“The video violates SBE’s core values”, says dean Mariëlle Heijltjes when asked. “There are a number of anti-female texts in the video. We do see that it is sarcasm, but the Lions operate under the SBE flag,” That anti-female aspect is the reason why her predecessor, whom she supports in this, wanted it to be removed.
According to the chairman of the Maastricht Lions, Felipe Herting, it is all a matter of miscommunication. “Probably the result of the change of board members; both in our case and the faculty’s.” Until two weeks ago, he didn’t even know that the agreement existed. “I do know that there was a discussion about that video at the time, but I was told that the agreement was that we submit our new, yearly 'spirit video' to the faculty board before we put it online. We will do that. If the demand is that we remove the video, we will do so.” Why hasn’t that happened in the past two weeks? “Our association is very busy at the moment with preparations for the WHU Euromasters, a large sports business conference. When we return, we will discuss it with the former board, but I don’t think removing the video will be a big problem.”
There is a total of 1,728 grants, each worth 320 euro, to be divided up this academic year. The money compensates student board members for the study delay they incur due to board work. More than six hundred of these grants go to the faculties, which subsequently divided them internally. SBE awarded four board grants (1,280 euro) to the Maastricht Lions before the summer, on condition that they would remove the video ‘Orange, Black and Blue’ from their website, YouTube and other social media.