During the break, over thirty people are sitting in a room in the Luna building. It is a mix of students and employees, and Fontys is also there. "Next week more than 25,000 people have protested against the cuts since we started in March. There is still one university to pick a date," said Bernard Koekoek of the FNV. “Today we are going to pick a date for the TU/e community and brainstorm on how to mobilize more people.”

The date for the strike was quickly chosen with a head count in the room. The vast majority are in support of April 23. “But we need more people,” says Koekoek.

Mobilize

Then there is a brainstorm on how to get as many people on their feet as possible. TU/e's alumni office is present and will send out mails, as will the Eindhoven School of Education. The student associations are approached and a pabo student from Fontys will visit all the classrooms to activate his fellow students.

Student Lieke van der Zee, organizer of the meeting, is pleased with today's turnout, counting about 30 attendees. "This is twice as many as the previous session. I also see some new faces." She will now focus on reaching as many students and employees as possible. “The idea is for everyone to mobilize as many people as possible in their own network and for people who attend this action meeting to join our Whatsapp community and come up with their own ideas about who we can reach.”

In what form the strike will take place is not yet known; the activists are still going to think about that.

The relay strike

This action is part of a nationwide relay strike. This involves various higher education institutions across the country taking turns putting down work for a day. They are doing this to protest the 1.3 billion cuts in education and science. The strike began on March 10 in Leiden and has already taken place in seven other cities. Eindhoven will be the second last to join the strike. Delft will finish. 

Demonstrations against the planned cuts also took place at the end of last year. That led to a reduction of 748 million in the planned budget cuts. Also, the long study penalty got off the the table.