Céline Zahno | The student council is alive, but barely thriving
After the occupation of an UvA building to protest against the university's ties with Shell, students organized “Anti-kantine” to demand lower food prices at UvA’s cafeteria. Even though there is a student council that is supposed to channel students’ demands to the university executive. Are student politics in trouble?
It seems that students like to have a say in how the UvA is run, and that they like to take action even more: one protest banner after the other decorates Roeterseilandcampus entrances . As students pass by, a leaflet is handed out: A date, a place, and “be there!”.
In January, a student movement occupied the former Amsterdamse Academische Club to protest against the UvA’s affiliation with Shell. In the beginning of March, the “Anti-kantine” protest targeted high food prices and a lack of vegan and vegetarian options at the cafeteria. In both cases, students decided to take direct action – even though there is a student council that is meant to channel students’ demands to the university.
Where is the student council?
The student council is alive – but barely thriving. The protests against Shell are the outcome of fruitless discussions between the central student council (CSR) and the Executive Board (College van Bestuur, CvB) that have been ongoing for years. The CvB dismissed Shell’s impact on research until the central student council contacted the researchers involved in the projects funded by Shell and found their concerns confirmed. The student council’s ability to exercise leverage over the CvB is limited – the CvB can take up to three months to respond to CSR proposals and has the right to dismiss the proposals that is doesn’t agree with. An occupation was needed to bring Shell back as a point of serious conversation, and yet, the most tangible outcomes are university-wide discussions and a temporary moratorium.
Panel discussions
Now, also the claims of the “Anti-kantine” have reached the agenda of the CvB. But the exciting proposal that it once was has been transformed into a pilot project with little chance of permanent implementation. The protestors suggested a profound restructuring of the cafeteria. By offering only two vegan options per lunch, meals could be as affordable as two euros. The CvB’s response seems timid: they agreed to subsidize vegan and plant-based food at the Roeterseiland cafeteria from April until June of this academic year. Turning radical ideas into panel discussions and pilot projects – this seems to be this CvB’s habitual way to handle students’ demands.
Activism as a quick fix
Deadlocked in the CvB’s incremental solutions, the student council needs to get its power from elsewhere. Instead of proposing it to the CvB right away, the CSR decided to fund the “Anti-kantine” protests. As of now, activism seems to work much more effectively than institutional student politics. Direct action will always have its virtues, but student involvement in the university’s governance needs to change in the long run – and maybe we should look for a solution in the past.
University Council
The University Council is the predecessor of the current CSR. Composed of students, academic staff, and support staff in equal proportions, they were the authoritative instance for all university administration until 1997. In that year UvA’s University Council was abolished as part of a larger national law reform. Since, the governance system of universities resembles corporate structures and executive power is concentrated in the hands of the CvB. Students and staff are left aside as discussion partners to be consulted on certain issues.
The current resort to activism is symptomatic of the bureaucratic minuteness that student involvement is reduced to. The CvB consults them to gain legitimacy for their own decisions and grants proposals once in a while – but students need to be given back the decisive voice they demand. Until then, protest banners will remain part of the usual decor at the university.
Céline Zahno is a Political Science student at the UvA. She is from Switzerland.
With input of Anna Micelli, student at Amsterdam University College.
