Executive Board: amount of cuts not too high

It is still unclear whether the university council is going to accept the Executive Board’s new cutbacks proposal on Friday. The various employee parties remain silent and the Board will not say anything about the closed meeting it had with the employee representatives on Monday. However, the parties would have different opinions on the new proposal.

Chairman of the Board Hein van Oirschot says that the Executive Board of Tilburg University has met the university council on all points, with the exception of Abvakabo’s doubts about the amount of cuts.  “According to union Abvakabo, 15 million euros is too much. We do not think so. We will stick to this amount, it is a good average”, Van Oorschot says.

Van Oorschot regrets all the commotion caused by the first cut proposal. “Emotions ran so high over the proposal because it was not well prepared. The faculties closed ranks against the service department. I regret that this led to a stronger ‘we-against-them’ attitude.”

Huub Dekkers, managing director of the service departments, says that the escalation of irritations was very cathartic. “I did not expect to win the first prize with the first proposal. We all have to economize. This continues to be a difficult task. It is normal that is causes tension in an organization with highly educated people. However, it also shows a great involvement of people. It is not something they accept just like that. Because of the cuts, tensions which were previously hidden are now on the table.” [FB/transl. YV]