Student - May 31, 2007

WSO not happy about one-council plan

The Wageningen Student Organisation (WSO) thinks that students will have less say if the plans go ahead for one central co-management council for the whole of Wageningen UR. The organisation has sent a letter on the matter to the Executive Board.

The Executive Board came up with a proposal recently to combine the four existing central representative bodies into one co-management council. This would give the university students six seats instead of the twelve in the current Student Council.

In the letter the WSO says that students are unlikely to be interested in many subjects on the agenda in the new council, such as ‘building and construction, Lelystad and personnel policy in Leeuwarden’.

According to the WSO, students will also have fewer rights; they will be entitled only to the statutory rights, while the current Student Council has more rights. The student union is also worried that inexperienced students who only participate in the representative body for one year will get snowed under during meetings. ‘We fought for years for strong student representation. We can’t just let that be swept away in one stroke.’

The students’ worries are not shared by everyone, however. The Central Staff Departments’ Council wants to see fewer students in the new central council, but to retain the current Student Council for matters that only concern students.
The representative bodies and the Executive Board are still discussing the proposal. The Executive Board wants to see the new council in position by September.