Although the Council has no objection to the Board continuing to organize new services and faculties, it refuses to formally agree with the reorganization plans. The Council feels that the financial and personal consequences of the implementation of the plan are not clear enough and that the local participation in the new agreement has not yet been settled. The Board tried to persuade the Council members to consent to the plans by reading a five-page statement in last week's Council meeting. However, the Board's promises to explicitly involve the Council in the implementation process, which were included in this statement, turned out to be insufficient for the Council.
The Council's counterproposal, to give service department directors and deans until December to create accurate implementation and personnel plans, was unacceptable to the Board: 'It is impossible to defend a delayed decision from the point of view of personnel policy and operational management. Any delay will lead to a greater exhaustion of the university's liquid assets, a greater dependency on external financing and an increase of the capital costs. In our view, this is the only reasonable decision,' the Executive Board said in its statement.
According to Rector Frans van Vught, the University Council leaves the Executive Board no choice but to report the situation to the national Arbitration Board: 'We hate to do this, but it's the only way. We will be willing to confer with the Council at any time, but we've been talking with the Council for months now. This is not bringing us any closer to an agreement, while we feel that there is quite a lot of support for this process in the university.'
Van Vught expects a pronouncement from the Arbitration Board 'in a couple of weeks.' 'But it is obvious that that we would prefer the Council's consent. We can always retract the report to the Arbitration Board.' said Van Vught.
Dick Meijer, chairman of the University Council, was surprised by the Board's move. He contests that there is a formal dispute, because the Council's recommendation concerning the reorganization plans has not even been sent to the Board. According to Meijer, the involvement of the Arbitration Board is unique in this country, especially in this phase of the process.
