UvA power centre shifts further from Maagdenhuis to Roeterseiland Campus
UvA staff from the Administration & Administrative Staff, Communications Office and Accommodation Development departments will move from the Maagdenhuis to the Roeterseiland Campus (REC) in 2027. As a result, the Maagdenhuis will lose even more of its status as the UvA’s centre of power.
After the last major occupation of the Maagdenhuis in 2015, the then new Executive Board, led by Geert ten Dam, decided to move into the sixth floor of REC-D on the Roeterseiland Campus (REC). A kind of “branch” remained on Spui, but the UvA’s top brass have been based at REC ever since. Now, a number of other staff departments currently located in the Maagdenhuis will also be moving there. The UvA has announced an investigation into how the relocation of these departments can be realised: in the coming period, it will be determined which location(s) at REC are suitable for the departments that will be leaving the Maagdenhuis.
Occupations
In the past, the argument for leaving the Maagdenhuis was always that staff and management should be “closer to the primary process”, i.e. education and research, in order to be more aware of what is “going on” within the UvA community. Another factor that always played a role in the background was that the building – owned by the UvA since the early 1960s – was a symbol of power and powerlessness and could never be a neutral building from which the UvA was governed: the building was occupied several times by students demanding more democracy. Highlights included the occupations of 1969 and 2015.
Budget cuts
In addition, the building was and still is extremely expensive in terms of sustainability and energy consumption. The latter is once again the reason for ordering the removal vans. In a statement, the UvA said: “The move will result in joint savings on accommodation costs and contribute to the UvA’s sustainability and savings targets set out in the strategic accommodation plan.”
The search for the right location for the departments to be relocated within REC will be carried out by the university secretary and the director of finance, planning & control. And so the administrative centre of the UvA will – even more so than now – increasingly be moved to the Roeterseilandcampus. It may well be that the Maagdenhuis will gradually become emptier, until the UvA may finally decide to sell the building.
