Student - June 12, 2008

Students distribute protest paper

A thousand copies of Rebel Resource were printed by the WSO. Like the Progressive Student Fraction, the student union is worried about the consequences of the recent tender procedure for Resource.

The student associations believe that the procurement guidelines, which specify the conditions under which the new publisher Hemels will make the weekly newspaper for Wageningen UR, give the Executive Board more opportunity for censorship. ‘Eighteen months ago the Executive Board already tried to exercise more control over the content of the newspaper,’ said Wilma Smilde of the WSO. ‘That’s when we published the first Rebel Resource, with our objections. And now the Executive Board is trying it again.’

The second edition of the protest paper, with articles and reactions from students and employees, was distributed on Wednesday afternoon, 11 June, in Forum and the Leeuwenborch. The students and staff were happy to receive Rebel Resource, but most reactions were lukewarm. ‘I’m not that sure what it’s all about,’ said one student, although this did spark a discussion about Resource with her neighbour.

On Thursday 12 June at half past twelve, there was a silent protest in the head office on the Costerweg in Wageningen. The WSO handed out handkerchiefs so that participants could silence themselves symbolically. The WSO presented the more than one thousand signatures collected through their online petition to the president of the Executive Board Aalt Dijkhuizen.