{"id":145891,"date":"2022-11-01T13:59:52","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T12:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=145891"},"modified":"2026-02-10T16:41:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T15:41:59","slug":"naomi-ellemers-dont-wait-any-longer-to-tackle-social-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2022\/11\/01\/naomi-ellemers-dont-wait-any-longer-to-tackle-social-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Naomi Ellemers: Don\u2019t wait any longer to tackle social safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Misconduct by university professors in Leiden and Leuven was allowed to go unchecked for many years. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t surprise me\u201d, says professor Naomi Ellemers, who wrote an advisory report on social safety for the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n

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Naomi Ellemers led the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) committee that was charged with advising the Dutch cabinet on social safety in the academic world. <\/span><\/p>

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This month, two cases hit the news about researchers who have misbehaved. An astronomy professor in Leiden has been banned permanently from the university and a Flemish professor, who also worked in the Netherlands, has been jailed for rape.<\/p>\n

But the problem of social safety at universities is nothing new. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has written an advisory report<\/a> on this topic to Education Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf and the Dutch universities.<\/p>\n

The report, which appeared in July, is a sort of guide with practical tips for tackling social safety. Behavioural scientist Naomi Ellemers, a university professor in Utrecht, chaired the committee that drew up the advisory report.<\/p>\n

What were your thoughts when the news about the professors came to light?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cUniversities are large organisations, with many people working there. I imagine that these things happen or have happened in many places, so I\u2019m not surprised when such news comes to light. I hope that we are reaching a tipping point, however. We have to clear out the attic and deal with cases that have been going on for years; after that, we also have to look to the future.\u201d<\/p>

Why do cases like this often go on so long?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThese problems are never isolated incidents. Every time, you hear that there\u2019s a pattern and that people have known about it for a long time. But if no formal complaint is made, people believe there\u2019s nothing they can do about it and so they allow it to continue. Universities often look at it too much from a legal perspective: they want to assemble all the evidence before taking action. But it isn\u2019t simply a binary choice.\u201d<\/p>\n\t

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