Occupations of the Erasmus Building

During 2022 and 2023 three occupations of university buildings took place. The movement OccupyEUR made four demands: end ties with the fossil industry, end precarity of staff contracts, end student debt and make the university accessible to all.

After the last protests in November 2022 were stopped by police intervention, around sixty students began to occupy the a university building for the second time in February 2023. Their protests were directed, among other things, against the university’s entanglement with the fossil fuel industry. Protests also took place at other universities.

Read about the history of OccupyEUR below.

After the university acknowledged the climate emergency and announced their related measures in February, students started to occupy a university building for the second time this academic year since they believed the measures were not enough. This time, they didn’t occupy Sanders, but the Erasmus building.

Since their last occupation was stopped by the police, this time OccupyEUR was hoping for a peaceful demonstration. To make time go faster, the activists planned several activities, including workshops, music performances and free coffee for everyone. Find out more about the initiatives that took place during the protest in the article below.

In a letter to the Occupyers in the Erasmus building, the Executive Board informed them that the protest should end at 10:30 pm. However, the protesters don’t intend to leave and have set up tents.

About twenty activists ended up sleeping in the Erasmus building on Tuesday night, despite the requests from the university to leave the building at 10:30. Unexpectedly to the protesters, the university did not send the police this time.

Since the protestors did not leave, the Executive Board took stronger measures and wrote in an open letter that from now on it would treat OccupyEUR not as a demonstration anymore but as an illegal occupation. Read more about what this means for the future of OccupyEUR in the article below.

OccupyEUR is not the only student movement that has risen up against ties of universities with the fossil fuel industry. Also at other universities, students have joined together to protest. Read how successful they were below.

Against the demands of the climate activists, the University of Amsterdam and Utrecht don’t plan to cut their ties to the fossil fuel industry as they see them as indispensable for research into green energy. Read more about their reasonings below.

In May, occupations and activism started again for a week in universities around the Netherlands. Except at the VU Amsterdam that had announced in April already that it no longer wants to cooperate with fossil fuel companies that do not comply with the Climate Agreement.

The resurgence of protests at the universities also includes the occupation of the Sanders building, now for the third time. This time OccupyEUR has specified their demands further.

The third occupation of the Sanders Building in May ended like the first one in November  – with the intervention of the police. Twelve remaining protesters were arrested in the presence of City councillor Mina Morkoç (GroenLinks) acting as a legal observer. Read about the evacuation below.

One day after the third occupation by climate activists was ended through police forces, the Erasmus University held its opening of the Sustainability Days in the Erasmus Pavilion. In the course of this, OccupyEUR and how the university deals with it was actively discussed.