[The following was sent as a postscript to the open letter previously written to the ReThink UvA/FdR mailing list. It is reproduced here with the author’s permission.]

In a more democratic university, a call for resignation of the board would amount to – or be phrased as – a call for elections. The election of the new board would take place either directly or indirectly, via the elected University Council. In such a system, it would be entirely natural for members of the outgoing administration to seek re-election. Each of them would have to make a choice as to whether to stand for re-election with the same team or in a (partly) new composition. They could vindicate their achievements (‘we liberated the Maagdenhuis’, ‘we stood strong in difficult times’). Their supporters could rally behind them. And the petition in favour of the current CvB, that was launched yesterday, would just be the start of their election campaign. We would then be in a situation of ordinary university politics. And there would be nothing shameful about taking either side in the debate on the political and administrative merits of the current board. Nor would those supporting the re-election of the present incumbent of the Maagdenhuis, for that reason alone, be considered to care more about the university’s reputation than their opponents. On the contrary, disagreement on these matters and debate – sometimes fierce – is what one would expect in a more democratic university.