UU supports protest against austerity measures

The official protest against the austerity measures announced for higher education, which was supposed to happen in Utrecht last week and gather people from all over the country, was cancelled at the last minute. The municipality, the police and the public prosecutor's office (the Dutch call this trio "the security triangle", Ed.) claim to have received information about pro-Palestinian groups intending to hijack the demonstration. According to the triangle, these groups did not discard the use of violence to make their point. The trade unions FNV and AOb and the action group WOinActie, which were organising the protest, were forced to call it off.

They came up with an alternative programme, which included speeches in the House of Representatives. Those who were supposed to speak onstage during the protest were called to do it at the House of Representatives instead. The speeches were streamed live and followed by many. In addition, students organised an alternative protest in Utrecht despite the lack of approval from the municipality. Their march attracted thousands of people and was peaceful from beginning to end. 

However, this doesn't mean the protests are over. The organisers announced a new date as soon as the protest in Utrecht was cancelled: Monday, November 25, right before the House of Representatives discusses the 2025 budget for higher education, presented by Minister Eppo Bruins.

Once again, Utrecht University's Executive Board and deans are calling on people to join the demonstration. UU President Anton Pijpers and Vice-President Margot van der Starre will go to The Hague and they hope to see many counterparts there. Almost all UU employees and students will have the opportunity to attend the protest. On UU's website, the university administration refers to the "guideline on demonstrations and strikes", which states that the attendance requirement does not apply on the day of the demonstration, so it is up to the lecturers to make agreements with their students regarding missed lectures.

UU will make no special arrangements. The university will not provide buses to help the university community reach The Hague and it doesn't intend to reimburse travel expenses either. However, members of the education unions can claim their train tickets from the unions. As for the students, the student union Vidius is gathering a group that will travel to The Hague together. They haven't announced yet where and when students will meet. There is one thing that could throw a spanner in the works, though: ProRail has held a series of strikes lately and it's not yet known whether they will strike on Monday. This should be known by the end of this week.

In the meantime, UU employees and students will be organising gatherings to make protest signs. Other protest materials are being distributed as well. Protesters are also asked to learn the lyrics to the protest song (in Dutch, Ed.) that will be sung during the march. 

Morale
Representatives of trade unions, action groups and institutions will address the crowd on a stage at Malieveld, and the Dutch rapper Benjamin Fro is also going to perform. The full programme is still being drawn up.

The protest will happen right before the House of Representatives debates the budget for Education, Culture & Science. The minister's plans include introducing a 3,000-euro fine for students who take longer than one additional year to graduate (or, perhaps, an alternative) and cutting hundreds of millions of euros from the budget for research universities.

Some people wonder whether the change of date and location will have any consequences for the turnout. Maybe more people will be motivated to go because they're outraged about the Utrecht protest being banned. Maybe fewer people will go because lecturers, researchers and students must free up their schedules for the second time in a row, which might not be feasible for everybody.

Protest movement WOinActie acknowledge the problem. “Dutiful as they are, many people have a hard time cancelling lectures or postponing certain matters a second time”, the organisation says in a statement. “We ask university administrators to do their part by enabling employees to protest and closing universities for all regular activities.”

Though their doors may not be closed, other university administrators are following UU's example and encouraging their employees to attend the protest. At the University of Twente, for example, employees are not obliged to take a day off to join the demonstration and students are not required to be present in class, either. The same thing as UU is doing.

Opposing voices
The protest does not end on Monday. A day later, unions, student organisations and action groups will present a petition against the austerity measures to a delegation from the House of Representatives. The petition warns that the budget cuts will worsen existing financial deficits, which will “result in more overtime, poor working conditions, poor education, sick leaves, and the departure of employees”.

Lecturers, researchers, administrators, students, educational institutions, and the business community criticised the austerity measures as soon as Minister Eppo Bruins announced them. UU President Anton Pijpers is one of the people who commented on the cutbacks. In an op-ed on DUB, he reacts to the members of the UU community who criticise the university for making plans to cut costs before the budget for higher education has even been discussed by the House of Representatives. Other members of the UU community have shared on DUB and other media what the cuts will mean for higher education and why they are protesting.

Tensions are running high in the cabinet, but not because of the cuts to the higher education budget. However, members of Parliament representing the NSC party (one of the parties in the coalition, Ed.) and focusing on education quit on Monday. The coalition has ignored all criticism so far, saying that sacrifices must be made sometimes. 

PVV, the winning party in last year's elections, welcomes and celebrates the cutbacks. Yesterday in the Senate, senator Gom van Strien criticised university administrators, saying they are wasting money. Ironically, the senator is involved in a legal battle because of dubious financial transactions when he was the director of Utrecht University's subsidiary holding.