Three parties and seven independent candidates to battle for seats on University Council

Online polling stations where students can cast votes in this year’s University Council elections have been opened. This year’s elections are going to be quite special, because for the first time in a long time, student political parties and groups of students can stand for election, rather than just independent candidates. This change to the rules has resulted in the establishment of three new student political parties.

Due to the new system, it has become more attractive for candidates to unite in groups of candidates. This allows them to pool their campaign budget, develop a programme and distribute tasks among each other. However, the main advantage is that candidates who receive more votes than they need to win a seat on the Council are allowed to pass on their excess votes to the next candidate on their list.

Nevertheless, seven of the 25 candidates chose to campaign independently. The remaining eighteen students standing for election are affiliated with one of three student political parties: Aeffix, Erasmus Alliance and Liberi Erasmi. The University Council has 24 members, twelve of whom are students. This year only the student representatives are up for re-election. The twelve staff representatives on the Council are elected for a two-year term and will therefore keep their seats for another year.

Politicisation

In the past ten years, several people have argued in favour of an electoral system allowing groups of students to stand for election together. Earlier attempts to introduce such a system always failed because they were not supported by enough other councillors. Staff representatives in particular, but certain student representatives as well, feared that such a system would politicise the Council, which might weaken its position vis-à-vis the Executive Board.

Unlike organisations such as municipal councils, the University Council does not govern the university. It has to be clever to make itself heard. Generally, the Council’s only duty is to furnish the Executive Board with advice. However, the Council does have a right of consent with regard to certain subjects, such as the broad outlines of the budget, the university’s strategy and all sorts of regulations.

Proponents of a system allowing candidates to unite in groups would always point at the extremely low turnout for University Council elections, with Rotterdam having the lowest turnout of all university towns in the Netherlands. Until this year, EUR was also the only university town that did not allow students to unite in groups.

You can now cast your vote until May 24th here.