“The majority of the Joint Assembly has spoken”
Noah Pellikaan’s opinion piece gives the impression that the Joint Assembly (GV) of the Central Works Council (COR) and the Central Student Council (CSR) would not have agreed to the budget. That is indeed the case, argues Charlotte Hille, vice chair of the Joint Assembly.
Terms like “bad governance” and the “sidelining” of democracy, which Noah Pellikaan mentions in the title of his opinion article, are out of place in a process that included, on the basis of equality, frequent exchanges with the Executive Board about the 2024 annual budget.
In his opinion article, Pellikaan appears to be speaking on behalf of the GV, but that is not the case. He is speaking on behalf of himself or as chair of the CSR. The GV agreed to the 2024 Framework Letter last December. The discussion on the draft budget was then still in progress within the GV.
The agreement to the Framework Letter is about the main outline of the budget, as stipulated by law. According to the UvA Board, the draft budget contained no changes to the budget outlines that had been approved by the GV. With its four breaking points in the draft budget, the GV could not convince the Executive Board that the main points had indeed changed and would require new approval.
The Executive Board then treated the breaking points mentioned by Pellikaan as (negative) advice and gave the GV four weeks to consider them. Pellikaan describes many considerations as to why the GV did not subsequently challenge this point. The Executive Board adopted the 2024 Budget in mid-March, taking into account the advice and the GV’s approval of the budget outline.
Let it be clearly stated that the members of the COR also consider the free provision of menstrual products to be very important. Discussions are currently ongoing with the UvA administration about this, which is receptive to this topic. Therefore, the breaking points put forward by Pelican do act as advice. This is how the GV’s approval of the UvA’s annual budget came about. In doing so, the majority of the GV spoke.
Charlotte Hille is associate professor of political science, deputy chair of the COR, and vice chair of the Joint Assembly of the COR and the CSR.
