Student Coalition Utrecht: ‘Ties with Israeli universities must be severed’

This year, five student parties are participating in the University Council elections. Student Coalition Utrecht is one of the newcomers. The party originates from the Erasmus Student Coalition, which participated in the council elections at Erasmus University in Rotterdam in 2023. Last month, the party won four of the twelve available seats on that council. Amine Lakhal (26), a Master's student in Pharmacy, is the party leader of the Utrecht branch. The success of his Rotterdam predecessors inspires him, but he prefers to remain realistic: 'We're not dreaming too big right now. First, we want to get inside the University Council.'

Student Coalition Utrecht has four priorities: allowing students to retake exams if they score below 4.0, having a wider and more affordable range of food options on campus, improving the quiet rooms, and severing ties with Israeli universities. Twenty candidates are on the party's list for the University Council elections. Student Coalition Utrecht is also running for the faculty council elections in the faculties of Law, Economics & Governance and Social Sciences.

Quiet rooms 
Amine became involved with Student Coalition Utrecht at an early stage. Some of his friends are acquainted with the founders of the Erasmus Student Coalition. Together, they decided to bring the concept to Utrecht. The party recruited its candidates online, among groups of friends and through Insan, the Islamic student association, of which Amine is the chair. Several of the party's candidates are Insan members as well.

Sara Aksakal (19), a Law student and candidate for both the University Council and the council of her own faculty, notes that many of the party's prospective councillors are practising Muslims, which means they have first-hand experience on how their needs are not always prioritised or heard. As an example, she mentions the number of quiet rooms at UU, which the party considers insufficient. "We've experienced this first-hand and we hear the same from our friends. I think we can contribute something because we are directly involved with the issue."

UU currently has eleven quiet rooms spread across several buildings. Most of these rooms also serve as breastfeeding spaces. According to Student Coalition Utrecht, many UU students need these rooms to relax and pray. Amine underscores that other student parties have worked to improve the rooms, but there is still room for improvement. According to him, the rooms are sometimes dirty or difficult to access. Students must often queue to use them, and some are too far away for certain students. "Try walking to and from a quiet room in the fifteen minutes you get between lectures," she says.

Dinner
But these are not the only provisions the new party aims to fight for. Amine and Sara have noticed that students' needs are not equally met across UU's buildings. Some of the buildings barely offer anything for students to eat. "I often find myself in buildings where there's nothing but a vending machine, even though I must be there all day," says Sara. "Students can have lectures in all of the university's buildings, so it is the university's responsibility to ensure there are enough food options in or around the buildings," Amine adds. 

Student Coalition Utrecht also wants canteens to stay open for longer, operating in the evenings and at weekends, and offering a wider range of food options. Amine: "The university could invest more in halal and kosher food." 

Severing ties with Israel
Amine and Sara acknowledge that the other student parties already support some of their positions, but they hope that a new party will give these causes a boost. For example, severing ties with Israeli universities is a matter of utmost importance for them. Last year, UU decided to maintain 25 partnerships with Israeli organisations, which Amine believes is unjustified. “We want to bring about change in this area. But, to do that, we need a different party that focuses on the issue instead of seeing it as a side issue.”

As a candidate for the Law district of the Law, Economics & Governance faculty, Sara believes it is her duty to speak out about UU's relationship with Israel. “It doesn't make sense to maintain ties with institutions whose actions contradict the values and norms law students are taught,” she argues. According to UU, the ongoing partnerships with Israeli institutions do not contribute to human rights violations directly, but to Amine and Sara, the intertwining of Israeli universities and the Israeli army is reason enough to sever ties with them. As far as they are concerned, UU should stay away from them as long as it can't be ruled out that Israeli universities contribute directly or indirectly to what human rights organisations denounce as genocide and apartheid.

Stronger together
According to Sara, the combination of priorities is what makes Student Coalition Utrecht valuable, not individual positions. She is glad that other student parties are on the same page as them when it comes to certain matters, such as opportunities to retake exams after getting a grade lower than 4.0. “You've got to see it this way: the more parties prioritise a certain issue, the greater the chance they will be effective. If two parties are already making an issue of the grade system and then a third party joins them, there is a greater chance we can achieve something by working together.”

Amine and Sara's campaign approach underscores this point. In their view, students should be encouraged to vote, regardless of who they vote for. Sara: “We must get to the streets and talk to students. Maybe they're having issues we're not aware of yet, or they have things to add to our priorities. We can only have these valuable conversations if we are present on campus.”

Elections for the representative councils
The UU community will choose their representatives for the University Council and the faculty councils from Monday, May 12, to Wednesday, May 14. This year, both students and staff are eligible to vote.