UvA-president Edith Hooge: “Taking a stand as a university undermines free science”
At Room for Discussion on Tuesday night, board president Edith Hooge talked a lot about last May’s pro-Palestine demonstrations. “When I came here, I found an organisation that was in shock in its own way.”
“People are going to regret that a lot.” For a moment, Edith Hooge’s tone sharpened Monday night on the chesterfield sofa of Room for Discussion (Rfd). At times like these, when it comes to the announced education cuts, the UvA board president is crystal clear. “The cabinet’s cuts are unprecedented and incomprehensible,” she says. “We are in opposition.”
By contrast, when it comes to the university’s role during the pro-Palestine demonstrations in May, which Mayor Femke Halsema, it emerged earlier in the day, was “dissatisfied and sometimes even angry” about, the answers are more cautious and diplomatic. An external and independent commission is now looking into that issue, Hooge responded in front of less than 40 people present in the room. “I cannot anticipate that. It is good to wait and see.”
It is important to note that Hooge was not at all a UvA board president at the time. For a total of 179 days, she has held the position now, barely six months. But the impact of the demonstrations and their aftermath continued to reverberate within the UvA community long after she took office. “When I came here, I found an organisation that was all in shock in their own way and with their own perception, angry and sad about what happened.” Together with her fellow board members - Peter-Paul Verbeek and Jan Lintsen - she tried, partly through listening sessions, to bring the connection back to the UvA, she indicates.
Taking a stand
Has peace now returned to the UvA, asks one of the two RFD-interviewers. That’s not quite the right word, says Hooge, after which the conversation, which takes place in Dutch but with live translation headphones for non-native speakers, takes a semantic turn. “Quietness is not something you want at university. There should be dynamism, curiosity, debate. So also disagreeing and bringing things into the limelight.”
Is the UvA neutral in this respect? Not the right word either, according to Hooge. “A university is not neutral, but independent and provides knowledge and insights that facilitate debate. What this does not include, however, according to Hooge, is a university that takes a stand. “We are not a political institution. The moment you take a political stand, you undermine free academic science.” Ensuring the latter is “our task”, Hooge says, “with the expertise we have in-house”.
War in Ukraine
Nevertheless, taking a stand did happen during the start of the war between Ukraine and Russia. At that time, the UvA decided rather quickly to freeze collaborations with educational and knowledge institutions from the latter country. With regard to the crisis in the Middle East, this did not happen; a committee is now considering whether the UvA's ethical framework for collaborations with countries in war conflicts might need to be adjusted or tightened.
Hooge says the following about this: although there was an urgent recommendation from the Dutch government to do so with regard to Russian educational and knowledge institutions, it would have been better to take more time and look at it more carefully at the time. So not blindly adopting it, deliberating first. “As we are doing now,” Hooge concludes decidedly.
