What do you think of when you see the following slogan: Doe iets wat er toe doet! (EN: Do something that matters!)
- A call from the current government to all universities to stop their 'woke' activities.
- A call from the united trade unions to participate in the national relay strike against cabinet policy.
- A call from university teacher training programmes to draw attention to the teaching profession.
Those who have seen the colourful posters on campus in recent months know the correct answer: it's the third one. Through this call, combined with encouragements like 'Develop someone other than yourself', or 'Act important or do something important', our students are being encouraged through this campaign to choose university teacher training. 'Do something that matters' – become a teacher. Given the significant and ever-increasing teacher shortage, this call is important and urgent.
But answers 1 and 2 could also have been correct. The bitter wind blowing across the higher education landscape in our country seems, at least for part of the coalition, to be driven by resentment against 'activist woke culture', as was literally stated during one of the last education debates before the 2024 summer recess. That the proposed cuts are so severe that they actually jeopardise universities' important contribution to innovation (after all, the magic word from the coalition agreement) - deemed so necessary by that same coalition - doesn't really demonstrate great intelligence. Meanwhile, the first consequences of this policy, even before it has been formally adopted by the Senate, are becoming painfully clear across the country: programmes are being discontinued, research groups are being dissolved, international students are more hesitant to come to the Netherlands. That's why it's important to make your voice heard during the announced strike day on 13 March, part of the national relay strike, if you have the opportunity. Because it matters.
Back to the slogan: 'Do something that matters.' However well-intended, reading it gives me a slightly uncomfortable feeling. That's the effect of using the imperative mood, meant to give an order or command. I see a wagging finger pointing at me: 'Go do something that matters.' With the reflex in my head: am I not doing that now, is my work not important? That feeling was reinforced by the text on the buttons distributed at the start of the campaign to all academic staff members who teach. These buttons read: '(I) do something that matters.' A proud statement and a command in one. And if you're a secretary, or student advisor, or analyst, or management assistant, sitting in a meeting opposite a colleague wearing such a button, there's that finger again. 'I do something that matters. And you?'
Perhaps I'm making too much of this, and I'm certain the campaign designers didn't intend this. But still. In times like these, when everyone is worried about the clearly not rosy future, it's all the more important to demonstrate in word and deed that we all – academics and support staff, permanent staff and temporary employees, administrators and participational bodies – are needed to provide our students with the education they deserve, and conduct the research society is waiting for. Together, as university staff, we form an organisation that matters.
Let's proudly proclaim that: we are needed. And say to our students: You are doing something that matters. Now and in the future.
