Dossier
Protest on campus
Protest marches, noise actions, strikes and occupations: TU Delft is regularly the scene of demonstrations. How do these unfold and what are activists fighting for or against? But also: are they achieving their goals and how do TU Delft and the police enforce safety? You can read all about it in this dossier.
Delft Mayor Alexander Pechtold wants to know the ‘necessity and relevance’ of the agreement between the police and TU Delft. Delta recently revealed that TU Delft and the police have had an agreement in place for years that provides for the sharing of personal data.
Staff and students at TU Delft can participate in moral deliberation training courses from March onwards. The aim is to teach them how to make decisions about complex issues in a structured manner.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority wants clarification from TU Delft and the police about their agreement on sharing personal data. Last week, Delta revealed that TU Delft sometimes provides the police with the names of activists prior to demonstrations. This is regulated in a covenant.
Around ten protesters staged a noise protest at the Delft Career Days on Tuesday afternoon. They were protesting against the presence of fossil fuel companies and companies linked to the military industry. However, the music was so loud that the activists could hardly talk to passing students.
Delft’s PvdA and GroenLinks political parties have asked Mayor Pechtold for clarification about the cooperation between the police and TU Delft. Delta revealed this week that TU Delft sometimes secretly passes on the names of demonstrators to the police prior to announced demonstrations. As yet, TU Delft seems to be the only university that does this.
TU Delft sometimes shares the names of students and staff with the police without their knowledge. This concerns people who want to participate in announced demonstrations on campus. Enquiries reveal that this practice falls within the scope of an agreement between the police and TU Delft. Amnesty International is critical: “Who demonstrates for what, is sensitive personal data that does not belong in databases.”
On Monday, Iranian TU students and staff gathered in the Aula to commemorate Iranians who died during the recent protests in Iran. “We want the world to know that they fought for freedom,” says co-organiser Shima Rajabali.
Dozens of ties link the fossil fuel industry to Dutch universities, action researchers warn in a new report. These include the fossil fuel companies at the Delft Career Days.
The occupation of the roof of Mechanical Engineering is over. The police arrested the activists from Delft Student Intifada at 6:10 PM. They had wanted to spend the night on the roof, but TU Delft did not consider this safe.
Action group ‘TU Delft for Integrity’ has launched its own hotline for ‘cases of academic complicity and unsafety at TU Delft related to Palestine’. The group of staff and students has noticed a pattern and wants to make that transparent.
TU Delft will not enter into any new partnerships with Israeli universities unless they meet very strict criteria. The current partnerships will be assessed again. In deciding this, the Executive Board is acting on the advice of the specially established moral deliberation chamber.
Braving the elements and with fluttering flags, 75 people joined the Pride Walk across TU Delft campus on Thursday afternoon. And that is not all, TU Delft will have a boat in the Canal Parade in Amsterdam for the first time.
A group of around 10 TU Delft employees has been working on a ‘moral deliberation’ on the ties with Israeli institutions since March. They will issue advice before summer. Until then, the position of the Executive Board will remain unchanged. Meanwhile, a memorial tree on campus was vandalised for the second time.
TU Delft staff and students are laying down work on Thursday. The hope is that the substantial cuts in higher education will be reversed. Delft is the straggler of the ‘relay strike’. During the day, Delta was liveblogging.
TU Delft students and staff members will drop their work on Thursday 24 April to protest against the proposed cutbacks to higher education. The protest is part of a nationwide relay of strikes in which different universities protest on consecutive days. TU Delft closes the series.
Action group Students and staff for Palestinian rights (Delft Student Intifada) is planning to give 400 TU Delft professors a box ‘with evidence that proves the need for TU Delft to divest from Israeli universities’. ‘Our purpose is to refocus the conversation to TU Delft’s obligations under international law’, writes ME researcher Mayank Gupta on their behalf.
On Thursday 24 April, TU Delft students and staff will strike as part of the national relay of strikes against the cutbacks in higher education. The decision was taken on Thursday afternoon at a busy action meeting in Pulse held by the FNV and AOb trade unions and the VSSD students union.
Requests for lectures and meetings at TU Delft have been rejected several times on the basis of non-valid guidelines. But to students it appears as ‘random’. A ‘mini moral deliberation’ should improve this, but it will take some time.
An initially peaceful demonstration at the Delft Career Days on Tuesday ended up as a blockade of the main entrance to the Aula. Ten people were arrested for breaching the peace and one is suspected of assault. The protesters were protesting against the presence of fossil fuel and weapons companies.
The VSSD Delft students union is coming back to action after a couple of ‘sleeping’ years. The protests against the cutbacks in higher education have put the wind in the union’s sails. The students are calling on everyone at TU Delft to join the protest in Utrecht on 14 November. Delta spoke to its Secretary, Sam de Jong.
Make sure that a new Vice Rector has no ties to the fossil fuel industry, writes master student Jen Jacobs. “It is clear that whoever takes decisions on collaboration with fossil fuel companies should not be associated with that industry.”
The financial position of students is getting worse, say student union LSVb and its Delft counterpart VSSD. They took action on Tuesday.
Students and Staff for Safety have reported to the Inspectorate of Education, they write on the Change.org website. They criticise the performance of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board in terms of social safety.
About two hundred protesters came to Domplein in Utrecht on Monday morning for the ‘Alternative opening’ of the new academic year. Down with the cutbacks, was the message. Perhaps there will even be a strike.
