Representation: for some or for all?

The buzz of the Student Council (SR) elections has passed, and banners are being taken down across campus. The composition of the Council is the same as last year, with ORAS maintaining a six-seat majority, Lijst Beta receiving three, and De Partij keeping one. Before the vote, I had many conversations with my friends, and I was surprised by how many of them did not particularly care about the elections. “Who cares?” they would say, “Not like anything they do there matters. It doesn’t affect me.”

This mirrors the feeling of apathy many in society have about politics. There’s always something better to do, like work or study. Individual problems tend to overshadow more nebulous concepts like student representation. While I am sympathetic to those who don’t have the time or energy to dedicate to politics, I can’t agree with this feeling. Every student is affected by the politics being fought out on campus. And guess what: even if you’re not interested, others surely are. And they have no problem using these politics in their favour.

The SR is supposed to represent all of us, but their recent actions prove otherwise. The majority of the Council, including ORAS and De Partij, voted in favour of a 15% tuition fee increase for non-EEA international students, despite admitting that this increase will have a ‘significant impact on students’ ability to undertake extra-curricular activities’. It seems like they fight for more than just studying, unless you happen to be an international student.

They didn’t want to cause trouble. But isn’t that their job?

I observe the appeasement and fraternising of the SR and the Executive Board (CvB) with great displeasure. Although there have sometimes been complaints of the CvB not treating the Council as an equal, such as the extortionate manhandling in the case of the Mijnbouw building sale, the SR still approved the sale with barely a whimper. They didn’t want to cause trouble. But isn’t that their job?

Sometimes, the SR does show its teeth. Last October, the CvB proposed new rules for the student support fund (RPF), which covers both foreseen and unforeseen study delays, from board positions in student associations to illness and family issues. An exchange of letters (in Dutch) and meeting minutes (in Dutch) kindly publicized by De Partij paints the Council in an unflattering light. They rejected the new rules and asked for non-EEA student support for unforeseen delays to be paid from a different fund, shifting the burden somewhere else. The CvB also wanted to limit extra payouts to associations doing a lustrum (five-year anniversary) to 15% of their yearly total. In response, the SR pleaded for ‘trust in student associations’. Is that really the message you want to send in the context of unprecedented budget cuts?

It is no secret that ORAS is supported by many student and study associations, and so I see it as completely rational that they would use their majority in the SR to defend the interests of their constituency. But if your vision is that every student should have room to develop outside the lecture hall, I would expect that statement not to come with provisos.