{"id":104536,"date":"2019-10-17T10:00:50","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T08:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=104536"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:24:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:24:32","slug":"chaositis-and-the-academic-duchies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2019\/10\/17\/chaositis-and-the-academic-duchies\/","title":{"rendered":"Chaositis and the Academic Duchies"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the novel dwelling of the Erasmus School of Philosophy (ESPhil) is a central space which, due to the dominant transparency dictatorship, is made of glass. Name: Glass House (The light in your office you cannot turn on and off. Irritating. After 10.00 p.m., or something, you are no longer permitted to work in your office. The EUR does not trust its employees. Sickening.).<\/p>\n

On Monday 7 October in the year 2019 at 1.00 p.m., the Glass House filled up. Staff members, PhD researchers, office members and students poured in. Extra chairs were dragged in. Some people had to stand. A plenary faculty emergency meeting. What\u2019s going on?<\/p>\n

The perplexity is gargantuan<\/h2>
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F.A. Muller.<\/span><\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

The governance genius Frank van der Duijn Schouten, ex-Rector of the University of Tilburg as well as the Free University Amsterdam and ex-Dean of ESPhil, set up the new organisation structure of ESPhil. He designed the new policy and the required financing, ensured himself of the support of the other Deans of all other EUR Schools, and by way of a finale succeeded in obtaining the approval for all of this from the Board of the EUR. This man \u2013 who is currently interim Dean of the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) and since June 2019 also of the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication<\/em> (ESHCC) \u2013 has, at the request of the Board, written a Report with several options in which the destruction of ESPhil figures prominently. We shall be discussing that Report in the Glass House.<\/p>\n

The perplexity is gargantuan. Some speak of back-stabbing. After being cheered and praised at his farewell as Dean of ESPhil with the Board present, our governance genius tries to eliminate us from a distance, like a sniper? We try to understand what is happening here. The expression proper governance suddenly obtains an entirely new meaning. Perhaps such unexpected changes in meaning are the hallmark of a governance genius in action.<\/p>\n\n\t

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