Leader of new student party will not join University Council

In the latest elections for the University Council, Opdam was the face of the Bold Students Party (Dutch acronym: VSP). The right-wing student party joined the elections for the first time and immediately won two seats. Opdam, who obtained 359 votes, was the fourth most popular candidate, after three students from Lijst Vuur. His classmate Sven Hospers was also elected. 

However, Opdam will not be a student representative in the University Council this year. Shortly before the election results were announced, he heard that he’d been selected for an exchange programme at Luiss Guido Carli University, in Rome. Now, Manon Vianen, who came third on the VSP candidate list, will join the council. 

“I had consistently felt that I’d join the University Council, but in the end, I felt that I had to take this chance,” Opdam says from Rome. “Of course, I did think about the people who voted for me, but I’m young, and this crossed my path. I had to make a decision. Moreover, I have a lot of faith in my substitute.”

Will join the faculty council
Remarkably, Opdam will still take his seat in the Law Faculty Council, for which he also ran. “I want to do this. It’s less intense and I can do a lot of things online from Rome. I’ll be back in December when I’ll be able to attend a few meetings in person.”

VSP was even more successful in the faculty council elections at the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance than in the elections for the University Council. Four out of twelve seats went to VSP, although it should be noted that VSP was the only party that submitted a list of three names. This means they were automatically elected. 

Sven Hospers and Manon Vianen also scored seats in the Law Faculty Council before the summer break. Law student Vianen will pass on her seat now that she’s joining the University Council. Hospers will try to combine both.  

He says he’s being more or less forced to do so. There would be a VSP replacement for Vianen in the Law voting district, but not in the Governance district. “If I had given up on my seat, it would remain empty, and no one wants that.”

Surprised
UU's regulations state that students can join both faculty and university councils. This has happened before, although it’s been quite a while since anyone has combined both positions.

Wim de Smidt, President of the University Council, reacts with surprise to Hospers’ announcement. “This is new information for me. If the rules allow it, I do not have an opinion about it. Of course, I will discuss with Sven how he’s planning on combining work for both councils.”