Excellence through Diversity (English)

Inspiration Magazine

Excellence through Diversity

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Ambitious work plan for more diversity and inclusion

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Lisa Coleman (Harvard): ‘Make implicit bias visible’

Gender-aware appointment policy

ms to improve quality by ouraging everyone to velop to their full potential

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Open hiring procedures

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Associate Professor

Full Professor

‘Excellence through Diversity’ is a one-off publication of Leiden University. www.leidenuniv.edu

The Magazine on the Spot team: Editors Eric Went Robin Ouwerkerk Jorieke van der Geest Editor-in-Chief Eric Went

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The university pro encourages women participate in evaluation

Oxford University

Let’s get started.

But how?

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Design Nanda Alderliefste Photography Rob Overmeer Infographics Loek Weijts

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Gender ba in research

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Tutoring/mentoring system

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Promoting expertise

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nce e l l e c x E h Throug ty Diversi

A balanced, visible position for women in national and European research programmes

Workshops and training courses promote expertise in diversity throughout the university community.

Diversity and www.diversiteit.leidenuniv.nl inclusion in practice

All students receive extra complete their degree better results. Thi studies is easily individualis POPcorner:

Diversity expertise in the search committees

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A gender-aware appointment policy ensures that diversity in senior positions reflects the diversity in the pool of available candidates.

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Contents

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Intro

Welcome to Leiden University!

Being made to feel welcome and at home, seeing opportunities and having the chance to take them.

Being given help with problems, and receiving encouragement and recognition - for who you are and what you want to become, for the way you want to be and for where you’re from.

Diversity and inclusion are important to us, so this is the sort of welcome Leiden University wants to give every student and every staff member.

We invest in people’s talents to enable students to have a good start and be successful in their studies and to offer scholars and staff a successful career. We have a keen eye for the differences between men and women and between minorities and non-minorities, as well as for the different opportunities available to them.

We are the first university to become a member of Workplace Pride, the international platform for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) inclusion at work. And we are also the first Dutch university to appoint a diversity officer, who has drafted and will be rolling out an extensive Diversity and Inclusion work plan.

It’s also why we organise a symposium on diversity every year. And why we have created this magazine, for and about the participants in that symposium. It was created together with them.

This collaboration – learning with each other, from ideas, perspectives and cultures other than our own – is what we believe to be the power of diversity and inclusion. Diversity works. That’s why Leiden University is going to do what Harvard, Oxford, IBM and Shell have already been doing: get serious about diversity and inclusion because inclusion and innovation go hand in hand. More diversity – in the classroom, in research and in the workplace – will lead to improvements in quality and creativity. It will help us innovate and excel, so that we can make an impact on this diverse and complex 21st-century world we live in.

So take a moment to read this magazine. I hope it motivates and inspires you to roll up your sleeves and help make our wonderful university even better.

Simone Buitendijk Vice-Rector Magnificus

Read the speech that Simone Buitendijk delivered at the symposium 3

Interview

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Interview

‘ Better in everything we do’ Isabel Hoving is Leiden University’s first diversity officer. She is the author of the Diversity and Inclusion 2014-2016 work plan. The aim of the plan is to achieve greater diversity and inclusion among staff and students, and to do so in a way that feels completely natural. We talked with Isabel about sources of inspiration, misunderstandings and expectations.

How is the Netherlands doing on diversity?

everything we do: teaching, research, consultation and collaboration, attracting and stimulating the best people, getting the best out of students...”

You undoubtedly encounter some resistance, too.

What’s the biggest misconception about diversity in the workplace?

“We have a few colleagues who are afraid that diversity policy is all about appointing lower-quality applicants, merely because they come from a particular group. Research shows us that what happens is just the opposite: with the current traditional recruiting and assessment techniques you don’t necessarily end up with the best candidate, but rather the candidate that most resembles the current staff.”

“Diversity is a hot topic internationally, and the Netherlands is lagging behind. As far as the percentage of women in senior academic positions is concerned, the Netherlands ranks fourth from the bottom in Europe, just ahead of Belgium, Luxembourg and Cyprus. Right now, KU Leuven is making a tremendous effort to catch up, following the lead of inter‘I look forward to national models that have also been a source an international, of inspiration for us, such as Oxford, Zurich, Lund and some other excellent European cosmopolitan, very research universities.”

