JOVD: Diversity Student Board ‘expensive, unnecessary and undesirable’

Erasmus University’s diversity policy, and particularly its Diversity Student Board, is ‘unnecessary and undesirable’. That’s the opinion of JOVD Rijnmond. According to the VVD youth, the money would be better spent on good education.

EUR has a Diversity Student Board, consisting of two students, Kimberley Walden and Jursica Mills. Both work as student assistants for four hours a week, likely costing around 100 euros a week.

'Too expensive’

JOVD Rijnmond feels that the Diversity Student Board is too expensive, but the VVD youth organisation doesn’t know the exact cost. “EUR hasn’t published the total budget for its diversity policy, but the University of Amsterdam has a budget of no less than 375,000 euros. JOVD Rijnmond regrets that this considerable sum is not being spent on improving the quality of education for all students, such as extra workplaces, research facilities or teacher training,” according to a press release issued by the political movement.

Furthermore, JOVD members feel that ‘boards like these’ do little to resolve issues and sometimes even have a negative effect. They base this on stories from the United States. “People are excluded if they don’t belong to a minority. This creates tensions within the university community.”

EUR was unavailable on Tuesday to comment on the JOVD’s accusations.

Meer diversiteit

• All faculties to have their own Diversity Officers
• EUR will hoist rainbow flags