‘Students complain about everything’
Today is the first of May, although you might be forgiven for thinking it’s April Fool’s day: a new party will participate in the University of Groningen’s student elections in June, called the “Party against the Student”.
Confusingly, the party thinks that there is too much nagging at the university, that there is too much participation, and that there are far too many angry students walking around in Groningen. The evidently non-angry grouping, that is standing for election in the middle of thesis deadlines and exams, is annoyed at ‘students who complain about everything’, and think that students should simply do what they came to do in Groningen: study. As reported by the GIC.
The Party against the Student is taking part in the elections for the University Council of the University of Groningen for the first time this year.
Indeed, the party thinks that nothing should get in the way of students learning: “If students have nothing else to do but study, then they’ll also stop worrying about their busy agendas, and really learn something. You’ll see the student-psychologists get a lot quieter”, said Henk Zegel, who will sit atop the party’s list.
If you feel that you require any mental health support, make sure to contact both your GP and the student counselling/psychologist service, or your study advisor.
A ’69 point’ programme
The party believes that various lingering problems at the 405-year-old university should finally be seriously addressed. “In recent years, fighting for transparency and democracy has been absurd. University leaders must be allowed to govern and we must keep it that way and strengthen it. The Coronavirus crisis confirms this again, if everything had to go through student participation bodies, the uncertainty would have been even greater. ” says Zegel. “Students always have something to complain about, about decision-making, about farewell parties or about their education. We have had enough of that!” continues Zegel.
The party has presented its manifesto: “69 Points against the Student”. In the manifesto they touch upon 69 problems they encountered during their student days and they explain how they can be rectified.
So, instead of a fair salary for PhD students, the party puts nominal study should become the norm from now on. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it thinks that self-development and intellectual progress should also be halted, and are contributing to this themselves. Naturally, the reason given is because nothing should disrupt study progress.
The creation of the party has its origins in a common dislike of angry students in recent years. “Shouldn’t all those angry screams and calls for public participation go to college?” the party wonders.
Despite the name, the party desperately needs student support to achieve its goals and change the system from the inside out.
Party leader Zegel: “We have to do it together. Together against the student. So we hope that between 8 and 12 June we can count on sufficient support for a place on the council.”
Image: a still from trailer for the 1957 movie ‘Twelve Angry Men’. Via Wikimedia. Public-realm.
