The council and the board of directors had been at odds on the issue for two months. The board says the institute is suffering from the persistent deficits and that there is no improvement in sight. Particle accelerator AGOR and some of the staff will therefore have to move to the UMCG, while the rest of the staff would join the Faculty of Science and Engineering.
But the faculty would only take over the astrophysics group and refused to promise to do the same for nuclear physics. This group therefore faced being made redundant. The university council refused to issue a positive recommendation as long as redundancies were still on the table.
Positive
RUG president Jouke de Vries said on Thursday that the UMCG responded ‘positively’ to the idea of taking over the research groups and the particle accelerator, and that the board is still in talks with FSE.
Bart Beijer with the personnel faction said he’s ‘happy with the direction this is taking’. ‘But that doesn’t mean we’re happy with the possible reorganisation. Any future social plan will have to do right by everyone involved.
Secretary Oscar Kuiken with KVI-CART’s employee council was relieved. ‘We weren’t so much worried about the reorganisation itself as we were about people possibly losing their jobs. We’re really happy that the board has promised that won’t happen.’