Philosophy students intervene to stop the forced departure of retired teachers
Three retired philosophy teachers have been asked to leave by the UvA, but a group of students has leapt to their defence.
Department chair for Philosophy, Beate Roessler says she is merely following university policy in asking the teachers to step down. One of the teachers concerned, however, former associate professor and Kierkegaard expert Victor Kal, believes the directive is being ‘pulled from out of the blue.’ ‘Moreover,’ he says, ‘the way this is being handled is rude. I read about the new policy in the minutes of the department meeting of 4 March. No one’s taken the trouble to send us a message.’
Call for diversity
Concerned students have set up a campaign via the platform Humanities Rally in an effort to prevent the retired philosophy teachers from leaving. One of the students involved in the campaign is Jorryt de Jong. ‘These teachers offer something very specific. Isn’t it strange that we’re so focused on age and not quality? The university generally, and a philosophy department certainly, should be openly critical about the outdated rule that people in the Netherlands have to stop working as soon as they receive their state pension. It’s 2021!’
The students have sent letters to the UvA board, the faculty board and the philosophy department. ‘We explain why these teachers are so valuable,’ the initiators write on the Humanities Rally website. ‘The call for more diversity – so important in our previous student protests – is now being used against us to discriminate against experienced philosophers based on age.’
Support
The colleagues of Roessler support the action. They write to Folia that it’s problematic when lecturers without appointment teach a full course, and point to issues such as legal liability and the rules concerning exam authorisation, a lack of clarity as to responsibility, the scarcity of university posts and creating obstacles for new lecturers.
Deans of other faculties say that retired lecturers at their faculties ‘aren’t structurally deployed to provide education’. One of the deans, Peter van Tienderen says: ‘We would like that active researchers provide education as well.’
The three retired teachers who have been asked to leave are: Victor Kal (1951), Maarten Coolen (1943), Martin Stokhof (1950) and Michiel van Lambalgen (1954). The latter has just received his state pension, while the other three have been receiving it for much longer.
