No more pavement chalk ban, but still a fine for students

Following an initiative from political party SP, representatives of political parties of Utrecht and student union LSVb made drawings on the pavement on Wednesday. Direct cause for the protest was a fine given to four students of protest group Zeg Nee last week.

The students wrote texts on the Drift to call attention to their resistance to cutbacks at the faculty of Humanities. The students say they used chalk in spray cans, but the police said on Facebook that they weren’t convinced of that. It was vandalism, allegedly.

The protest was successful in that the city-wide pavement chalk ban was lifted. Mayor Van Zanen confirmed this on Wednesday afternoon. Last week, he’d already stated during a city council meeting that he couldn’t imagine that a ban like that was actually enforced, and that a fine for pavement chalk sounded odd to him. But he had to base his judgment on the information given to him by the police, Van Zanen said, so he couldn’t do anything else for the ZegNee students.

It’s still a waiting game, then, to see whether the students’ fine will be withdrawn. ZegNee spokesperson Nina van der Bent says the four students haven’t received the fine yet. If that happens, the students will ask the judge to close the case. “But we think this is completely nonsensical. It hasn’t disappeared yet is because it hasn’t rained for two weeks, but with a little bit of water, it’ll be gone in a second.”

City council member and UU student Eva Oosters of the Student en Starter party is also convinced the case will fizzle out. “Otherwise, the political parties will have quite a lot to account for as well. They use the same spray when campaigning.” 

The text it’s all about: