{"id":82251,"date":"2017-12-15T11:43:44","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T10:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=82251"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:54","slug":"kwart-studenten-u-raad-kwam-bijna-niet-maar-kreeg-toch-al-het-geld","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2017\/12\/15\/kwart-studenten-u-raad-kwam-bijna-niet-maar-kreeg-toch-al-het-geld\/","title":{"rendered":"Three U-Council students hardly ever showed up \u2013 and got paid in full anyway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get thousands of euro in reimbursements as a University Council member, even though you\u2019ve only attended a few meetings. Last academic year, a quarter of the student members of the U-Council were conspicuous by their absence. Other council members tried to put an end to this, but were thwarted by bureaucratic procedures. As of this academic year, the University Council will work to prevent this from happening again.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s 25 October 2016, around 5 p.m., on the ground floor of the Bayle Building. The twelve student members of the new University Council feel confident. They\u2019ve just finished the second meeting of the academic year, and it\u2019s the second get-together attended by all the student members. They\u2019ve already agreed on their first plans for the remainder of the year. Just over a month later, however, clouds appear on the horizon. Three students fail to show up at the next meeting \u2013 without giving notice. And this isn\u2019t the last time.<\/p>\n

Because from then on, the three actually never attend another meeting \u2013 despite repeated requests sent by the Presidium (the Council\u2019s executive body) and their fellow student members. And the University can also kiss goodbye to the reimbursements paid out to every University Council member in the 2016\/2017 academic year \u2013 totalling nearly 4,000 euro. This becomes clear from various documents and EM<\/em>\u2019s interviews with some of the people involved. Two of the three absentee members come from the same, large faculty \u2013 meaning that thousands of EUR students were deprived of representation in the University Council for the better part of the academic year.<\/p>\n

Short on people<\/h2>\n\t
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\n\t\t\u2018We got bogged down in bureaucratic processes. We were unable to dock or retrieve their payments, which is very frustrating\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

On behalf of the University Council\u2019s student members, Aleid Barmentlo (the Chair of the present U-Council) and Wies Bontje (the Chair of last year\u2019s student contingent) tried to resolve the issue of the phantom council members. As members of the then Presidium, they can express the common feeling within the Council\u2019s student contingent: \u201cWhen you have too few active student members, you simply don\u2019t have enough hands on deck. We\u2019re never short on ideas; we\u2019re always short on people. You get a lot less work done with nine or ten people than you would with twelve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bontje agrees with Barmentlo\u2019s assessment: \u201cI think we have a strong core group, who has put in a lot of work. I believe you\u2019ve definitely achieved something as a University Council when the Rector promotes your Students4Students<\/a>\u00a0project during the opening of the academic year. But of course, you\u2019ll always have people who don\u2019t really rise to the occasion. Which is a shame \u2013 because of course you want everyone to commit themselves 100%. As the Chair, you don\u2019t want to be taking people to task all the time. We tried to get them on board again, but no such luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Phantom members\u2019<\/h2>
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Former U-Council Chair Kees van Paridon <\/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><\/div>

The fact that the council members didn\u2019t act like schoolmarms doesn\u2019t mean they didn\u2019t try to remind the \u2018phantom members\u2019 of their obligations. But they never received a serious response \u2013 at which point the Presidium had no more options left. \u201cCouncil members are democratically elected, which means that they are personally responsible for representing their voters. When council members fail to fulfil their duties, the only thing we can do is remind them of this responsibility. Which we did on a number of occasions last year,\u201d says Barmentlo. \u201cThe Presidium has tried to hold the non-active members to account. As students, it didn\u2019t take us long before we concluded: \u2018Let\u2019s not waste any more energy on this\u2019. Because look: these people have been voted in, so there\u2019s nothing you can do about the fact that they occupy a seat on the Council.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018So even if you\u2019re in the right, the actual process takes so long that the money has been paid out before you\u2019ve got anywhere\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Kees van Paridon, who chaired the University Council the previous academic year, confirms that the Council regularly attempted to contact the absentee members. \u201cI know that the student contingent tried to invite them and get them involved in their work. To no avail. This subject was discussed a number of times in the Presidium. The talks focused both on the members\u2019 absence and the Council\u2019s attempts to get them involved, and which consequences their non-attendance may have for their reimbursements. The latter issue proved far from straightforward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Push<\/h2>

Last year, each student member was reimbursed for his or her Council work to the amount of EUR 3735.55. A share of this money is a fixed grant for student board members. This grant is paid out by the Profileringsfonds. The other share is a fee paid to council members when they attend a meeting (see boxout).<\/p>\n

