Dear friends and colleagues,
The University Council and faculty councils have their elections this week. As you probably know, I am once again on the ballot for the personnel faction. If you have not voted yet, I urge you to do so now, and I hope you will vote on me, or at least the Pf. If you have voted, I thank you for your participation, a strong turnout helps the democratic process. If you know people who havent voted yet, please urge them to vote too. Every vote counts.
This past year we have all experienced what a pandemic can do to our work environment, research and teaching. Even once the pandemic will be under control, there are still many challenges ahead. The new strategic plan will be implemented, new modes of teaching and working will be integrated into the existing structures, and ever larger number of students will start their studies in the coming year. We should soon get an ombudsfunctionaris (dutch title), many new colleagues are joining our ranks, and in the last budget we negotiated for millions of extra funding for workload relief, the so called de Baets funds, named after one of my Pf faction members.
In the personnel faction we work together with academic and support staff to make our university the best possible place to work. We have representatives from many different departments, providing many different viewpoints and creative ideas for improvements. Within the Pf I focus on reducing the workload, equity and diversity, fair practices, and have a special focus on topics of interdisciplinary and liberal arts & science education. If you ever come across an issue that you would like to share with me, feel free to send me an email, and I will see what we can do.
Take care, stay healthy and VOTE!
Mariet Hofstee, http://personeelsfractie.nl/ VOTE PF!
Musings from a Science Mom in Academia