Follow-up on social safety within the UG

On 25 April, we continued the conversation that we started on 22 March with a delegation of concerned students (CS) about improving social safety within the University of Groningen (UG). We met with them around noon. We regret that it was not possible to have an open and constructive dialogue together on how to further improve social safety at the UG. As agreed during the meeting on 22 March, both parties would provide input for the conversation. The CS delegation started the conversation with a non-negotiable demand that Susanne Täuber should be reinstated at the UG. Based on privacy laws and the codes of conduct that our university adheres to, we do not want and cannot talk about individual situations of students or employees. In response, the CS delegation indicated they did not wish to continue the conversation.

Of course, we remain open to continuing the conversation again, as we also do and continue to do with the democratically elected students and staff of the University Council and student representatives. For example, student parties in the University Council have already made concrete proposals to further improve social safety and these have been positively received by the Board of the University. We will continue to inform everyone about additional activities undertaken by the UG, such as the recently launched Social Safety campaign.

The Board of the University of Groningen,
Jouke de Vries
Cisca Wijmenga
Hans Biemans