New KASEUR board starts with a clean slate

Last year, the university made the decision to discontinue regular consultation with KASEUR, as representatives of the university no longer wished to hold discussions with the former directors. This led to conflict between the societies and the board, resulting in the Kafkaesque situation where the organisations fired the board, while at the same time, the board fired all the societies as members of KASEUR. A solicitor ultimately decided in favour of the societies, but the former board refused to transfer assets such as the room key, bank account and documents.

“We then proposed a new board in a letter signed by all chairs”, Jennifer Onyenze now tells us. She is now the chair of a board comprising four members. “A solicitor formalised it, allowing us to go to the Chamber of Commerce. Within a week, we had been registered as the new board. Once registration had been taken care of, we were also able to take over the bank account”.

The former board was requested by the university to hand over the keys to the KASEUR office in the N-building. This has yet to take place. “They had until 18 April, and the room has to be cleared out. It’s not presenting much of an issue for us, as we can keep using the office of the Italian society”, says Onyenze.

“We then proposed a new board in a letter signed by all chairs,” Jennifer Onyenze now tells us. She is now the chair of a board comprising four members. “A solicitor formalised it, allowing us to go to the Chamber of Commerce. Within a week, we had been registered as the new board. Once registration had been taken care of, we were also able to take over the bank account.”

The former board was requested by the university to hand over the keys to the KASEUR office in the N building. This has yet to take place. “They had until 18 April, and the room has to be cleared out. It’s not presenting much of an issue for us, as we can keep using the office of the Italian society,” says Onyenze.

This freed the way towards looking to the future, which is what Onyenze wishes to focus on. At this stage, the board is looking into how they should adapt the statutes and rules of procedure in order to prevent a situation such as the one last year from happening. Onyenze says, “For example, the statutes say that the KASEUR board has the final say on decision-making. We want to hand this power over to the societies. It should also be easier to disband the board.”

In the meantime, work is also being carried out on repairing the relationship with the university. “Two weeks ago, we had lunch with the rector, which was highly positive. It was a friendly, casual discussion, and he assured us that we can rely on the university’s support. I was very satisfied with that outcome.”

Onyenze also wants to work with the board to discuss ‘fun activities’. “We also want to change KASEUR’s reputation. The former board focused strongly on negative aspects such as discrimination and ‘that’s going badly’ and ‘this could be better’. We don’t want to be like that; we want to focus on the things that are going well.” KASEUR has already welcomed one new society, the International Students Rotterdam. “I think that ISR really add value: they’re highly motivated, and they focus on all international students.”