Meet Sven Alkemade (Connect Wageningen) and Wim Verhagen (D66). Alkemade thinks that students are not heard nearly enough. ‘The municipality mainly looks at WUR’s board. Students and student associations are barely involved’, he says. According to Verhagen, the situation is not that bad. His party does listen to students.
Not enough students
It is especially Connect Wageningen that holds the opinion that students are not heard enough in the politics of Wageningen. If it were up to them, there would be more WUR students on the council. Political parties should also be more active in involving students. Most other parties think that Connect is exaggerating. They say they do listen to students.
Every party would like to make use of WUR’s knowledge. But the extent to which this is already being done is up for debate. The municipality already is a recurring client for courses such as Academic Consultancy Training, in which students try to solve a societal issue. According to the Stadspartij, we should not think that all WUR knowledge is directly applicable.
More about the municipal elections:
Municipal elections: pleading for fast bicycle roads or paid parking (video)
Municipal elections: build for students and starters (video)
Students want to join Wageningen municipal council on 21 March (video)
Growing university an issue in local elections: Is WUR taking up too much space?