What can you do to make UU a socially safe environment?
Social safety is a priority at UU. We all contribute to this, including you.
Social safety is a crucial condition for working and studying well," said College President Anton Pijpers last September at the Opening of the Academic Year. However, there is a lot of work to be done because, unfortunately, things do not always go well.
Fortunately, many colleagues and students are also motivated to get started and a lot is already happening. Student organisations have launched projects to make cross-border behaviour in student life discussable. Reporting and complaint handling procedures have been reviewed, and improved. A new committee was set up to investigate complaints about inappropriate behaviour: the Interpersonal Integrity Committee, with an external chairman. Also, a '' has been drawn up and published, and we have an adapted .
In addition, since August we have had a new policy advisor for Social Safety and Wellbeing, who is working on, among other things, the outcomes of Naomi Ellemers' report, the continuation of Mindlab, the drama performance that was played 20 times last year and the further roll-out of an online module for students (Consent Matters). If you have any questions or ideas, please contact Daniela Klauser at d.klauser@uu.nl.
But regulations and better desks alone are not going to solve the problems. This requires us to make some structural changes: that we work on leadership in our university, and that we discuss inappropriate behaviour much better. For this, university professor Naomi Ellemers gave important tips and tools during the OAJ.
In the coming period, we will return to the topic very regularly, with activities, news, tips and training offerings. If you would like to get started now to contribute to a socially safe UU, or if you have experienced something you would like to talk about, here are some possibilities:
Talking to someone about inappropriate behaviour
It may happen that students or staff are approached in a way that is inappropriate for them, for example if there is (sexual) harassment, discrimination, aggression, violence or bullying. In such cases, you can always turn to someone to talk about this in confidence, make a report, explore the options together and possibly file a complaint. This can be done with the confidential advisers for inappropriate behaviour. If you think inappropriate behaviour is taking place, do not keep it to yourself, but discuss it, even as a witness. See where you can go. See where you can go.
Addressing someone about inappropriate behaviour
We create a socially safe university together. It is therefore important to talk about it and take action when inappropriate behaviour occurs. Would you like to learn more about what you can do in inappropriate situations? Or do you, as a manager, want to work with your team on the subject? Then there are various possibilities.
For students
- Training Active Bystander
- Consent Matters e-learning module: this course provides up-to-date, inclusive and scalable training on sexual consent, communication and relationships, and bystander intervention. At UU level, this module has been made available to all faculty - if you would like to be one of the faculty introducing this module to students via Blackboard, please contact d.klauser@uu.nl.