It's that Thursday of the month again: the Uni-Council meeting with the Board! The Science Faction is in full attendance, the agenda is packed: it's go time! Follow along live at rug.my-meeting.nl for a meeting more spectacular than the Olympics.

Read our open letter to the Board on governance and faculty mergers. The Board likes to say there is no alternative. That leaves us with no alternative but to vote "no".

Today at 4pm, at the RCS faculty, a Break & Cake with your University Council representatives! Come complain and ask about the (reversed?)budget cuts, governance, faculty mergers, work pressure, or whatever you like. For the Science Faction, @therezalangeler.bsky.social will be present.

Happening today 4pm at Zernike: a Dialogue Session with the Board! Tell them directly what you think about the mergers and reorganizations they are planning. Science Faction University Council members @therezalangeler.bsky.social and @mseri.me will be there too!

🚨 Science Faction needs your input: the Arbeidsinspectie is coming to the RUG! The Dutch Labour Inspectorate is checking if we’ve improved on work pressure & social safety (especially leadership & discrimination). If not, the RUG could face fines.

In our latest blog post, Marcello Seri pulls back the curtain on what it is like serving on the University Council: the rewarding collaborations, the exhausting debates and the need to reach out to those directly affected by the Council and Board decisions. www.rug.nl/about-ug/org...

The University Council - including the whole Science Faction - just voted negatively on the budget for next year. In times of stringent budget cuts, it just wasn't good enough. Not good enough for our students, not good enough for our staff, not good enough for our university.

The institutional budget is up for discussion and a vote in the University Council RIGHT NOW. Get out your popcorn, because this could get interesting. 📺Live at rug.my-meeting.nl

The uni board wanted input on the new SSH governance. Our take? Harmonize without mergers & focus on a fair allocation model first. Read our full letter here: www.rug.nl/about-ug/org...

Our university’s AI governance structure needs an update, that’s clear. But let’s ensure it’s an upgrade, not a downgrade. Read the speech Marcello Seri gave in the University Council today here: www.rug.nl/about-ug/org...

Read Marcello Seri's council speech on the Groningen Engineering Centre on our blog! It should not be an institute driven only by the technical faculties, but by a broad range of disciplines te have added value. www.rug.nl/about-ug/org...

Our @therezalangeler.bsky.social currently speaking in the Uni Council on PhD wellbeing, holding the Board accountable on structural power imbalances between supervisors and PhDs. Watch live: rug.my-meeting.nl/Vergaderinge...

This week’s faction meeting: budget cuts, SSH governance, and PhD wellbeing. Because nothing says ‘fun’ like deciding who gets the short end of the stick!

Marcello Seri's first month in the University Council flew by; read about his experiences on our blog! Or, you know, his blog. We ain't jealous about page views.

The uni cuts top-ups and demands refunds from PhDs after their CSC scholarships were raised; yet some contracts don’t even tie top-ups to CSC amounts. Our @therezalangeler.bsky.social raised this with the board in committee yesterday; to be continued in plenary!

The board just dropped in the finance committee: 30 million in cuts still needed, equivalent to 300 FTE. Is this just more budgetary belt-tightening, or are these the first whispers of layoffs?

Our statement on the Board's deafening silence on the Gaza genocide sparked a fierce debate in the Council. Jouke de Vries' response was as weak as it was predictable. To be continued very soon.

Science Faction already gearing up for the next academic year! Had our first meeting with the team for the coming two years: Marcello Seri @mseri.me, Thereza Langeler @therezalangeler.bsky.social, Gerard Ritsema van Eck @gerardrve.com, and Guido Visman @guidovisman.bsky.social Enjoy the summer 🌞

Great strides last week at the Digital Sovereignty workshop. Support and scientific staff mapping out a 5-year roadmap together to get rid of big tech. Science Faction was happy to be there, let's keep pushing for a tech-savvy and autonomous uni! (And yes this is an extremely boring photo)

Finance Commission update: Our chair Guido Visman confronted the Board for trying to claw back millions in student volume funds from faculties - money meant to reduce unacceptable academic work pressure. We won't let central admin raid faculty budgets while staff burn out!

🎉 The government that despised higher education more than any in history has finally fallen! Here's hoping this means those devastating budget cuts get postponed first, then completely reversed into the vital science investments we desperately need.

Good to see the Board this time pro-actively supporting the strikes on the 10th of June! 🟥 Read the whole thing (employees only, login required): myuniversity.rug.nl/infonet/mede...

As @gerardrve.com notes in the article, The Science Faction exclusively uses Signal for communication. However, we have concerns about the Board deleting Signal groups used for crisis communications. Are these messages being archived elsewhere? Legal requirements mandate they should be preserved!

Although we're always busy in tiny incremental ways behind the scenes to make @rug.nl better, we decided to make one very visible change — our shiny new handle @sciencefaction.nl! *takes a bow* Science never sleeps, so it's back to the bureaucracy we go!

