The university council is concerned about students and staff’s social safety and wants the UG to do more to improve it.
The board of directors has acknowledged the council’s concerns and assured them the issue is important to them. But at the same time, social safety requires a cultural change, and the board says that doesn’t happen overnight.
No help
The council wrote a concerned letter to the board after UKrant published a story on Chinese PhD candidate Alice. She was raped by a visiting researcher. She went to both the Dutch and Chinese police for help, to no avail, and the university didn’t do much, either.
This led to the council urging the board to re-examine its own safety structures and change it where necessary. According to the council, it remains unclear where and how people can report on unsafe situations, and what happens to those reports.
Legal consequences
The council also says the university should elucidate the difference between a report and a complaint. After all, complaints can have serious legal consequences. A university-wide information campaign would shine a spotlight on these issues.
The council also thinks that initiatives at student organisations should be professionalised to allow students to better help each other. Help from student organisations could be utilised to teach students how to handle socially unsafe behaviour.
Unacceptable behaviour
The board agrees with the letter and the points the council came up with. Last year, the university started a long-term improvement track to map the current safety structures and change them where necessary. A UG-wide campaign on how people can address unacceptable behaviour is also launching soon.
Nevertheless, the subject remains a tough one, the board says, and there will never be a perfect, comprehensive solution to the problem. ‘We also need to normalise addressing other people when they display abnormal behaviour’, says rector Cisca Wijmenga.
‘It’s a substantial cultural shift and we all know how complicated those are. It’s something we all have to work towards, but we think everyone knows how important it is.’