Hope for solidarity from the Executive Board in protests against cuts

If it’s up to Ana Uribe Sandoval, academics at Erasmus University will soon be taking to the streets to protest the severe budget cuts in higher education. She hopes the Executive Board will stand in solidarity with the protests.

She’s already busy cutting out the red felt squares, reminiscent of earlier WOinActie protests. Uribe Sandoval is a lecturer at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication and a member of the Erasmus Labour Council, where union representatives regularly meet with the Executive Board to discuss working conditions. While nothing has been officially confirmed yet, Uribe Sandoval foresees difficult times and perhaps reorganisations will happen at various faculties. Support services are also expected to be hit hard. For her, this is reason enough to call for protest.

Why should there be a protest?

“The cuts mean fewer resources. If we don’t find a way to work smarter, it will simply come down to fewer people doing the same amount of work. Larger classes mean you can no longer explore complex subjects in depth with students. This will lead to a decline in the quality of education. In addition, there will be penalties for students who take too long to graduate. I’m not sure if students fully realise the impact this will have on them. Protest might make them more aware of it.”

How would you explain to outsiders why cutting the higher education budget is a bad idea?

“Cutting higher education also means cutting medical care, producing fewer well-trained doctors. It affects business professionals and engineers who innovate, which will make the Netherlands less competitive. Ultimately, it will have negative consequences for society as a whole.

“And these cuts will only deepen social inequality. Tuition fees will increase. If, in the future, only children from wealthy families can afford to study, it will only widen the gap between rich and poor. Unfortunately, there’s a broad societal trend of a total lack of respect for science and education. But these things are essential for our society.”

What kind of protest do you envision?

“I’m already making red felt squares to hand out. But that’s symbolic and not enough, as we’ve learned in the past. Striking is an option, but what happens if we don’t teach for a day? Nothing, right? Maybe we need to move beyond the campus, perhaps hold classes at the central station. And we want everyone involved: the representative councils, programme committees, students, and I also hope the Executive Board will support us. Maybe they could even say, ‘Today, we’re all teaching outside.’”

The Executive Board doesn’t usually take to the streets, it tends to limit itself to ‘quiet diplomacy’ via the Universities of the Netherlands.

“‘Quiet diplomacy’ is just a polite way of saying, ‘Don’t worry, the experts will sort it out…’ But we need to see that something is happening. Quiet diplomacy is doing nothing. If you stay silent, you allow bad things to happen and keep on happening. Let’s hope the Executive Board joins us this time.”