Committee Grants for Vindicat definitively withdrawn

Board members of the Groningen student association Vindicat will not be receiving committee grants this year. The definitive decision was taken today by the University of Groningen and the Hanze Hogeschool. The association failed to report a new case of assault.

Earlier

• Female Vindicat members in Groningen included on ‘slut list’
• Another case of abuse at Groningen’s Vindicat student society
• Community service and one day of prison demanded against Vindicat member
• Editorial: ‘Indignation over hazing activities is hypocritical’

The Groningen institutions had to learn from a newspaper article published at the end of April that yet another association member had been assaulted in December last year. According to a new code of conduct, which has been introduced to bring about a cultural change, the association is obliged to report all violent incidents, but in this case that didn’t happen.

The association has been under fire for quite some time following a high-profile case of assault during a hazing. Last September the University of Groningen and the Hanze Hogeschool suspended committee grants for current Vindicat board members following another incident at a sushi restaurant. Now that the association has once again failed to comply with the agreements, the grants for this academic year – a total of € 33,315 for nine board members – will be definitively withdrawn.

New incidents

Rector Elmer Sterken of the University of Groningen: “The main condition was no more incidents. The sad reality is that this has failed, and they also failed to report this.”

In the summer the institutions will decide whether to turn off the money tap completely for Vindicat. The association may also be excluded from official ceremonies.

In a statement Vindicat said that it understands the decision taken by the institutions. “The board accepts responsibility for the mistake and hopes to convince the institutions as soon as possible to reverse the decision.”