UvA to appoint Diversity Officer
The University of Amsterdam (UvA) will introduce a ‘diversity unit’ to implement and coordinate diversity policy, Geert ten Dam, president of the university’s Board of Directors has announced. The introduction of a diversity unit is one of the recommendations made by the university’s diversity committee as it presented the results of a yearlong inquiry on Wednesday.
In its final report, the commission did not uphold a recommendation — made earlier this month to heavy criticism — of introducing a quota for students and employees with a ‘diverse background’. ‘The value of my diploma will be degraded because people think I was only accepted into university because of my ethnicity,’ Yernaz Ramautarsing, a political science student born in Suriname has said in response to the initial proposal.
On Monday the president of the Board of Directors of the UvA and HvA, together with rector magnificus Karen Maex, said she would not implement such a quota. ‘Research shows quotas are not among the most effective means to create a diverse student population,’ Geert ten Dam said during university talk show, ‘Room for Discussion’. ‘If you want to promote diversity, you should work on changing culture instead of focusing on making structural changes’.
Another important recommendation presented during last month’s preparatory sessions was the introduction of mandatory ‘diversity courses’ designed to teach bachelor students how to live together with people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. This too was denounced by rector magnificus Karen Maex who said that she would be open to organising such a course, but that she did not feel it should be obligatory.
Controversy
In its final report presented this Wednesday, the committee stated it had decided not to uphold these recommendations but signalled that the door should be kept open for the introduction of a quota when other means fail.
‘There has been a lot of buzz lately about the committee supposedly propagating a quota system,’ commission chair Gloria Wekker said. ‘But that does not begin to cover the richness of analysis and data that the committee has presented today.’
Wekker denounced the focus on a quota as ‘misguided,’ and an ‘ill intentioned move to frame the committee in a particular way’. Doing so, she believes is to undermine the discussion on diversity ‘that is so utterly necessary’.
Student protests
The diversity committee was established after student protests enveloped the university in 2015. Students carried banners bearing messages such as ‘No Democratisation without Decolonisation,’ arguing that the university was ‘too white’ and that many of the ideas and theories taught at the UvA were influenced by colonial and western centric ideas.
Wekker, an anthropology professor specialised in gender and ethnicity studies, was prompted to begin an inquiry into the position of various minority groups. Together with four commission members, she looked into the question of equal opportunities for students and professors. The commission also examined whether the curricula allowed for enough variety in the world views discussed.
Ombudsperson
‘We take diversity as a precondition for academic excellence,’ Wekker said on Wednesday. ‘Common misunderstandings about diversity thrive, hampering the realisation of a truly diverse university.’
A diversity officer should serve as a ‘linchpin’ to implement and coordinate diversity policy, the report states. This officer should monitor improvements made towards an inclusive university ‘in numerical terms’. If the goals are not met within a certain period, the diversity unit should research the desirability and implementation of quota with respect to gender, race and ethnicity.
In addition, it states that a special ombudsperson should be appointed to deal with complaints on racism and exclusion. The commission calls for the UvA to cooperate with universities at home and abroad to move forward the development of diversity policies. The report also suggests that a Dutch Diversity Charter for Higher Education should be developed at a national level.
Finally the report concludes that the issue of diversity should be covered in academic skills courses to disseminate the use of threatening and stigmatising vocabulary. These courses, it writes, should be voluntary.
