Navigating between ‘Boomers’ and ‘Snowflakes’
Our Chair, Dr Joost Augusteijn, reflects on the importance of creating a safe and respectful teaching environment within our programme. In this piece, he considers the challenges of addressing inappropriate behaviour, the need for trust and openness, and the shared responsibility of building a supportive academic community.
In recent years there has been a proliferation of high profile and lesser-known cases of transgressive behaviour of staff members and students in the university and this also sometimes affects our programme. What exactly is considered transgressive behaviour or a safe teaching environment is widely debated. Many older members of staff who have not grown up with the idea of safe spaces sometimes express a certain impatience with the ‘sensitivity’ of the younger generation referring to them as snowflakes. Those more aware of the limits of appropriate behaviour feel some of these older staff members, sometimes referred to as privileged boomers, are dismissive of concerns voiced particularly by those in dependent positions, such as students and junior staff members.
Different perspectives
Such a dichotomy is of course a simplification, as there are many different perspectives on how we should organise our teaching environment which transcend differences in age. Navigating between these differences can be a challenge for the chair of a programme. Although not always that visible, the Programme Board always takes reports of inappropriate behaviour extremely seriously. If you have personally experienced something inappropriate you should never hesitate to come forward. However, I have recently noticed that many in our community of staff and students do not feel their concerns are listened to or do not even feel free to raise their concerns with us. This means that serious cases are not always brought to my attention and a spirit of distrust and lack of a safe feeling has consequently grown in our programme. This is something that seems to have become more prevalent in recent years and greatly concerns me. The question that faces me now is what causes this and how do we address this.
It is clear that the university as an institution has been very slow to react to cases of transgressive behaviour in the past and had a tendency to ‘solve them’ behind closed doors, often afraid of damage to its reputation. Fortunately, there are signs in recent years that this is changing. We can all think of examples that have become public. Nevertheless, just addressing high level cases does not solve the more fundamental problem, that the university should be attuned to this and should prevent transgressive behaviour from occurring. To enable that we do however require some form of a shared understanding of the issue and its remedies.
Although we may all agree on the wrongs of extreme cases, in other situations we can have fundamentally different views on what is appropriate and we also have different interests. Having a very diverse population of staff and students in terms of nationality, ethnicity, class, culture, age, etcetera we cannot expect there to be one shared set of norms and values. After all International Studies is all about learning from bringing together different people and we certainly do not want all to think the same. So, what is correct behaviour or what should be done if norms and rules are transgressed is not universally agreed upon. In the end it are university administrators, like myself, who have responsibility to establish what the norm is which we are upholding. This will thus be informed by their and in some cases my outlook and will therefore never fully satisfy all who are touched by this. It may be instructive to realise that for me, who actively remember events like the Tet-offensive in the Vietnam War, the idea of safe spaces and transgressive behaviour is a twenty-first century topic of conversation and not something that I grew up with.
Structures
The historic development of a slowly growing awareness of issues surrounding safe teaching environments and transgressive behaviour, also means that for a long time there were no procedures in place to ensure that standards are upheld. This absence of guidelines meant that what was considered acceptable dependent entirely on individuals. To address this the university has in recent years drawn up a set of codes of conduct regarding the behaviour of staff and students, while the Programme has its own Academic Community Charter which tries to address these issues. There are now also institutionalised arrangements that allow members of our community to bring wrongdoing to the attention of the administration when these rules are broken. In many ways those in places of power are however thus unfortunately reliant on those in vulnerable positions or those that have been victims of inappropriate behaviour for their information.
I have recently had conversations with students about this and noticed that it is not always clear how to raise concerns or how to go about filing complaints regarding improper behaviour. It is important to stress that for students the first point of call would be our study advisors who can provide a listening ear, or one can approach the Programme Board directly. I want to emphasize that your experiences matter, and you should never hesitate to come forward and that your concerns will be treated with great care. Most issues can be resolved confidentially or where necessary publicly. In more serious cases the road for students and staff would be to approach a Confidential Counsellor or the Ombuds Officer who will always treat complaints with anonymity. They are independent and would never divulge the names of those lodging a complaint to anyone without their explicit agreement and certainly not to the person whom the complaint is about.
There are similar structures in place for staff members. The Confidential Counsellor and Ombuds Officer are the institutions that can address the issues brought forward. The Ombuds Officer has the power to initiate an independent investigation. We do therefore recommend anyone who has direct experience of serious cases of improper or unacceptable behaviour to approach one of them. The Programme Board is fully dedicated to implementing any measures that might need to be taken in response to such an investigation.
How to respond
In whatever way issues come to our attention, they are always considered seriously and, if necessary, measures are taken. In deciding what action is appropriate, as administrator one needs to strike a balance between the differences in interests and expectations. It is important to stress that the Programme Board is not always aware of a wider context of events or of information that goes around regarding certain staff members or students. This is problematic as this does influence the expectations of what can and should be done, even when they this mean simply be rumours. As an employer we have a duty of care towards our employees as much as we have one towards our students. We do take special care to protect the interest of students as they are particularly vulnerable in relation to staff. However, staff members are also vulnerable and accusations, especially when unfounded, can seriously damage their reputations and futures. Consequently, a certain level of confidentiality when taking steps is often required. The downside of that is that our community does not fully realise what, sometimes disciplinary, action is taken.
It would of course be far more preferable if there was no need to avail of these means, but this clearly requires action from all of us. I believe a good starting point for moving towards a situation in which all of us show awareness of these issues and a sensitivity towards each other, would be to understand and appreciate our different starting points and where they come from. Addressing and correcting behaviour informally in a sensitive and generous manner should be a natural element of our day-to-day interactions to avoid it becoming a broader problem. Doing this can help us create a shared understanding of what is appropriate. This however requires a large measure of trust and openness towards the other. I am very happy that we are now having a conversation about the limits to appropriate behaviour, but administrators like myself need to be particularly mindful when dealing with these sensitive issues; mindful of different and changing norms and expectations, of the profound impact on those concerned, of the hierarchical aspects involved, and adjust our mindset to what is required in this newly developing aspect of our interaction.