UvA suspends ‘anti-woke’ lecturer Laurens Buijs

According to the university (page in Dutch, Ed.), Buijs, who is a lecturer in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, has referred to UvA colleagues and other academics as “monsters”, “extremists”, “corrupt” and “dangerous”. In addition to his social media posts, he has allegedly sent similar messages to colleagues.

The university considers that Buijs' behaviour threatens the safety of the work environment, which is why he has been suspended. He is no longer allowed to teach any classes.

In an op-ed for Folia, UvA's independent news outlet, published in January, Buijs wrote that “non-binary identities” and the “obsession with personal pronouns” are nothing but “empty hype”. Needless to say, the piece caused a lot of outrage. Several UvA students called for Buijs to be banned from teaching.

Subsequently, the lecturer appealed to whistleblower regulation and raised concerns about an alleged "woke" culture in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, where he works. UvA states that it is still taking Buijs' statements seriously: an independent external committee has been appointed and a report is due before the summer break.

Although Buijs is supported by some, he is mostly a controversial figure. Parliamentary questions have been asked about him and he is often referred to in debates. Answering the Parliament's questions, the Dutch Minister of Education, Robbert Dijkgraaf, said that both academic freedom and a safe working environment are both essential for the quality of research and education. Other than that, he made no further comments.

Earlier this month, the invitation of Lauren Buijs to a national conference organised by higher education media led to the resignation of one of the members of the board of the Association of Editors-in-Chief of Higher Education Media.