Both the university and the hospital have been facing the threat of budget cuts for quite some time. In an effort to make both institutions more resilient for the future, a plan was put forward for a single integrated board, explained UM President Pamela Habibović. The meeting was for information only; unlike the University Council – which voted against the plans a week earlier – the Local Consultative Body, where trade union representatives meet with the university’s Executive Board, does not have the right to approve or reject the plans.
Sleepless nights
Regarding the urgency of the plans, Habibović told the Local Consultative Body that the national debate on the Internationalisation in Balance Act has been keeping her up at night. “What if all bachelor’s programmes have to be taught in Dutch? We would have to close.” With a new government in power, the immediate danger seems to have passed, “but nothing is more unpredictable than politics”. Habibović is not convinced that UM is now in calmer waters, although “I certainly hope we are”. The hospital, meanwhile, will still face budget cuts: “There will be healthcare cuts. There is also talk of concentrating academic healthcare. The urgency is still there.”
Social safety
Questions were also raised about social safety in the hospital. An organisational culture survey last December revealed serious problems: distrust, a sense of insecurity, exclusion, fear of repercussions for voicing criticism, distant leadership. “It’s such a contrast with UM, which has already made so much progress in this area”, says Roy van Kessel, a Local Consultative Body member representing the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV). “When you see that the current hospital board – which has been aware of these issues for years – is still in place, and the only board member who stepped down was hired as an adviser on the very day the University Council rejected the plans, you wonder: how is this possible? How does this affect public perception?”
Habibović called it positive that a thorough investigation has been conducted. And the hospital, she pointed out, is not some entirely separate entity from the university: “Many of our staff work there too. And yes, there are cultural differences, but integration gives us the opportunity to help change that.” Regarding the hospital’s former financial board member, now acting as an adviser to that board, she said, “It’s not for us to comment on. We don’t know all the details, and the advisory role was already mentioned back in December.”
Closed doors
Habibović emphasised that – contrary to what some have suggested – many people have been involved in the process, and “we really tried to bring people together”. But that isn’t how the university community sees it, said Carijn Beumer, a Local Consultative Body member representing the General Education Union (AOb). “A lot of people felt they were not involved in developing the plans. Much of it happened behind closed doors. In January, the plans were shared on paper, and the University Council was expected to make a decision less than two months later.”
“We have five thousand staff members; not all were involved. Could they have been? I doubt it”, Habibović responded. “Also, to have a proper discussion, there first has to be something concrete to discuss. That is what we have now presented. I genuinely don’t see how it could have been done differently. The perception that this was a top-down process is unfortunate. And the suggestion that we forced this down people’s throats is simply not true.” As for the tight deadline, “We didn’t set it. Other bodies asked for more time and were given it.”
Financial paragraph
The final question was about the financial paragraph of the plans. “That part wasn’t shared, which raised suspicions”, one member noted. Jan-Tjitte Meindersma, vice-president of the university’s Executive Board: “We deliberately didn’t make it public because it contains sensitive information about both parties. It has, however, been shared with the representative bodies. But we see there is a demand for it. Once we know how the process will continue, we may have to make it public after all – but without the sensitive information.”