Ever since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Central Works Council (COR) has been discussing and monitoring the consequences for both students and staff at the UvA. Within the council there is a strong sense of involvement with every member of the UvA community who is in any way touched by this tragedy. At the same time, we value and admire the decisive crisis policy set by the Executive Board: Students and staff are being looked after and given psychosocial and financial support where necessary. Besides this, official institutional connections with institutions in Russia and Belarus have been broken or put on ice.

Personal contacts as a breeding ground for peace

The council agrees with the Executive Board that personal contacts between academics are the ideal breeding ground for peace, which is why it supports the choice to leave these contacts undisturbed, even though there is concern about how safe all these people are in their own country when they communicate and how free they are in what they tell us. The council also backs the decision concerning support, to make no distinction between students and staff from Ukraine and those from any other country involved in the conflict.

Other conflict areas

There are of course more groups of students and staff within the UvA besides those from Ukraine (and the other countries involved in the Ukraine crisis) whose background connects them to conflict areas in the world. The extent to which the university community has come into action in recent weeks to help those involved in the war in Ukraine is admirable, but is in stark contrast to what is being done for those affected by other hotspots. There are more groups of students and staff within the UvA with a background that ties them to conflict areas. And sadly it is most unlikely, given the current geopolitical climate, that in the future no other groups will be similarly affected.

Learning lessons from this crisis

For this reason the COR is calling for the lessons now being learned in the response of the university to the war in Ukraine to not be lost. As far as the COR is concerned, students and staff who are in any way affected by war or conflict in their home country should be able to count on the same level of support, financial or otherwise, as is now available for students or staff with a Ukrainian, Russian or Belarusian background.

Promoting free debate

The university is about science and knowledge and its transfer. The fundamental rule must always be to promote free debate in the face of all war rhetoric and propaganda. The COR feels that lecturers who have to deal with different groups – for example right now, those for or against President Putin – should be given support and guidance. Both the COR and the Faculty Works Councils are closely involved in drawing up policy for this. Please feel free to contact us if you have any ideas and suggestions for this. Mail cor@uva.nl