What is SOG?

The University Council (UC) is the highest organ that represents both students and staff at RUG. It works closely with the Board of University (CvB) to help shape important strategies and policies. The UC has 24 elected members—12 students and 12 staff—who make sure the voices of the university community are heard by reviewing and questioning the Board’s decisions. The staff members are chosen once every two years and consist of two factions: the Personnel Faction with nine seats and the Science Faction with three seats. The student members get chosen every year and currently consist of three factions: SOG with three seats, Calimero with six seats, and De Vrije Student (DVS) with two seats. In the upcoming elections, student and staff seats will be chosen.

University council works in monthly cycles. Parts of this cycle are the committee meetings, internal council, and the plenary University Council.

In the first week, you receive the required documents. In the second week, you can ask questions about these documents during the committee meetings. In the third week, you can discuss your stances with the other factions during the Internal Council. Finally, in the fourth week, the official University Council will be held with everybody from the factions and Board present. This is a formal meeting in which decisions are being taken. Normally, all the agenda points have mostly been discussed in the previous meetings, supposedly making the official Council more streamlined. However, this doesn’t have to be the case, and therefore Council can take up most of the day.

The meetings of the committees and the Council are public and take place in the large meeting room of the Board’s building at the Muurstraat. Everyone is welcome to come by anytime you want, but there is limited space to attend physically. Therefore the council meetings are also live-streamed, and the meeting documents are publicly accessible.