For an outsider, the solution seems pretty simple: if you don\u2019t show up, you don\u2019t get paid. But as the Presidium found out, this is easier said than done. Bontje: \u201cYou can\u2019t recover this money once it has been awarded by the Profileringsfonds. When someone has been elected to a position, you aren\u2019t allowed to revoke the administrator grant.\u201d But at least \u2013 so thought Bontje and the other Presidium members \u2013 they could always dock attendance fees.<\/p>\n\t

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The reimbursement for student members of the University Council is made up of two components. First of all, the grant awarded by the Profileringsfonds, which amounts to a monthly payment of EUR 288.95 for nine consecutive months (six months in this academic year). In the current situation, each student who is a member of the Council is entitled to this reimbursement, regardless of his or her contribution. The second component is made up of attendance fees, also known as the aanwezigheidspremie<\/em> (\u2018presence premium\u2019), to the amount of EUR 113.50 per month. According to regulations, students only receive this reimbursement if they actually attend the council meetings.<\/p>\n

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) uses its Profileringsfonds to award grants to full-time bachelor and master students who make a substantial contribution to student life, the University or society.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018I know that the student contingent tried to invite them and get them involved in their work\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t–<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFormer U-Council Chair Kees van Paridon\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption>\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

In theory, this was easy, since the minutes record precisely who had attended which meeting. But it proved a bit more challenging in practice. \u201cOnce again, we didn\u2019t manage to pull it off,\u201d says Barmentlo. \u201cWies and I really pushed for this. But the formal procedure for this is very complicated and takes up so much time that the payment has already been transferred before you\u2019ve finished all the paperwork \u2013 at which point you\u2019re too late. What\u2019s more, you can\u2019t simply say \u2018Someone hasn\u2019t showed up \u2013 he or she doesn\u2019t get paid\u2019. Because the attendance lists weren\u2019t always up to scratch either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red tape<\/h2>

On top of the rather unreliable attendance records, the Presidium faced a bigger problem: EUR\u2019s accounting system actually precludes the docking of attendance fees. \u201cThere\u2019s no room for intervening in the payment arrangements for attendance fees \u2013 even though regulations stipulate that we should have this option.\u201d<\/p>\n

In practice, the members of the Presidium were forced to take a very circuitous route last year. \u201cThe payments are lined up in a payment schedule a week beforehand. Before you dock someone\u2019s attendance fee, you are required to communicate this decision to the person in question. And then they still have a response term, during which they can present their reasons for not attending. So even if you\u2019re in the right, the actual process takes so long that the money has been paid out before you\u2019ve got anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018As the Chair, you don\u2019t want to be taking people to task all the time\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Ultimately, this red tape proved more than the Presidium could handle. \u201cWe got bogged down in bureaucratic processes. The system doesn\u2019t take into account that some people don\u2019t do their job. We were unable to dock or retrieve their payments, which is very frustrating.\u201d As the current Council Chair, Barmentlo is determined to change the rules and ensure that they are enforced. \u201cThe attendance lists are included on the Presidium\u2019s agenda this year. It immediately becomes clear when someone has crossed the line again. You\u2019re allowed to miss one or two meetings, but after that you don\u2019t have to expect an attendance fee anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

No comment<\/h2>

Despite repeated requests, the three absentee council members refused to offer a substantive response to the questions that our research for this article gave rise to.<\/p>\n

In its response, EUR\u2019s Executive Board informs us that it was unaware of this issue with phantom council members and the aforementioned administrative obstacles. \u201cThe Executive Board has not received any specific signals regarding the performance of council members last year. In our experience, the composition of the University Council changes from one year to the next, and the amount of time and energy that individual members invest in their Council work can vary considerably. If there are indeed issues with the payment system for attendance fees, we will work to resolve them together with the U-Council. In conclusion, the Executive Board is pleased with the measures taken by the U-Council and is happy to continue discussing these matters with the Council members.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the next two years, Barmentlo is determined to make work of this issue. Together with the other members of the Council, she has adopted a whole range of measures that are intended to prevent this situation from cropping up again. The Council will keep a strict record of members\u2019 attendance or absence, the Presidium will meet more often, there will be shorter lines of communication with the Executive Board and the Council will step up its efforts to strengthen participation in general within the University. Bontje wholeheartedly supports these new goals: \u201cBecause the biggest threat posed by this whole affair is that when people aren\u2019t effectively represented, they don\u2019t think: \u2018Hey, I should join in too\u2019. While when you have some nice results to show, people start thinking: \u2018Hey\u2026 I should look into that\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\t

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We\u2019ll soon be publishing part 2 of our series about Participation at EUR. In that article, the members of the University Council talk about the measures that they\u2019ll be taking to deal with phantom Council members and how they plan to shape the new participation structure.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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