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Foto: Danny Schwarz
international

Tariq Sewbaransingh elected as LSVb chairman

Willem van Ewijk,
12 april 2017 - 14:18

Tariq Sewbaransingh, former UvA political science student and president of the UvA student council, has been elected as chairman of the national students’ union, LSVb. Tariq follows Stefan Wirken and Jarmo Berkhout as the union’s third UvA affiliated chairman in succession.

Sewbaransingh’s candidacy was confirmed last Saturday at a special meeting of the LSVb general assembly. He will officially succeed Jarmo Berkhout this summer.

 

During the occupation of the Maagdenhuis in 2015 – an uprising of the student population in reaction to the university’s budget cuts to the humanities – Sewbaransingh, then president of the student council, refused to confront the UvA board while his predecessor, Jarmo Berkhout, was known as one of the most prominent figures amongst student activist groups. During his term as chairman of the LSVb, however, Berkhout had played more of a restrained role: one that positioned LSVb as more of a lobby group for students rather than the activist platform it once was.

 

Pot of gold

In an interview with Folia, the newly elected union chair Sewbaranshing says his role will not be much different to that of Berkhout’s. ‘We have to question the status quo,’ Sewbaransingh says. He says he will closely follow the negotiations for a new coalition government and that his priority is to improve students the financial position of students. With the abolishment of basic grants two years ago, students now have to lend money from the government in order to finance their studies.

 

‘This impedes students from pursuing their studies at university,’ Sewbaransingh says. ‘Education is not a pot of gold for politicians to suddenly “discover” when making budget cuts.’

 

Sewbaransingh (1992) studied political science at the UvA and is now pursuing a master’s degree in Administration and Organisation Science at Utrecht University.