People who only want to make anonymous complaints; ombudspersons and confidential advisors that are hard to find; a disproportionate number of women filing complaints. There is still a lot of work to be done when it comes to social safety, says the Radboud Young Academy (RYA). They want the university to take more action.

In recent months, think tank RYA (see insert) conducted research into social safety and other issues at Radboud University. The RYA’s diversity and inclusion working group spoke with employees, but also with ombudswoman Nancy Viellevoye and Rona Jualla-van Oudenhoven, program director Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI). According to work group members Inti Brazil and Bryan Souza, it does not paint a pretty picture.

What are your main findings?

Souza: ‘Among other things, there is still a major problem with sexism on campus. According to the ombudsperson’s annual report, 60 percent of the complaints she receives come from women, while they do not even make up half of the university staff; they still have a much harder time than men.”

 What kind of stories did you hear?

Souza: ‘That women have a higher workload, for example, or that they are less likely to be given the same opportunities as men. Junior researchers also encounter a lack of transparency about their career opportunities. It is often completely unclear what you have to do to earn a promotion. That enables sexism, racism, and a lack of safety, but these things are not talked about enough at the university. Some faculty even simply say that sexism does not exist here.”

Brazil: ‘That denial in part has to do with someone’s position in the academic hierarchy, I suspect. As a PI (group leader, ed.) – which I have been for some time now – you hear less about what people in an earlier career phase encounter than when you are a postdoc, for example. That does not mean that nothing is going on, but not everyone is aware of that. It can be a blind spot.’

‘You don’t want to make people higher up angry’

‘Another issue is that many people want to remain anonymous when they file a complaint – especially younger employees. This is a clear sign that they do not feel safe, which says a lot about the university hierarchy. They are afraid of the consequences for their career; you don’t want to make people higher up angry. But that also makes it difficult for a confidential adviser or the ombudsperson to stand up for them. The threshold for submitting a complaint should not depend on your position.’

Souza: ‘People lower on the academic ladder are simply in a more vulnerable position. And it’s even worse if they are part of a minoritized group.’

What can the university do about this?

Brazil: ‘It must be clear what the protocol is if you cannot resolve a conflict.’

Souza: ‘Mediation, which is sometimes used in conflicts, is not always an option, for example. Depending on the case, an attempt for mediation can even bring more harm to the victims: Then they have to go through the experience again. I won’t go into detail here, but generally speaking we need other mechanisms to deal with more serious cases of conflicts, like harassment, sexism and racism. That will allow the University to be more effective in dealing with issues of social safety.’

‘The Executive Board must also lead by example. For example, they could express  support for Susanne Täuber (the Groningen associate professor who was fired after she felt opposed by her faculty, ed.). The fact that we don’t know the position of Radboud on matters like this have an impact on how likely people are to speak up.”

Or look at ARA, the anti-racism student collective. They came up with a report in 2021 advocating for, a major investigation into racism on campus, among other things, but very little appears to have been done with it. If people speak up but no concrete action is taken, that is a problem.’

Aren’t things heading in the right direction recently? There is an ombudswoman, a DEI officer, and a code of conduct, partly after persistence from the Works Council.

 Brazil: ‘We have an ombudsperson, but a good infrastructure for her to do her work is lacking. For example, she still does not have a computer system in which she can record things properly. That makes it difficult to make systematic overviews of complaints and problems. Supposedly, a system will be put in place, but the ombudsperson has already been working for 18 months without the necessary facilities.’’

‘Transparency is key’

‘There are undoubtedly good developments in the field of diversity and inclusion, but they mainly happen behind the scenes. Most Radboud employees don’t see much of this, aside from the occasional article in Vox. The university should be much more transparent about this. Why not update people through the newsletter? Everyone receives it in their e-mail, and that way, as a university, you immediately mark it as a priority.’

‘Transparency is key. This is not only necessary for promotion criteria, but also the findability of the ombudsperson, and confidential advisors. For many people it is completely unclear where to go if they have a complaint. That information is tucked away somewhere on the university website; we had to search for a long time ourselves. You should familiarize people with this immediately when they start working here, like with the BASS declaration system.’

How to move on from here?

Brazil: ‘We hope that the faculties and the Executive Board will acknowledge our concerns and put our recommendations to work. In addition, we will continue to collect employee testimonials. We hope they can find us.”