The Bungehuis and Maagdenhuis occupations were a protest occupation movement at first the Bungehuis Building of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) by a group of students and a staff-member, referring to themselves as The New University (for a democratic university), and then the Maagdenhuis Building of the UvA, its administrative center. The Bungehuis occupation lasted 11 days, from February 13 to February 24, 2015, and the Maagdenhuis occupation (2015) began on the evening of February 25 and lasted until April 11.
Background
Beginning in November 2014, UvA announced planned cuts in programs in the face of budget issues. In the proposed restructuring, called "Profiel 2016" (Profile 2016), the School of Humanities was especially hard hit, with resources being focused on career-oriented majors. In early February 2015, Dutch newspaper Het Parool reported that UvA would be eliminating several degree programs in the Humanities faculty. Chief among the programs to be eliminated were various degree-level programs in individual modern languages. The university was also considering the consolidation of all remaining individual degree programs in Humanities (such as Philosophy, History, Dutch Literature and English Literature) into a single "Liberal Arts" degree program. University Dean Frank van Vree argued that the cuts were necessitated by falling student enrollment in recent years, calling for a "rigorous reorganization" of the Humanities faculty.
In reaction to these ongoing developments, a student protest movement began in late 2014. The Humanities Rally group formed, composed of students and faculty members, and began a campaign of demonstrations and petitions to protest the announced changes.
Bungehuis occupation
On 4 February 2015, Het Parool published the leaked contents of the university's outline of Profiel 2016, the proposed roadmap to implement the austerity programs that had been discussed in the preceding months. Master's degree courses with fewer than 20 students would be eliminated, and only three PhD students would be supported at any given time. In reaction to this information, which was perceived as a complete rejection of the demands of the Humanities Rally protesters, dozens of students and staff-members under the name The New University, not necessarily affiliated with Humanities Rally, occupied the Bungehuis, the home of the Humanities Faculteit at UvA, on the morning of 13 February 2015.
The group's demands included:
Democratic election of the university board
Change of the allocation model: finance based on input, not on efficiency
Cancellation of the current Profiel 2016
Referendums per institute and programme about collaboration between the UvA and the VU at the FNWI (Department of the Sciences) Fixed contracts instead of flexible staff appointments An open debate about housing costs in relation to budget cuts of research and education and a cessation of real estate speculation (including a halt to the proposed sale of the Bungehuis building)
The occupiers stated that their intention was not to disrupt education, but rather to send a message to the University Board of Directors (the College van Bestuur or CvB). To that end, they prepared a schedule of alternate locations for all classes that were disrupted by the occupation. A group of PhD students did not believe this was done adequately. While making clear they supported the call for a democratic and autonomous university, they voiced their opposition to the occupation in a petition, citing the inhibiting of research due to it, caused by for example restricted access to the baby-lab. The occupiers called for open dialogue with the CvB to discuss the Profiel 2016 plans, but the CvB refused, instead instigating legal action to remove the protesters, partly motivated by the claims that research was being impeded by the occupation. The CvB initiated a lawsuit seeking a fine of €100,000 per day until the protesters vacated the building. The demand for such a high fine was seen as "heavy handed" by many faculty and staff of the university. Instead, the court ordered the protesters to pay €1,000 per day, up to a maximum of €25,000.
The occupation received significant support from within the UvA, staff, members of Parliament, public figures such as Freek de Jonge, and trade unions. A petition in support of the occupiers on the social media website Change.org has garnered over 7000 signatures, with signatories including Noam Chomsky, Jacques Rancière, Judith Butler, Axel Honneth, Simon Critchley, Jean-Luc Nancy, Saskia Sassen, James Tully and Johan Galtung.