Our chair @guidovisman.bsky.social now speaking in the University Council on the new Camera Surveillance policy and the Data Protection Impact Assessment report on camera surveillance. Boring bureaucratic topics perhaps, but privacy is crucial for academic freedom!

Monday the election results, and now back in benches of the uni council!

The votes are in... Congratulations to @mseri.me Marcello Seri, @guidovisman.bsky.social Guido Visman, and @therezalangeler.bsky.social Thereza Langeler on winning a seat in the Uni Council! 🎉 Thanks to your votes, they can continue to fight for academics at the @rug.nl

Last day to vote! Introducing our top 3, kicking of with Gerard Ritsema van Eck @gerardrve.bsky.social, an assistant prof in technology law at the Law Faculty @rechten050.bsky.social His motto is simple: For Science! Read his full profile and go vote, while you still can ➡️ rug.nl/vote ⬅️

Meet our candidates! Francesco Maresca is Associate Prof Engineering Mechanics and Materials Science at FSE, and he's running for re-election! His motto: Serving our community by focusing on what matters: research and education! Go vote now, only two days left ➡️ rug.nl/vote ⬅️

Meet our candidates! Laura Bringmann is an associate prof at the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences. Her motto: People are irreplaceable, so let's cherish one another! Follow her at @bringmannlaura.bsky.social and go vote at rug.nl/vote 🗳️

Check out this excellent double interview in @ukrant.bsky.social for undecided voters still weighing their options. (Feel free to message us directly if you'd like some personal advice, though you might already have an idea what we'd suggest 😉)

Meet our candidates! @paapst.bsky.social from Law: "For a university where part-time employees are heard and valued just as much as full-time employees." @ritumbra.bsky.social from the UCG. "Where the mind is free, the future is fearless!" Full profiles and voting on rug.nl/vote 🗳️

Our support candidate Laurent Jensma was taking a bathroom break in the Bernoulliborg, when he was confronted with the highly mature sense of humour. It's all about timing, they say. So vote now! www.rug.nl/vote

The polling station is officially open, time to start voting for SCIENCE right now! Read our manifesto at www.wetenschapsfractie.nl, but more importantly: VOTE ➡️ www.rug.nl/vote ⬅️ VOTE

Flyers have arrived for the campaign! Children are really pleased about the highly mature sense of humour. And obviously anonymised, because the Science Faction values privacy!

Happy extra long funding application writing weekend everyone!

First one this morning in the room for a day of Committee meetings of the University Council, we are ready to go! ☕

The Dutch Senate today approved the disastrous budget cuts. We are deeply saddened by the impact this will have on the staff and students of universities in the Netherlands. 🟥 But more importantly: we came here to teach and fight the power. And we're all out of teaching funds.

De Flex-fabriek? De RUG-raket? De adaptieve academie? De haastige hersenfabriek? De Vries-versneller? ukrant.nl/prijsvraag-b...

If it walks and talks like a duck... It's probably a duck. Or, in this instance, a PhD who is eligible for full compensation and benefits. Shameful that the University and UMCG forced their own people to fight a legal battle for years simply to receive what they clearly earned.

And if you support the Science Faction, don't forget to include @wetenschapsfractie.bsky.social as well 😜

Our statement on the (way...) too narrow assignment that the board gives to the process supervisor for the SSH faculties reshuffle: "Se vogliamo che tutto rimanga come è, bisogna che tutto cambi!" But this assignment sets the supervisor at a disadvantage before he has even started.

And... We're live for the March council! 🍿Follow along with the live-stream at www.rug.nl/about-ug/org...

It's not all budget cuts and existential threats to academic freedom in the University Council. This morning: emails about exceptions in the voting procedures. Exciting stuff!

Op 25 maart behandelt de Eerste Kamer de OCW-begroting, inclusief de ongekende bezuinigingen op universiteiten. De gevolgen voor de maatschappij zijn enorm! Daarom roepen we op: DOE HET NIET! Stop de bezuinigingen op universiteiten! Help jij mee om onze boodschap te verspreiden? #DoeHetNiet ✋⛔

What a beautiful day of striking we had today! Let's hope we never have to again. #doehetniet

In the committee meeting this morning, we’ve got some more clarity on the small budget cuts and 'optimizations' proposed. That's great—but don’t be fooled! We’re still staring down a massive $48.7 million shortfall. More fundamental choices are needed!

Currently digging into the measures aimed at saving millions as we gear up for Thursday's committee meeting. Crucial to understand how these impact the faculties and services! Is this document truly incomprehensible, or are we just in desperate need of more coffee? (Spoiler: both)

🟥 The relay strikes begin at Dutch universities TODAY! 🟥 These budget cuts are destroying education. Every day, the damage is piling up, suffocating the future of knowledge, research, and the next generation. We STAND with our colleagues in Leiden! It’s time to fight back!