UU starts extensive campaign about social safety

These projects are part of an action plan covering the next two years. Through this plan, UU's Executive Board aims to underscore the importance of having an academic community in which all students and employees feel comfortable and free to be themselves. A total of 1.3 million euros have been earmarked for this purpose.

Consent course

In a statement to the University Council (accessible to those with a Solis ID, Ed.), the Executive Board says that the action plan intends to stimulate "mutual conversations" within the university, which is why it is focusing big time on an awareness campaign calling on students and staff members to reflect on the topic of "social safety" and "how to be respectful with each other." Said campaign is expected to start in the academic year 2023-2024. "By putting stickers on the doors to every space at UU, for example," reads the statement.

Additionally, all students will soon be able to follow an online course about consent, communication and behaviour in sexual relationships. Three modules will be made available on Blackboard, the digital student space. Each module takes up to one hour to complete. The idea is to engage students in discussions about the topics covered by the course. Study programmes are free to decide how to organise these gatherings.

Play
In 2024, there will also be a theatre production about social safety. Set to be performed 25 times, it should reach approximately 7,500 UU students. More than a third of the action plan's budget was allocated to the play: the university reserved no less than half a million euros for the production and performance.

Initially, the idea was to produce the play in collaboration with the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences (HU), but HU's council decided to pull out of the project last year. In its statement, UU says it is still willing to work together with other educational institutions on this project. 

The play is going to be the student version of Mindlab, the production that aimed to make UU employees more conscious about the importance of integrity in a professional setting. Many UU employees watched it. Next year, Mindlab will be coming back for another season, thanks to a collaboration with UMC Utrecht. It is possible that excerpts of the play will be posted online as well. 

UU hopes that people in the same teams will watch the play together, so that they can discuss how to create a safe workplace afterwards. 

According to the Executive Board, managers play an important role in promoting cultural change. If they have a hard time doing that or if they would like to dedicate more energy to that, they can make use of team coaches. UU is looking to give three of the current coaches specific training on how to lead discussions about topics related to a safe work environment.

Code of conduct
The action plan reflects a policy introduced a while ago, stresses the university. That's why social safety was the theme of the opening of the current academic year. In October, UU announced how it intends to improve the complaints procedure for students and employees — something that it will continue to work on in the months ahead. For example, UU is looking for a student ombudsperson alongside TU Eindhoven.

Last but not least, UU announced that the university's Code of Conduct is going to be extended. It will now explicitly say that a manager should be informed if employees have a relationship with each other or if a personal relationship between a student and a lecturer could affect their work or study relationship. By this, UU doesn't only mean romantic relationships but also cases like a student babysitting a lecturer's kids, for example. 

In the next few months, UU will organise a series of conversations with students and employees about which relationships are considered appropriate and which ones are not. Therefore, the university does not intend to forbid relationships between students and lecturers altogether. Two years ago, a taskforce of students urged UU to do just that.