What examples do you draw your inspiration from?

“There are so many inspiring examples I can learn from; the field is really bubbling with activity internationally. The United States has a lot of ‘good practices’. But I get most inspiration from universities and schools diverse university.’ that show how much energy and creativity are generated by stimulating diversity. Walk What steps has Leiden University around the UC Berkeley campus near San taken in recent years to increase Francisco, with all the different student organisations. diversity?

Take a look at an excellent, extremely diverse school like “One of the main things we’ve been doing is laying the Brampton Manor in London, which was visited recently by Leiden groundwork for an effective approach. Just three years ago, University’s Honours Academy. And read the candid websites an enthusiastic group started putting together a new diversity of American universities that recognise that they haven’t got the policy for the 21st century. They came to the conclusion that a results they want yet, but they’re learning from their failures. But systematic, long-term, integrated policy needed to be introduced, I can also learn from unconventional experiments in Lund and with a diversity officer to stimulate and coordinate the process, Tromsø, and from universities that collaborate closely with the and with support from the top and sufficient resources. It’s really community so they are able to reach young people, who are such a fantastic how all of this came together so quickly. Now we’re diverse group in the 21st century.” getting started with a set of concrete measures. Come back a year from now; the first results are sure to be visible by then.”

What does greater diversity actually get us?

When will the diversity policy have succeeded in your view?

“A lot. We know from research that increased diversity and inclusion lead to higher quality research, education and decisionmaking procedures. Procedures become more transparent and fairer, making it more likely that talent also gets recognised in under-represented groups (like women or people from minority groups). This can give ambitious individuals a tremendous boost. In short, if we work on greater diversity, we get better at

“I look forward to an international, cosmopolitan, very diverse university where many more groups make their voices heard than is the case right now. I want to see more creativity, more debate, more fruitful differences of opinion, and more enthusiasm, involvement and hope. Because then we will have truly become a meritocratic institution, where everyone is judged solely on the basis of his or her performance.”

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What we’re going to do

Diversity and Inclusion Work Plan 2014-2016 Gender-aware appointment policy

Basic principles The plan 1

aims to improve quality by encouraging everyone to develop to their full potential

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is based on research

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increases knowledge

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A gender-aware appointment policy ensures that diversity in senior positions reflects the diversity in the pool of available candidates.

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From student to professor

Search committees

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PhD Assistant (researcher) Professor

Associate Professor

Full Professor

Workshops and training courses promote expertise in diversity throughout the university community.

Promoting expertise 6

What we’re going to do

Four priorities Promoting academic success All students receive extra guidance so they can complete their degree more quickly and with better results. This advice about their studies is easily accessible and individualised.

POPcorner:

Diversity expertise in the search committees

one-on-one counselling for all students

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Open hiring procedures

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A balanced, visible position for women in national and European research programmes Harvard

Oxford University

The university promotes gender-aware research and encourages women to submit research proposals and participate in evaluation committees.

Gender balance in research 7

3 inspiring examples

Diversity and inclusion We’re working hard on diversity and inclusion at Leiden University. “Gendered Innovations” and the 20% Rule that the Faculty of Science is working with are good examples. We put the spotlight on three inspiring examples.

POPcorner: by students, for students

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y students, for students - that’s the power of the POPcorner The goal: to improve academic performance and strengthen their bond with the university. How? By giving students with different cultural and social backgrounds a friendly, familiar place where they can get support and help each other.

Five years ago the Ministry of Education started a number of nationwide projects focusing on diversity. One outcome of this effort is the POPcorner, which gets its name from the Dutch acronym for “First Year Support Point”. This is a place in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences where first year students from diverse backgrounds can go with questions and get extra support for things like time management, language skills and effective study techniques. The POPcorner has since evolved into something more than just a place where first-year students come for support.

