Possible mediation in CSR’s conflict with the Executive Board
Now that the Central Student Council (CSR) has withdrawn its confidence in the Executive Board, the question arises of how to proceed with the participation process. A mediation process may be forthcoming.
To be clear, according to the rules, the CSR and the Central Works Council (COR) meet jointly once a month, a so-called “GV.” There they discuss (policy) decisions that the Executive Board jointly submits to them for information, advice, or approval.
But half of the GV - namely the CSR - no longer recognizes the UvA board. The GV is also chaired – in accordance with the rules - by the chair of the CSR. That is Noah Pellikaan, but he does not recognize the current Executive Board.
Decision-making is deadlocked
“It’s a complicated situation,” says Charlotte Hille of the COR. She is normally vice chair of the GV, but was acting chair during Pellikaan’s detention. “First of all, let me say that the COR has confidence not just in the Executive Board, but also in the CSR, so that’s not where the problem lies. But as GV we can now only meet informally. We can discuss current dossiers, but cannot make formal decisions as long as the student section of the GV (the CSR) has withdrawn its confidence in the Executive Board. Many dossiers have a deadline. We can push those back somewhat, but at some point, the GV needs to decide on them since otherwise the whole decision-making process within the UvA gets bogged down.”
“We are still working efficiently and successfully with the COR on a large number of issues,” says CSR chair Pellikaan. “As for sending advice to the CvB, we have discussed it extensively and decided that the GV will not organize formal meetings with the CvB or send advice or consent to the CvB until trust between the CSR and the CvB is restored or the CvB resigns.”
Mediation
There seems to be no question of the latter at present, especially since new College President Edith Hooge has only been in office for 10 days. Restoration of trust would be a possibility, Pellikaan said. This could mean mediation. Pellikaan says: “The CSR has sent a letter to both the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board stating that we are open to mediation and are currently looking for a suitable mediator. At the same time, we continue to call for the Executive Board to resign but are open to dialogue.”
Letter from rectors
Meanwhile, last weekend a letter from the 15 Dutch rectors magnifici appeared in the newspaper Trouw stating that as far as they are concerned, terminating cooperation with Israel is not an option. Pellikaan believes that the rectors are throwing oil on the fire with their letter.
“The rectors are taking a stand to protect the academic freedom of individual researchers. The CSR has repeatedly informed the UvA’s Executive Board that severing ties refers only to institutional and financial ties, not to work between individual researchers. And none of the research projects the UvA is collaborating on should be complicit in what the International Court of Justice calls ‘plausible genocide’ of the Palestinian people. The letter shows that the rectors did not understand the demands of the protesters and did not listen to their co-determination bodies.”
Pellikaan finds it “extremely disturbing” that the rectors issued a statement with didactic and moral implications “without consulting their elected co-determination bodies or ethics committees.”