In reaction to Birgit van Driel’s column about the attitude of the activists on campus, researcher Mayank Gupta (ME) sheds light on what has been happening from the perspective of the protesters themselves.
Columnist Birgit van Driel is annoyed by the attitude of the activists on campus. Her message to them: think of a different strategy to convince your interlocutor.
In this liveblog, Delta reported on the pro-Palestinian tent camp that stood near the Aula and the TU Delft Library for 23 days. The tents have now been removed. However, the activist students still stand by their demand that the TU sever its ties with Israeli educational institutions.
Rector Magnificus Tim van der Hagen and the rectors of 14 other universities have decided not to break ties with Israeli academic institutions, they write in the Trouw newspaper. TU Delft pro-Palestinian activists respond with disappointment.
Since Thursday afternoon, pro-Palestine activists have set up tents on the roof of TU Delft’s university library. They plan to stay until the university meets their demands, the most important of which is severing ties with Israeli educational institutions. In this liveblog, Delta reported on the first two days.
After TU Delft announced that it will not reconsider its ties with Israeli universities on Wednesday, the demonstrators ratcheted up their fourth protest on Thursday. “We get the feeling that this is really needed.”
The planned meeting between pro-Palestinian protesters and the Executive Board on Thursday was limited to handing over the demands and setting a date for a new meeting. Afterwards, almost 100 people joined a protest march.
At least 130 people gathered in front of the Executive Board’s door during the ‘walk-out’ on Monday. The organisers said that they felt solidarity with students and staff members in Amsterdam and Utrecht. They also demanded that TU Delft breaks ties with Israeli universities and the weapons industry. Vice-Rector Rob Mudde had a brief talk with the activists.
A group of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated at TU Delft on Tuesday afternoon. The students decided to take action after a tented camp of protesters at the UvA was cleared by police Monday night.
The Students and Staff for Safety pressure group does not believe that the current Executive Board can pick up the pieces and make good. The pressure group was specially set up in connection with the social safety issue, and it wrote this in a statement on Thursday.
Climate activists occupied a hall in the Mechanical Engineering faculty this Monday morning. They stayed until they had to go. Delta was there all day and covered the occupation in this live blog.
The student Board of the annual career market Delft Career Days is giving more space to sustainability. To some oil, gas and chemical giants, the door will remain closed.
The second teach-in on Gaza and Israel was held on Friday 8 December. The first one received criticism as not everyone thought it was balanced. How did this one go?
TU Delft is struggling with partnerships with fossil fuel companies. What decisions would staff and students make? An online consultation lets them ‘work out their dilemmas’.
About 50 students, staff members and others gathered in front of the TU Delft Library on Wednesday afternoon in what they called a ‘walk-out’ for Palestine. How did it go?
Activists occupy Leiden University building On the morning after the elections, climate activists occupied two classrooms at Leiden University. Some 50 students from the action group End Fossil Leiden Delft put up banners and demanded that the university cut ties with the fossil industry, reports university magazine Mare (in Dutch). Rector Hester Bijl…
A majority in the House of Representatives backed a motion to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. Climate activists say this is the result of the weeks-long blockade of the A12.
Climate activists blindfold Delft statues Extinction Rebellion Delft climate activists have again blindfolded statues in their city on Sunday 11 June to draw attention to the climate crisis. Among the eight statues were Willem de Zwijger at Prinsenhof and the busts of J.C. van Marken & Agneta van Marken in Agnetapark. They were…
End Fossil activists occupied TU Delft’s Pulse education building on Wednesday morning, 10 May. The occupation continued into the night. Delta kept this live blog.
Activists blindfold Hugo de Groot “The city of Delft, home to one of the world’s most honoured scientific institutes, should do everything in its power to hold our leaders to account.” This is what Extinction Rebellion Delft writes in a press release accompanying its action on Sunday 16 April: blindfolding the statues…
Action group End Fossil is going to occupy educational institutions worldwide in May. There are also plans in Delft. TU Delft calls it ‘regrettable’.
Should something be done about the links between TU and the fossil industry? The Executive Board and End Fossil met for a new consultation on 14 February.
Fossil fuel companies such as Shell and ExxonMobil get a stage at De Delftse Bedrijvendagen. Unfair, student Tom Twigt thinks. “Their business case is climate destruction.”
End Fossil students spoke with Vice-Rector Rob Mudde on Thursday. What was the outcome of the meeting?
The murdered Iranian Mahsa Amini was remembered in two gatherings in Delft, one of which was on campus. Delta spoke to one of the organisers, who had also been arrested.
Pension fund ABP will no longer invest in fossil fuels. Over the next one-and-a-half years it will sell all its shares in fossil fuel producers.
Actievoerders van de stichting Diensten en Onderzoek Centrum Palestina startten woensdag 17 april op de TU campus hun actie tegen G4S. Ze beschuldigen het beveiligingsbedrijf van betrokkenheid bij Israëls ‘illegale activiteiten ten aanzien van Palestijnen’.
De TU Delft kan een sterk signaal afgeven aan G4S door het beveiligingsbedrijf ‘zwaar te wijzen op de moeite die de universiteit heeft’ met het werk dat G4S doet in Israël.
Actievoerders hebben woensdag 17 april tevergeefs gepoogd het college van bestuur te spreken over wat zij noemen ‘de morele medeplichtigheid van de TU Delft aan de bezettingspolitiek van Israël’.
