{"id":145506,"date":"2022-10-24T11:47:03","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T09:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=145506"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:26:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:26:28","slug":"emailgate-administrative-intrigue-and-proctoring-three-turbulent-years-in-the-university-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2022\/10\/24\/emailgate-administrative-intrigue-and-proctoring-three-turbulent-years-in-the-university-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Emailgate, administrative intrigue and proctoring: three turbulent years in the University Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

The three years that Hans van den Berg spent as chair of the University Council can definitely be called turbulent. When Van den Berg joined the council as a Public Administration tutor, feelings were running high due to an email investigation prompted by a leak to the press, many changes in the members of the Executive Board and the start of the coronavirus pandemic. \u201cI thought: my god, what have I got into here?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Hans van den Berg next to the Hofvijver, close to his new office in The Hague.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRonald van den Heerik<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Since September, Hans van den Berg is no longer chair of the University Council, but he had actually changed his job before the summer already. His new office \u2013 at a non-government organisation that supports international cooperation in the legal field \u2013 has an interesting view: to the left, the new House of Representatives currently undergoing renovation, to the right, the town hall of The Hague and a little further away the ministries. Van den Berg has ambitions in the diplomatic sector, so this is a good place to be.<\/p>\n

One might assume that a chair of the University Council would also be at the centre of power (of a university), but it certainly did not feel that way to Van den Berg in his first months in late 2019. \u201cIt was really intense. A lot was happening behind the scenes. For a while, we didn\u2019t have a clerk, so I had to do this job as well. And I had no idea what tasks were required for either job. And while I was trying to manage that, \u2018Emailgate\u2019 landed on my plate as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\t

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During the email investigation<\/a> in 2018, dubbed ‘Emailgate ‘ by Van den Berg, the mailboxes of several employees were scanned for communication with a journalist of the NRC Handelsblad<\/em> newspaper. The Executive Board of that time wanted to find out who had leaked information about supposed plagiarism<\/a> by former dean Dymph van den Boom. Many members of the University Council regarded this investigation as disproportionate, which led to a tough confrontation between the Council and the Executive Board. An inquiry committee later concluded that Van den Boom was guilty<\/a> of \u2018(a pattern of) carelessness\u2019 but not of plagiarism.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

\u201cAnd while all that was going on, we got the news that the Supervisory Board wanted to fill two interim posts without involvement of the Council. We were told: we\u2019ve searched far and wide, but the only person we could find for the post of SB President was Hans Smits.\u201d Smits, director of a large construction company, had actually left the Supervisory Board just a short time before. Shortly after he was appointed as president of the Supervisory Board, an interim president of the Executive Board was required as well. \u201cAlthough we\u2019d already known for several months that predecessor Kristel Baele was going to leave, we were once again told: we\u2019ve searched far and wide, but the only person who is willing and able to do this is: Hans Smits. Then you know deep down that something\u2019s going on, and you don\u2019t like to imagine that it\u2019s all been plotted behind closed doors, but you do think: my god, what have I got into here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a very strong feeling that people were thinking: there\u2019s a new University Council chair, let\u2019s see what we can get away with. But that activated my sense of justice. I decided for myself: nobody is getting away with anything. The appointments procedure for deans and for members of the Executive Board is set down on paper. So we kicked up a real fuss about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\t

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Although the customary procedure had not been followed, the University Council ultimately agreed to the appointment of Smits \u2018under protest<\/a>\u2019, because the Council\u2019s objection was not about Smits as a person but about the procedure.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

The Council also strongly kicked a fuss about the investigation of employees\u2019 mailboxes.<\/strong><\/p>

\u201cActually, I don\u2019t really think the fuss about this has died down yet. There are still a lot of people who are unhappy about what happened. When Hans Smits took up his post, he quickly expressed his regrets on behalf of the Executive Board and promised to look into it, but there\u2019s never really been a conclusion that would make you say: the issue has now been dealt with.\u201d<\/p>

What do you expect for the future?<\/strong><\/p>

\u201cMore rights for the University Council. It was promised at the time, but nothing was ever put down in writing. The Executive Board was supposed to consider how we could avoid an investigation like that in the future and what kind of rules should be issued to support this. And in my view, this process is still ongoing. A few existing regulations have been amended, but there were supposed to be new regulations too, and I\u2019ve never seen those. Only when these have been introduced will employees feel confident that something like this can\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n\t

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Lees meer<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t