Strengthening ties Nadia Mansouri, who works on the POPCorner project, has witnessed this evolution at first hand. “There are dozens of environmental factors that can disrupt the progress of your studies. The students are our hands-on experts, so they are the ones we talk to about what they need.”

She notes that many first-year students

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20% Rule means more in maths & sciences

don’t always feel at home right away when they come to the university. “That’s something we want to change, and it’s going well.” The POPcorner isn’t just a place where students develop their study skills, Mansouri explains. “The faculty also offers students lots of social activities.

It makes the university more than just a place where you attend lectures; it’s also a living environment that students really bond with. Creating this kind of bond is a very important factor for good academic performance.”

Making everyone feel welcome Mansouri is quite sure that this bond is growing. She notes, “We challenge students to participate in all sorts of activities, to contribute their ideas and to initiate projects together. One example is the buddy system that we’ve introduced, where a more senior student tutors a firstyear student for an entire year. We now have a whole network of people inspired by the POPcorner community.” Our experience shows that students from different backgrounds give each other new insights.

“Diversity enriches you. That’s why a good diversity policy is so important. It starts by making everyone feel welcome, and that’s exactly what happens at the POPcorner.

This is just one of the ways we’re turning diversity on paper into reality.”

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t least one out of every five new senior academic hires has to be a woman.

That is what the Faculty of Science committed to with its self-imposed 20% Rule.

And that doesn’t mean compromising on quality, according to Professor Geert de Snoo, Dean of the Faculty.

Whereas in most faculties a professor is only replaced when he retires, in Leiden University’s Faculty of Science it works differently: they use the tenure track system.

The tenure track is a career path of six years for academic staff. When those six years are up, depending on the performance of the staff member, they either move into a permanent position or they leave. We use the tenure track system to increase the number of female staff within the faculty, De Snoo explains. “Since 1 January 2013 we have been working towards a minimum of 20% women for new hires. That’s the lower limit.

In practice we’re higher than that.”

The faculty’s ambition is to increase the number of women in senior academic positions. Why? “We believe the faculty will improve with greater diversity,” says De Snoo.

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More focus on gender in research

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However, an inherent problem in this field is that there aren’t so many women available yet, so the faculty actively searches for female candidates. “Sometimes openings go unfilled for a whole year. We scout out women and conduct citation analyses. Then it’s a question of how to get the right candidates to come to Leiden.”

Women’s network These efforts are having results. In 2009 only 5% of the faculty’s professors were women, whereas now women make up 8.5%. De Snoo: “And in ten years that will probably be 16%.

You could say that’s not much of an improvement, but for us it’s a substantial increase.”

The faculty is also exploring ways to make women feel more at home in Leiden. “We’re building up a women’s network in the faculty, for example, so that they can connect with each other better. We also organise special days for girls: Physics Ladies’ Day and girls@Liacs (computer science). And we’re thinking of additional professorships to attract women. So, yes, you could say we’re making a tremendous effort to catch up.”

endered Innovations is a worldwide academic project aiming to make researchers aware of the need to take differences between men and women into account in their research.

Making this distinction can even save lives. At LUMC, Marie-José Goumans, Professor of Molecular Cardiovascular Cell Biology, encourages researchers to be gender-aware in their work.

Did we realise that research on car safety belts is mostly tested using a dummy modelled on a 35-year-old man? No, we didn’t. “But it is,” says Goumans.

“Pregnant women, just as an example, drive too, and safety belts need to be safe for them as well.”

You come across that average 35-year-old man in study after study. In medicine too, says Goumans. “For example, heart disease is usually studied with male mice in order to minimise variation due to hormones. That makes it possible to use fewer animals, which might be desirable politically, but it makes the research too one-sided.“ It also turns out that men participate in clinical studies more often than women.

Why would that be? Goumans: “When people are asked to take part in a study, it can mean they have to stay at the test location for several days. A woman is more likely than a man to put her family first. The challenge is to make women realise that their participation is also important. And if we really believe that, we need to offer childcare in addition to monetary

compensation. These are minor changes we can make to achieve greater equality and more balanced results in research.”

