Rector Jan Smits had taken up the concerns of student council members about Tragos and Circumflex a few weeks ago, in a limited committee discussing the determination and allocation for the budget of the administrative months. Wouter Bogers, representative for DOPE, and Bram van den Berkmortel, representative for Lex, asked critical questions about the memorandum which stated that no UM finances would be reserved to cover the financial compensation for extra tuition costs as a result of the delay incurred by board members for both associations.
In April 2025, the ties between UM and the associations Tragos and Circumflex were suspended, after multiple reports of incidents during hazing. In a statement, the university said it was through with “papering over the cracks” and announced it would launch an investigation into the conduct with all the student associations. As a consequence, Tragos and Circumflex were not permitted to submit an application for administrative months and no money has been ‘reserved’ in case those ties are restored, Bogers argued in the U-Council committee. Van den Berkmortel: “This creates a very strange situation.” The rector promised to “look into it”. It won’t be clear until after the summer whether relations between the university and the associations have improved. The Executive Board will then present the results of the investigation into the conduct.
On Wednesday, 24 June, during the plenary meeting of the U-Council – at which the rector himself was not present and a vote was set for the allocation of the administrative months – president Pamela Habibović was quick to assuage any concerns. If the ties with Tragos and Circumflex are restored, then they will be allowed to apply for administrative months later. “Although we will have to look into the exact procedure, as this is an exceptional situation.”
Circumflex chair Jasper Gielen’s appearance during the public round ahead of the meeting will not have been entirely coincidental. He regretted that the ties had been suspended and hoped they would swiftly be restored, citing the importance of Circumflex to the students, the city and the university. Although Gielen was very diplomatic, between the lines, he made it clear that UM’s investigation (into how to deal with student associations) had taken a long time. Too long, because Circumflex had expected (and wanted) clarity sooner about how to proceed and under what conditions. He said that specific examples of how the boundaries of physical safety and personal integrity had been crossed, which the university had reported in April 2025 and cited as their reason to suspend the ties, have as yet still not been shared.
“It had to be carefully carried out,” Habibović responded about the time it took to investigate. “It was not just about incidents at Tragos and Circumflex, we also wanted to look at other student associations.”