention paid to their safety and freedom. Even without data sharing with the police, this is a major problem.”

That message seems to have got through. The Executive Board has instructed the external agency to ‘take a broad view in investigating the way in which TU Delft deals with demonstrators’, the statement reads. The Executive Board promises to share the results of the investigation as soon as they are available.

Dedicated email address

The statement concludes with a striking appeal. The Executive Board is asking students to email a dedicated address if they wish to know whether, like Bob van Vliet, their names were on the list that was emailed to the police in 2024. TU Delft knows who these four people are, but says that, for privacy reasons, it has been advised not to contact them directly.

Van Vliet has a reservation about the appeal. The university is asking students who fear they may be on such lists – and who value privacy or anonymity – to come forward. He believes this raises the question for many as to whether students are not, in effect, placing themselves on such a list by doing so.