Update about removal of alumni workshop policy (short version)
On the first of April a message was posted about the removal of the use of workshops by alumni. We posted a statement on our website and dedicated a part of our zine to this topic, where we expressed our concern and anger. As a Student Union, we took issue with both the removal of services that are essential to young graduates who were promised this and the bad communication from the HKU regarding the removal. For our full statement, click here.
On the 10th of April we sent an email to the CvB expressing our concern, articulating why we disagreed with their decision. The removal of the policy seems to go against the HKU’s vision of creating a future proof community for its alumni completely. It will also affect (international) students who have a disproportional (financial or other) disadvantage. This email can be read in full here(all our communication with the CvB is in Dutch, we have translated it ourselves).
We got a response that our email was received by an assistant of the CvB, that it was forwarded to the CvB and also to the manager of the workshops of the HKU. We would not get an actual response from them until the 26th of May, more than six weeks later. After sending our email to the CvB on April 10th, we started working on creating a petition to collect people’s thoughts about the removal of the alumni policy. 327 people responded, all but 3 respondents agreed that the alumni policy must not be removed. We also received many insightful replies expressing how the removal of the policy has impacted their choices during their degree at HKU.
Second Email
On April 25th, we sent the CvB a reminder of our e-mail. That same day, another message was posted on Studentportal: ‘Transitional arrangement for use of HKU workshops by alumni’ (which can be read here. The ‘transitional arrangement’ that is mentioned, allows HKU students who are currently in their final year to still use the workshops next year if they graduate. The Student Union thinks that this is not sufficient, the policy removal must be completely reversed according to us. (Prospective) students of all degrees in different degrees were promised use of the workshops as alumni. It seems that The CvB is throwing us a bone, doing a small concession without actually resolving the problem.
On May 22nd, we had still not received a response from the CvB. We sent another email urging them to respond, you can read it here. In this message, we clearly listed our demands from the CvB and requested sources for the laws on which their decision is supposedly based. The demands are: the complete reversal of the decision to remove the alumni rule, a clear, written explanation as to why the rule was removed, with sources. We also demanded clearer and quicker communication from the CvB to students.
Response from CvB
Finally, four days later, on May 26th, we got a response from the CvB. Six weeks after our initial email, they sent this. We find their long awaited response extremely disappointing; it seems to be only repeating the messages on Studentportal and emphasizing the sadness the members of the CvB feel for ending the alumni policy. The long response time and the excuse they give for this, is also unacceptable to us. It seems to be a signifier for the lack of care the CvB demonstrates to the HKU student body. None of the demands in our previous email were mentioned, let alone met. The list of the alternative workshops is also mentioned, we have told them it is incomplete and not at all comparable to the HKU facilities. We responded to this email on June 2nd, you can read it here.
In our email we also informed the CvB of an activity we will organize. And invited them to come join us. Find more information about the session on our calendar
On Tuesday the 17th of June we will do a session to collect and bundle our thoughts to give to the CvB. We have invited the CvB to come and receive the book that we will create together. This will take place at HKU Nieuwekade at 16:00-18:00.
On 10 June we recieved another email from the CvB. They anounced that we are welcome to host our session on Nieuwekade. The CvB is willing to recieve a delegation of the Union to hand over the book and to go in conversation with the CvB and the Director of the Workshops. We are glad to hear that the CvB will be present to recieve us. However, we find it dissapointing that again, the CvB is only willing to go into conversation with representatives, instead of our entire group. We sent another email that we are willing to join the meeting, but we also urge them to go into conversation with the whole group.
