Former mayor of Roosendaal visits students Security Studies
First year bachelor students of Security Studies enjoyed an interactive guest lecture by Han van Midden, former mayor of Roosendaal. The lecture was part of the course Integrated Project 1, where students work on cases concerning local security and public order.
For the students to understand the cases they’re working on, they get the chance to interact with people who have worked in the field to gain a first-hand experience. Lecturer Ruth Prins, research fellow at Leiden University, invited Han van Midden. He was former mayor of Roosendaal, a city dealing with a high crime rate, especially among youth.
How do you become a mayor?
Students prepared questions for Han van Midden about his experiences as mayor. Van Midden mentions he ‘did it with a lot of passion, loved it and hated it’. One of the students wants to know how you can become a mayor. Van Midden tells that ‘mayors get appointed by the King and the minister of Interior and Kingdom Relations. The local city council recommends eligible candidates’. Another student likes to know for whom Van Midden works then: the crown or the people of the city? ‘Actually for the Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations, but the King could dismiss me if there was a motion of distrust by the city council’, states Van Midden.
Youth criminality
After the introductory questions, students delve deeper into the subject of the course, how do you deal with public order and local security? During Van Midden’s time as mayor, Roosendaal dealt with riots, drug- and juvenile crime. Van Midden used the analogy of a ‘golden staircase’ to clarify the high youth rates. ‘For a lot of young people, aged 15 to 16, it is attractive to earn a lot of money quickly. By doing small crimes, this might seem like a golden stair, but once they start, they can’t get out. The criminals they work for eventually involve their families and coerce them to stay, indicating there are far worse consequences if they stop.’
Students want to know, how can a mayor influence or change this situation? Van Midden: ‘I chose to open up the conversation in an unconventional way’. He shows a video of him and rapper YSF working together in a music video. This proved to be the opening in getting youth to talk to Van Midden. The remainder of the lecture was filled with in- depth questions about his experiences and Van Midden giving them a personal insight in what it is like to work in this field.
Course 'Integrated Project 1'
In Integrated Project 1, students will be challenged to integrate the knowledge and understanding they have gathered in the first year courses and apply these to a case in a group project. The central theme of this course is local security and public order. We will focus on security-related threats facing citizens and local authorities in their direct living environments. Students will choose present-day challenges related to local security and public order, and will develop artefacts aimed at addressing these problems and rendering change according to the principles and methods of Design Science. The course consists of three lectures and twelve lab sessions.