Still in its infancy Men and women are more different than we have been assuming, according to Goumans. “The realisation is growing steadily that in research you need to treat women and men differently. We’re working on that, but Gendered Innovations is still in its infancy. One of the main ideas we’re focusing on is to give gender a place in (bio)medical education, to make sure that people at least think about it.”

Professor Marie-José Goumans

‘The realisation is growing steadily that in research you need to treat women and men differently.’

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Harvard and IBM

International leaders Who is an inspiring example of diversity policy on the international scene?

Two examples in the spotlight.

‘Make implicit bias visible’

‘Diversity is not just for fun!’

Here’s an interesting fact: if you don’t know who wrote an application letter, the percentage of candidates from underrepresented groups considered to be suitable for the job increases by 300 to 400 percent. Or at least, it does at Harvard, according to Lisa Coleman, Chief Diversity Officer at Harvard University. Harvard already has forty years of experience with diversity policy, and Coleman is the Harvard expert on formulating and implementing this policy. She creates facilities, products and networks for all the university’s underrepresented groups. ‘Blind’ reading of application letters made it clear to her that individuals suffer from implicit bias. “This unconscious aspect has to be made conscious, and we have developed tests to do this.” Here’s another example.

“We work with a tenure track: researchers get a number of years to prove that they are suitable professor material. But we noticed that a relatively high number of women left the track prematurely. And the reason? They had children and then didn’t have enough time to prove themselves. Our solution: pause the tenure track as soon as women have a child and then provide them with childcare.”

Harvard has a whole raft of such initiatives. Do they have any tips for Leiden University? “You now have a work plan with lots of concrete initiatives. Just start implementing it, and as you do, other opportunities will pop up spontaneously.”

Every organisation benefits from diversity, says Harry van Dorenmalen, General Manager of IBM Netherlands. “Without diversity, you miss out on ideas, knowledge, target groups. In other words, you miss out on business.” His attitude? “Diversity is not ‘just for fun’. It’s pure necessity.” According to Van Dorenmalen, non-diverse companies lack a safe environment in which employees are free to be themselves. And this is precisely the environment that is needed to stimulate people to share their ideas and knowledge with the organisation. “What’s more, this kind of company fails to reach certain target groups,” he argues, “because not everyone is heterosexual, male or white, or wants the same product.” For those people who are only convinced by hard figures, Van Dorenmalen has a clear message: “Companies that really invest in diversity perform two to three times better.”

IBM puts diversity into practice with programmes for specific employee groups. Thanks to Casual Friday, everyone feels freer to dress as they like and to show more of their personality. Women are offered courses in negotiation, to strengthen their position in career interviews. According to Van Dorenmalen, an organisation that wants to be more diverse first needs to have a policy plan.

And not only that, the issue of diversity has to be included in the portfolio of the head of the organisation. “You need to stress the importance and the advantages of diversity,” he says.

“And make sure you offer role models, so that the people they are representing see that they are not alone.”

Harvard University has more than forty years of experience with diversity policy. How can you put this kind of policy into practice?

And what should Leiden do? Diversity Officer Lisa Coleman explains.

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IBM has various ways of putting diversity into practice. How do they do it? Harry van Dorenmalen tells us about it in his talk.

One on one

Ten minutes to talk

Thinking about diversity and inclusion doesn’t always have to take hours. Put two people together for ten minutes, present them with a proposition, and watch fascinating conversations, original thoughts, useful tips and helpful suggestions unfold.

Jeannette Heldens, lecturer and programme coordinator at Radboud University Nijmegen and Jan Verhoeven, trainer/ coach in intercultural communication

Anar Baizhanova, ICLON student from Kazakhstan and Madelaine van Mackelenbergh, student of Life Science and Technology and chair of LU Pride

“Paying attention to diversity starts with recognising your own prejudices”

“Diversity increases quality”

JH: “What are my prejudices exactly? I’m aware of the fact that I have prejudices, but I’m not quite sure what they are.”

JV: “Prejudices have to do with your position.”

JH: “Your own context determines how you act and think.

But you should also be sensitive to other people’s contexts. My mother always said, ‘You’re not better than other people, but you’re certainly not less than them either.’ ” JV: “You always look for things that match your own experience.

