SOG demands Lijst Calimero apologise

Student faction SOG is demanding an apology from their competitor Lijst Calimero. ‘You caused panic’, said SOG president Alexander van ‘t Hof during a University Council meeting.

Lijst Calimero organised a petition protesting against master’s selection and collected 1,343 signatures from students who do not want the university to create barriers for the degree programmes. But SOG says the campaign by Lijst Calimero has done damage to the student community.

‘Your petition has harmed students’ rights. It is lacking in background info and a clear foundation. By throwing around made-up facts and fairy tales, you have in no way contributed to properly informing students’, Van ‘t Hof said in his attack on the faction.

Interview

SOG also criticised interviews Lijst Calimero gave about the petition. In a conversation with Vroeg op Noord, Lijst Calimero’s chair allegedly said that the master’s selection also applied to current bachelor’s students. These students supposedly had five months left to get their grades up. But according to Van ‘t Hof, that is incorrect. ‘The RUG has no such plans.’

Calimero president Nathalie Niehof was unpleasantly surprised by SOG’s criticism. ‘Students were asking us what we were going to do about the plans for master’s selection. We asked ourselves: are we going to silently sit back in the University Council, or are we going to take action? We think it’s important to show that this is important to people. We started the petition to bolster the students’ position in this discussion. We didn’t cause panic; we never said that the current students only have five months left. We tried to engage in a discussion.’

Niehof does not understand why SOG attacked the student faction. ‘I think it’s really weird. They’re undermining the students’ position for the upcoming discussion with the Board of the university next month. It’s just weird, because we both want to cast a critical eye on master’s selection rather than it being implemented just like that.’

25-03-2016