Starting from 1 February, Alexandra van Huffelen will be President of Radboud University and chair of the D66 political party. Should this prove to be problematic, she will resign the party chairmanship. This is stated in the contract she signed with Radboud University.

Can Alexandra van Huffelen combine her double role as President of the Executive Board and D66 party chair? That question was asked by the participational bodies during the Joint Assembly (GV) of last Monday.

Mere moments earlier, the Supervisory Board (RvT), the Executive Board’s employer, which was present for the occasion, had expressed its ‘delight’ at Van Huffelen’s appointment. Starting from February, the experienced politician will be the President of the Radboud University Executive Board. She will be succeeding Daniël Wigboldus, who is stepping down on 1 January.

However, Works Council member Wilma Philipse still had some questions about this dual role. Last month, on the day after it was announced that she would be taking office in Nijmegen, Van Huffelen was also appointed party chair of D66. Philipse wanted to know whether the time Van Huffelen would be devoting to D66 – estimated at around 16 to 20 hours a week – could be combined with full-time employment at the University. And whether measures should not be taken against political interference. Similar criticism was previously voiced in a Voxweb opinion piece by Professor Emeritus Paul Bovend’eert.

Clause in contract

At the Joint Assembly, Chair of the RvT, Mario van Vliet, offered the following explanation: ‘We’ve included a clause in her employment contract that states that if the RvT considers that the two positions cannot be combined, in terms of either time commitment or content of the position, the presidency of the Executive Board will become Alexandra van Huffelen’s main position.’ In that case, she will have to discontinue her party chairmanship, Van Vliet said.

‘It is common for administrators to hold ancillary positions for which they require permission from their employer’

The clause means that, in principle, the RvT can unilaterally terminate Van Huffelen’s ancillary position at D66. This would not happen without reason. When asked, a spokesperson for the RvT informed us that there must be ‘objectively good reasons’ for doing so. Exactly what those reasons could be is not contractually defined. ‘This has not been further elaborated.’

According to the spokesperson, the dual role is nothing special. ‘It is common for administrators to hold ancillary positions for which they require permission from their employer. It has been contractually agreed with Alexandra van Huffelen that the President of the Executive Board is her main position and thus her priority. Should an ancillary position no longer be compatible with the main position for whatever reason, she will resign the ancillary position.’

Informed

D66 has been informed of the clause in the employment contract, a spokesperson for the party confirmed. D66 also sees no problem with the dual role. ‘All our recent chairs have held part-time or full-time positions in addition to their chairmanship of the party,’ a spokeswoman informed us by email. ‘Alexandra has good contact with her colleagues on the party board and the Supervisory Board of Radboud University about combining the work.’