That means you always have a limited – and therefore prejudiced – perspective.”

JH: “This context in which you function is constantly changing.

And your prejudices also change as a result. The question is of course whether you are aware of it.”

JV: “The less you are in contact with others, the greater your prejudices. I believe in contact as a means of rising above prejudice. More diversity in the workplace helps to achieve that.”

MvM: “I agree. If we respect and use all the qualities and competences of all our people, we will perform better in education and research.”

AB: “Today has really opened my eyes. In Kazakhstan we don’t talk about differences. If you identify the lack of diversity as a problem, you simply have to find a solution for it.”

MvM: “I’m happy that Leiden University is working towards diversity. I think there’s still too much focus on getting women to the top, but luckily attention is also being paid now to other matters, thanks to the university’s membership of Workplace Pride.”

AB: “I don’t know anyone from the LGBT group, now that I think of it.”

MvM: “A good diversity policy means we have to focus on every minority group.”

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Excellence through Diversity Symposium

And now on with the The symposium on Excellence through Diversity on 11 November explored the practice of diversity policy in four practical workshops. How do we get going? Where do we start? Four leads.

Storytelling as a lever Even in the most macho company, lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT) can come to be accepted, says Simone de Ruyter, from LU Pride, the LGBT network of Leiden University.

One thing that can help this along is storytelling. In the context of her internship, De Ruyter once had to visit a company in Zwolle, the heart of the ‘Bible Belt’. “Stay impartial,” she had been told, referring to her position on the board of a number of LGBT organisations. “It turned out that my internship coordinator was in the process of getting divorced as a result of his coming out.”

According to De Ruyter, these kinds of personal stories – ‘storytelling’ – can really bring home the importance for LGBT individuals to be themselves in the workplace. “They perform better, but they also bring a unique perspective on things.” Make sure that your story becomes embedded in the organisation, advises De Ruyter. Preferably from the bottom up. “Ultimately, the goal is to make the Board of Directors aware of the advantages of diversity for the organisation.”

Tip: ‘Create space for everyone’s personal story’

The student as an expert

Within the university, a lot of energy is being spent on finding ways to help students study effectively and complete their programmes on time. This is usually the realm of policymakers, but students also have a lot of experience and knowledge. In the Excellence through Diversity symposium, they were given the floor. What difficulties do they experience in their studies?

What tips do students have for each other and for their teachers to make sure they get the maximum out of their studies?

A video report (in Dutch).

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Excellence through Diversity Symposium

work. But how?

Networking in a foreign language:

‘ Just a matter of doing it’

‘ The first step is to create awareness’ If people keep pointing out to you that you’re different, you don’t want to be different. You’ll try to fit in and hide your identity. This is what Mikal Tseggai, second-year student in Public Administration at Campus the Hague and originally from Eritrea, used to do at her secondary school in Haarlem, where she was the only non-white pupil. “I was so successful in repressing my Eritrean identity that the other kids thought I had been adopted at a young age,” she told us. She now sees that cultural diversity actually offers great advantages: “You look at the world and its problems through a different lens.”

According to Mikal, the most important thing is to identify differences, but not to focus too much on them. “The challenge is also to look for similarities. You might both like playing the piano, or be great football fans. That’s also diversity.” According to her, the academic environment should no longer avoid this topic out of fear of taboos and discussions, but instead embrace its own diverse character. “We know that there is something to be gained in the area of diversity. The first step is to acknowledge that fact.

Everyone should feel at home at the university, irrespective of origin, culture, gender, age or sexual preference.

But we’re not there yet.”

Can you engineer diversity? She’s not sure. “You can’t simply direct or change other people’s thoughts. But by creating a policy of diversity, you can make people aware of the necessity to do something about it. You send out the signal that ‘Hey! There is a policy on this topic, so apparently it’s a problem.’ This is already a great step forward. We have to start small.”

Many Dutch students avoid communicating in English because they find it difficult. There’s no need for them to feel like that, argue Ybo Buruma and Tim van Lit, from the Leiden Debating Union.

