DENK wants to know whether the municipal executive is familiar with Cursor’s observations. The PvdA wonders whether TU/e actively informed the municipality of the cases of abuse at the university. Both parties ask the municipality about its role: shouldn’t it be more actively involved in order to solve these kinds of problems and to prevent them for occurring again in the future? That is why the municipality is urged to take action.

Design Academy

The questions didn’t relate exclusively to TU/e, the toxic climate at the Design Academy Eindhoven was addressed as well. Stories about misconduct at this institution have also been covered by several external media outlets, as have the stories published by Cursor. The PvdA wonders how it is possible that cases of misconduct at TU/e have come to light just one month after the municipality answered questions about the climate at the Design Academy. This while the municipality claimed at the time that it is currently unaware of any similar social issues at other applied sciences or research universities, Marjolein Senden of the PvdA says.

Not taken seriously

DENK also wants to know how students are informed about reporting procedures at their institution, and whether the municipality is aware of these procedures. DENK group chairman Adem Topdag refers to Marijke Naezer’s report on undesired behavior: “people who experience misconduct aren’t taken seriously and are even discouraged to file an official complaint,” according to point nine of DENK’s questions.

The municipal executive (B&W) is obliged to answer the questions in four weeks’ time at the latest. Cursor will publish an update as soon as the answers become publicly available.