‘I don’t accept bad behaviour from anyone’: uproar around Delft fraternity

Last weekend the De Hoge Veluwe National Park issued a press release (in Dutch) calling on municipalities in the Veluwe region to issue a droppingverbod (a ban on a game in which people are dropped off somewhere and have to find their own way back, Eds.). The reason for this was the behaviour on Friday night of one of the fraternities associated with the Delftsch Studenten Corps that was dropped off by another fraternity at the closed park gates in Otterlo. According to the Park, the students – described in the press release as ‘in a drunken state’ – were not only very noisy, but also destroyed things. The police fined them.

Rude and noisy
The Delftsch Studenten Corps confirmed much of the report. ‘A group of about 15 young men were dropped off at De Hoge Veluwe. They did not enter the Park, but did behave badly and created a lot of noise at the entrance. A sign on the pavement was destroyed, but the group repaired it straightaway. The police fined the group for being drunk in public but not for vandalism,’ stated a press statement.

Damage to TU Delft’s reputation
The Hoge Veluwe National Park is angry about the incident. It is not alone, as transpired from a telephone conversation with TU Delft spokesperson Karen Collet. The Executive Board has not yet received a written complaint from the National Park. “Groups of students must not cause any disturbances anywhere. Not in Delft nor elsewhere,” she said. “The police have now dealt with this group of students and that is good.”

This is not the first time that a TU Delft student association brings TU Delft in disrepute – an investigation into the previous incident at the Corps is still ongoing. In answer to the question whether TU Delft is not afraid of damage to its reputation given the ripple effect of this kind of behaviour, Collet answered with “Of course TU Delft is paying much attention to this issue. The Executive Board addresses the associations time and time again about this. As per agreements made, the Corps reported this incident to us. I understand that the Board has taken appropriate measures against the instigators.”

‘They look like decent guys, but they behaved like hooligans’ 

Apologies
The Corps admits this. “We received an email from the Director Administrator of the Park in which he lodged a complaint about the behaviour of the members. We answered this email which contained apologies from the group in question. They said that they would pay for any damages. We also said that we would take appropriate measures against this group,” says Senate Chair Olivier Abbenhuis.

Abbenhuis was somewhat vague in his answer as to what those ‘appropriate measures’ are. “It’s hard to answer that right now. All the options are open, from reprimanding them to doing something for society. Delta is not the only one that wants to know. The Director of the De Hoge Veluwe National Park, Seger Emmanuel Baron van Voorst tot Voorst, is also eagerly awaiting what the Corps means by ‘appropriate measures’, as transpired in a phone call with him.

Not yet finished
“It is not my job to make young people’s lives unpleasant, but the Corps members must understand that their behaviour on Friday night was absolutely unacceptable,” said Van Voorst tot Voorst. “The Corps members may look like decent guys but I can assure you that what happened here was anything but. One of the gamekeepers lives next to the entrance and he noted everything. I despise bad behaviour. I do not accept it from anyone, and certainly not from academics who are likely to hold influential positions in the future. They must learn that they cannot behave like this. I give the Senate the benefit of the doubt that they will deal with this internally in an adequate manner. But I have not yet finished with the Delftsch Studenten Corps.”

Text: Marieke Enter & Marjolein van der Veldt

Marieke Enter / Nieuwsredacteur