“It’s just a matter of doing it. People from a different culture will enrich your network,” says Buruma. “They think differently, and there’s a lot you can learn from them.” And yet, he knows that many students hesitate to make international contacts. “People think that their English isn’t good enough, and that makes them feel at a disadvantage in a discussion. But in most cases, they are really easy to understand.”

There are ways to overcome this reticence, argue Buruma and Van Lit. “Just go up to people. Talk to them, and it will get easier and easier. Their advice: go with someone to a place where you can make this kind of contact. That person can introduce you to other people, which will immediately create a positive image of you, and topics of conversation will come up that you can respond to.”

Are you afraid of uncomfortable silences? There’s no need to be.

Van Lit: “You can already think of a question before you approach someone. That really helps.”

Tip: ‘Cultures have their own conversational preferences. If you want your message to come across, you have to take the other person’s culture into account.’

Tip: ‘Identify the differences, but also look for similarities.’

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Van Bergen Award

Two prize winners How can we improve the contact between Dutch and international students? Every year, the Van Bergen Award is given to the best ideas. This year’s winners, ‘Leiden International Arts & Theatre Foundation’ and ‘Buddy Talk’, can now put their plans into practice.

Leiden International Arts & Theatre Foundation

Artistic talents as a vehicle

The Leiden International Arts & Theatre Foundation (LIAT) aims to stimulate the Leiden student community to exchange and express artistic talent. At the initiative of the creator, Thanos Souliotis, Dutch and international students work together to produce a theatre performance that they themselves act in. LIAT is also planning to organise theatre improvisation workshops. The Arts International Symposium and the Arts Feedback Dinner are also both among their planned activities. The main goal of LIAT is to bring Dutch and international students closer together. The underlying thought is that this will happen automatically as a result of the LIAT participants working intensively together towards a common goal. Souliotis: “To be able to do this, the students have to show real dedication and responsibility.

This kind of collaborative process, including all the conflicts and successes that go with it, really brings the group together.”

“This is mesmerising. I am so happy that an artistic project like this is being supported by the Van Bergen Fund. LIAT is not just good for the university, but for the entire Leiden community.” – Thanos Souliotis

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Van Bergen Award

“We had actually been thinking about the idea for several years, so we grabbed this opportunity to make our plans reality.” – Kim-Lan Jong Baw

“We never expected the jury to be as enthusiastic as we are.”

– Qing-yi Fan

Buddy Talk

Working together to break language barriers

‘Buddy Talk’ is the brainchild of Kim­Lan Jong Baw and Qing­yi Fan. It focuses on language development.

“One of the greatest obstacles facing international students is the language barrier,” says Fan. “But language courses cost students two things that they already have too little of: money and time.” That’s why Jong Baw and Fan decided to come up with an alternative: Buddy Talk.

It works as follows. Students indicate which language they speak fluently and which languages they would like to learn. On the basis of these preferences, the Buddy Scan matches pairs of students who can teach each other a language. It’s a fun form of linguistic and cultural exchange. “And we also organise lively network events to encourage these contacts even more.”

Be Present, Award Winner in 2013

‘It’s a way of making real friends’ ‘Be Present’ was one of the winners of the Van Bergen Award in 2013. This project links groups of Dutch and international students to a one-off volunteer project with the Leiden Present Association. Creator Janneke Klop: “What better way to connect than to work together to help people in need?” ‘Be Present’ was launched in October 2014. Dutch and inter­ national students worked together to tidy up an overgrown garden. Klop:

“Everyone was incredibly enthusiastic.”

Volunteer work isn’t the only thing that students do together. Before an activity, they have a brief training in intercultural communication, and afterwards, they meet to cook and eat together. “It’s a good way of making real friends,” says Klop. If you want to find out more or to join in, you can sign up via: www.contrastleiden.nl

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Speakers’ Corner

Where do we go from here?

Leiden University is committed to increasing diversity and inclusion. It all starts with the staff and students.

How can they get to work on this issue? What do they think should happen? People from outside the university also have opinions that they might want to share. A page full of good intentions, inspiring quotes and useful advice.

Free Advice What should happen right now to create more diversity and inclusion at Leiden University?

See here for some free advice (in Dutch).

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