Shaping the new UvA Senate
The new Senate will be a representative and deliberative organ of the UvA, according to guidance given last January by the Commission Democratisation and Decentralisation of the UvA, but exactly what its mandate will be remains to be defined.
About thirty students and staff members met last Friday to discuss the new Senate at the Maagdenhuis with rector magnificus Karen Maex also present. She emphasised that the new style Senate will not replace the present Senate presided by psychiatrist Damiaan Denys.
During the meeting many suggestions were put forward, but most present agreed that the new style Senate should be based on three principles: it should be outreaching, it must have wide academic support and it should not overlap with other academic forums.
‘The university is not only an institute for research, but is also a place for socialising. It also plays an important role in the larger community,’ said masters student and member of the workgroup Commoning UvA, Sepp Eckenhaussen. ‘The new Senate should reflect this’. Medicine student Mike Keizer agrees. ‘I think the university should do more to reach out to people who do not belong to the academic world.’
Professor of Art History Mia Lerm Hayes agrees. ‘The new style Senate should build bridges between the academic and governing world.’ She also believes the new forum should be an organisation that reflects on long term issues. ‘Politicians but also students think too much in the short term’.
Reflection
‘I think the new Senate should be a reflection of the academic community as a whole and not of students only,’ said central student council member, Jorrit Kruithof. Eckenhaussen also emphasised that the new forum should be supported by all echelons of the university. Everyone, including rector Maex, agreed that the mandate of the new Senate should not overlap with existing organs like the Executive Board and the participatory councils of staff and students.
The ideas mooted during the Maagdenhuis meeting will all be taken into account by the workgroup Senate before it drafts a preliminary plan for the new forum. This plan will then be submitted to the academic community for discussion. After this, a final plan will be submitted for approval to the deans and the participatory councils of students and staff. The Executive Board of the UvA hopes that a final decision about the new Senate will be taken before the coming summer.
