Nikola Edelsztejn | The UvA is addicted to digital technology
Does the UvA rely too heavily on digital tools? Columnist Nikola Edelsztejn examines how poorly students, staff, and the Executive Board are prepared for hacks, outages, and cyberattacks. “We’ve already had a Canvas hack, and thankfully we learned so much from it that nothing has changed.”
Anyone who pays attention while spending a day on campus will quickly notice that we are entirely dependent on digital tools in every respect. The UvA does not use them as aids, but as the sole means of carrying out even the simplest tasks. At a time when we are being bombarded from all sides with warnings about digital dependency, it is nothing short of a miracle that the clock in the classroom is still analogue. The recent problems with the digital systems of the Dutch supermarket giant Albert Heijn can likewise be seen as the catalyst for this opinion piece: it is time we took a critical look at the digital jungle we are confronted with every day.
Cash
It is hardly surprising that both students and staff need digital tools to improve efficiency and, often, reduce the likelihood of errors. Paper timetable books are simply pointless nowadays, and nobody wants to travel to a central office to register for courses, only to spend hours in a waiting room dictating course catalogue codes to an overworked civil servant. This is simply beyond dispute: things used to be bad, then tools were introduced to improve them, and now things are better. The risk that such a system might occasionally fail is one we are willing to accept.
But this would not be my monthly rant if it were not about something else entirely: why do so many degree programmes administer exams exclusively on laptops? Why does the UvA refuse to accept cash under any circumstances? Why can you not make a single appointment without first sending an email or booking one through a malfunctioning online portal?
The UvA suffers from a syndrome also found in many countries experiencing a sudden economic boom: once the resources are available, they must be used for absolutely everything, lest we miss out on some great leap into the future. It is not normal that I can pay my taxes through a machine in a Romanian supermarket; nor is it normal that I cannot simply toss a euro into the coffee machine on the UvA campus.
Piece of chalk
At the UvA, we have reached a point where the Department of Intersectional Sciences has decided to ban laptops and explain its decision by teaching with a piece of chalk and a blackboard. What a golden fig leaf for the cardboard stage set of Amsterdam’s Alma Mater: TikTok-esque retro role-playing. But then again, my expectations of pretty much the entire UvA have all but evaporated by now.
While the Executive Board sends full-time employees home, chatbots are writing more theses than they are answering questions about which terminal cancer might be responsible for some harmless bump on your thigh, and nearly seventy reports have been filed with the Social Safety and Integrity Reporting Centre, the very faculty that should be sounding the alarm so loudly that it brings the ceiling down dares to say: “Come on, let’s explain things with some chalk.” Vergognatevi!
Payment-system outage
Anyway, where is the contingency plan for when a payment-system outage strikes and lasts an entire day - a scenario that is hardly implausible given the state of the world today? Catering would grind to a halt, no coffee would come out of the vending machines, and thousands of euros’ worth of food could go to waste.
What are we going to do about Canvas hacks? We have already had one, and thankfully we learned so much from it that nothing has changed. What happens if Ans goes down during exam week? We are not prepared. Most students still take their exams on computers, and you can hear the sighs rippling through the room as people struggle to log in yet again, their laptops run slowly, or something else fails to work as it should. What on earth could possibly solve this…?
Champagne
If only there were some way to communicate clearly during a lecture what students are expected to do and how they should do it—or, better yet, a way to sit an exam even by candlelight. Alas… with the current Executive Board, we will never find out, because its members recently popped the champagne to celebrate being allowed to plug the budget gap with money from The Hague, with millions now set to flow freely. I can hardly wait for the headline announcing that we are once again in financial deep shit and another university building has been occupied. Once again: vergognatevi!
So, let those fresh millions from The Hague sit safely in the bank, and consider turning our many digital tools into a supplement rather than allowing the hegemony of vulnerable systems to reign supreme. We need an Alma Mater, not a Noverca Praedatrix.
