“What will the budget cuts at Maastricht University look like? The University of Amsterdam is talking about €29 million in 2025, rising to €100 million by 2028. Leiden is cutting programmes and planning layoffs. Wageningen is talking about €80 million, and Rotterdam and Nijmegen are also tightening their belts. But here in Maastricht? Silence. And when we do hear something, it’s vague.”
True
The Observant editorial council, a group of UM staff and students who meet a few times per year to review the website and print newspaper, started off their meeting last Monday in a laid-back manner. Members praised the sex series, background articles and news coverage, as well as the print layout. However, they pointed out that the article leads – opening paragraphs – could be much shorter (true!), and the same goes for headlines that sometimes spill over multiple lines (also true).
Vagueness
Every editorial board meeting includes time to discuss new ideas, topics that have not yet been covered (and why) and potentially newsworthy issues. This time, the vagueness – or rather, the silence – surrounding the university’s 2025 budget and financial forecasts was a major source of frustration for several members. “I’m worried. My department is about to hire four PhD candidates. Can we even do that? Or will we have to let them go after a year? If we don’t hire them, we won’t have to fire them. There’s zero information coming from UM. What kind of amateurishness is this?” Another member chimed in, “Which budgets will be affected? And how big is the problem? Do an analysis and be transparent. Let us know what’s looming over our heads, like other universities are doing.”
Transparency
The suggestion that transparency might lead to unrest was quickly dismissed. The members agreed that it’s the uncertainty that’s causing stress. Why not bring in experts from within UM? The School of Business and Economics has plenty of them.
One member wondered if there even is something looming over our heads. “UM has large reserves. Maybe we can cover the funding shortfall but the Executive Board doesn’t want to go public with it.” Someone else put forward a different angle: what if this crisis – whose scale we don’t know – is being used to push through other changes, “like reshuffling programmes, under the motto ‘never waste a good crisis’?”
Closed doors
Observant has been working to get answers, but nearly every door has remained firmly shut. While budget cuts and parts of the budget for 2025 have been on the University Council’s agenda, discussions have so far taken place behind closed doors. No published documents, no public deliberation on what is arguably the most important issue of the year. The budget is set to appear on the U-Council’s public agenda this Wednesday, 20 November. But no relevant documents have been made available as of yet.
To be continued.