Letschert: encouraging candidates of colour is not preferential treatment

According to minister of education Rianne Letschert, Erasmus University did not breach the principle of equality with a vacancy at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences. She writes this in response to parliamentary questions.

At the end of March the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB) posted a vacancy for a new assistant professor and an associate professor specialising in Social Inequalities. The vacancy was part of a ‘cluster hiring initiative for scholars of colour’. That wording led to criticism and parliamentary questions.

Members of the parliament from JA21 asked education minister Rianne Letschert whether the vacancy was in conflict with Article 1 of the Constitution, the principle of equality that prohibits discrimination on any ground.

Vacancy for everyone

In her response the minister emphasises that she was told by the university that the vacancy was not intended only for scholars of colour.

She adds that the university amended the text to clarify that no one is excluded. In the original vacancy text, it said the position was part of a ‘cluster hiring initiative for scholars of colour’. That sentence was later removed.

The passage stating that the department was looking for someone who ‘integrates progressive, anti-racist and social justice resources and pedagogy in the classroom’, was also deleted.

No positive discrimination

According to Letschert, there was no question of positive discrimination in the vacancy. She refers to the Equal Treatment Act, in which Article 1 of the Constitution is elaborated.

Encouraging candidates of colour to apply is, according to her, not preferential treatment, because others are also welcome to apply.

She adds that in some cases preferential policies may be used under certain conditions, for example to address disadvantages faced by groups. It must concern reducing disadvantages related to race or sex, and the distinction must be well justified.

Not up to the minister

Letschert did not respond to the criticism that the vacancy appears to exclude academics with conservative views because their ideas would not fit the required teaching profile. ‘It is not for me as minister to comment on the content of a university’s vacancies’, she writes. Universities set their own recruitment and selection policies. The minister trusts that the institutions act within the legal frameworks and therefore sees no need to make extra arrangements, as the Members of the House of Representatives from JA21 proposed.

The vacancy has since closed.