In 2004, they handed out blue umbrellas – the university’s colour – printed with “Maastricht weer de beste”, a nod to yet another high ranking in the Dutch university guide KeuzeGids. Professor of General and Dutch Literature Wiel Kusters, the university poet, contributed a verse to the accompanying letter from the Executive Board:
“UM is rather baffled
By all the praise it’s had
And hands out gifts to everyone
Just in case things might turn bad.
For when complaints begin to rain,
You’ll be glad of this umbrella again.”
It was the early 2000s. Zwarte Piet was not yet considered a controversial issue at UM. On the contrary, the small group of staff members dressed in colourful costumes, their faces painted black, was given a warm welcome in university buildings in the years Observant reported on it. It was uncomplicated fun – with the classic threat that anyone who’d been naughty that year would get a one-way trip to Spain.
The tradition was retired in 2010, wrote Observant, after the Secretary’s Office of the Executive Board could no longer organise it. Around the same time, the nationwide debate around Sinterklaas’s helpers grew increasingly heated. In 2014 the activist group Kick Out Zwarte Piet publicly denounced the stereotypical and racist character, while supporters insisted Zwarte Piet was a harmless, child-friendly folkloric figure.
The debate polarised the country, but in Maastricht, things remained fairly quiet for a while. That changed in early 2020, when Maastricht Students Against Zwarte Piet presented a petition to the Executive Board. Then-rector Rianne Letschert only promised that the university would warn international students that they might encounter Zwarte Pieten in the city during the Sinterklaas season. She also made it clear that Pieten would no longer appear inside university buildings.
But a few months later, on 10 June 2020, the Executive Board issued a statement leaving no room for doubt: Zwarte Piet is a racist character with no place in UM’s diverse and inclusive environment. Bye-bye Zwarte Piet.