Hugo Bezombes, Bachelor's student of Sustainable Innovation and poised to become the first international leader of a student faction on the University Council, is very happy with the outcome for his Groep-één. In the movie theater of De Zwarte Doos, where yesterday afternoon the results were announced, he runs through the lists, his hands trembling. Beside him stands former faction leader Erik van Heijst, who after eighteen months will be leaving the University Council, and who is very pleased that a good start with five seats awaits Bezombes.

The latter was nonetheless very anxious, he says, about how his party, for which he already sits on the council, had done. Well, it seems. Groep-één gains another seat, bringing them to five seats, which is more seats than the ESR (two) and DAS (two) combined have won. That he now becomes the first international to actually lead a faction is of no added significance to Bezombes, but he does hope that it will inspire other internationals at TU/e to get more involved in the co-determination process. “Because aside from being internationals, first and foremost we are students.”

Contact with grassroots

Bezombes praises the efforts made by his campaign team, which spent days promoting the cause on campus. With this success he hopes that his party can go even further in the coming year in implementing the points put forward during the campaign. But of even greater importance, he feels, is the need to maintain contact throughout that year with the party's grassroots, the student community. “That is an essential task for all the parties on the University Council, but at the same time one of the most difficult,” says Bezombes.

His words carry an implicit reference to the low turnout at these elections. This time round only 31.6 percent of students voted. According to Andy van Eggelen, chair of the Central Electoral Committee, the turnout is always that bit lower in the year in which votes are cast only for the student delegations. But even he has to admit that when these elections were last held alone, in 2016, the turnout was higher (41 percent).

This is also an ongoing trend in the elections to the Departmental Councils, as Van Eggelen informs us. Even at that bastion of voting Chemical Engineering and Chemistry the turnout this year fell below the 50 percent mark: 45.5 percent. And at Mechanical Engineering only 20 percent took the trouble to vote for their candidate on the Departmental Board.

Disappointed

Jobert Zoetbrood, faction leader of the ESR, says his party members “are naturally disappointed about the lost seat. But this loss does not in any way mean that we will work less diligently to realize our objectives. After all, there are still very many students who support our standpoints.”

Zoetbrood finds it difficult to say what caused the low turnout. ”I think that we and the other factions would do well to analyze this together, given that we must prevent the turnout falling any further in the coming years.”

Upward trend

The leader of DAS Eindhoven, Charlot Felderhof, says that her party had certainly expected to hold on to the seats it gained last year. "This year we have grown in terms of the number of votes cast for us and hopefully we can sustain this upward trend in the coming years. With their five seats, Groep-één can probably do more work than we can with two seats, but the overarching aim we share is to improve certain things at our university. And as long as Groep-één is also managing to do that, we are happy."

Felderhof mentions this as being one of the most important aspects of sitting on the University Council: "cooperating with the other factions. Last year we saw that we achieve more when we do this well."

Like others, Felderhof finds it difficult to comment on the falling turnout percentage. "Perhaps it's because in recent years more students have come to TU/e and many first-years don't yet know what exactly the elections for the University Council involve. For the rest, the 'silent majority' isn't yet sufficiently interested in what the University Council does; most people are mainly concerned with the number of credits they are accumulating."