Joint Communication Updates
The outcomes of each meeting are shared with the DAE community in joint communications sent out via email and are also collated on this page in the interests of accessibility and transparency.
For questions about the wider DAE policy on inclusivity, how the Academy’s complaints procedure works and who DAE community members can contact if they need support, please read our General Questions page.
For any other concerns, questions or feedback please email communications@designacademy.nl.
Steps Forward
12 March 2021
Dear DAE community,
We would like to provide an update on the last meeting held by our working group which took place in January. Continuing to respond to the ARC’s original 6-point program, the Executive Board provided updates to several of the initiatives currently underway within DAE to address issues of discrimination, racism, and inclusivity.
→ Anti-Racist Trainings for teachers, staff and students
With the original Teacher’s Day postponed due to the COVID-19 lockdown in December, DAE remains committed to providing mentors with the opportunity to participate in sensitivity and anti-discrimination training. With that in mind, the original teacher‘s day has been extended to the timeframe of Monday March 29 to Thursday April 1.
In terms of the trainings and courses themselves, DAE has reached out to external partners, including educator Kaylee Rosalina, to create proposals for debates and trainings within DAE. The goal is to work together with dr. Praveen Sewgobind and Kaylee Rosalinatoto setup and beginning running these forums later this year. Meanwhile Praveen Sewgobind will setup a Social Justice Lab within DAE. A first staff training by Kaylee Rosalina, initiated by Communications, has already taken place including amongst others communications team members, Student Counsellor and Heads of BA & MA programmes.
→ Group Agreements and Anonymous Teacher Evaluation Forms
A draft of the anonymous Teacher Evaluations forms has been created for review by members of the Student Council as well as BCC and MCC and should be implemented by the end of the 2nd semester this year.
The Executive Board remains committed to the implementation of Group Agreements across DAE. However, due to the postponement of Teacher’s Day in December, there has yet to be a formal discussion regarding their format. Once a working group has been established, and a draft form approved by mentors and staff, they will be rolled out throughout the school. The goal remains to prepare these before the start of the second semester.
→ Internal and Independent complaint system within DAE
As a first step in the creating the framework for a more comprehensive complaint system at DAE, the Code of Conduct, which among other changes now includes a section on the use of English language regulation within classrooms. The revised text will be reviewed and formalized by the newly form Institutional Participation Council
Bezemer & Schubad have concluded their formal investigations into the allegations made by current and former students of Studio Identity. While a detailed account of the outcome of this investigation has already been released, the Executive Board and Student Council remain committed to the creation of a more visible and supportive system of care for students at DAE.
→ Changes to the Current Curriculum & Issues of Equity
The curriculum at DAE is currently in stage 2 of the renewal development program. This is being overseen by a working group which includes student representatives. With regards to one of the questions made by the ARC 6-point program, the goal will be to develop content for courses that include design practices from Africa and its diaspora, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas Design, Art and Media histories between September and December 2021.
Dr. Praveen Sewgobind, the newly appointed professor of Diversity and Inclusivity at DAE, has begun reaching out to the student body as part of creating a strategy and plan of action that emerges from his professorship.
Starting in September 2021 DAE will be providing 14 Holland Scholarships for non-EU students.
Finally, the communication department has created a new page on the DAE website to collect and share public updates regarding safety and inclusivity at DAE:
https://www.designacademy.nl/p/about-dae/inclusivity-and-culture
And established an editorial team to support the communication of activities, ideas, and processes taking place within the institution:
https://www.designacademy.nl/p/about-dae/news/dae-launches-editorial-team
The Executive Board understands that big steps still need to be taken, but has confidence in the continuation of the cooperative process.
With Kind Regards,
DAE Executive Board, Anti-Racist Committee and DAE Student Council
The steps we are taking next
1 December 2020
Dear DAE community,
Following up on our letter of two weeks ago, we would like to inform you all about the concrete steps we discussed in our meeting on 24 November.
Reacting to the demands of the ARC, the Executive Board compiled a detailed, written list of measures to implement an anti-racist and inclusivity-oriented culture within DAE. In this meeting, we discussed four of the most pressing steps that should be made a reality as quickly as possible.
→ Anti-racist training for teachers, staff and students
This point was already addressed in the last meeting on 11 November, but the importance of it has been reiterated, and an action plan has been created:
• Several Anti-Racist Lectures will be set up between now and 1 September 2021. From then on the diversity of speakers and topics linked to diversity will become a fixed part of the structure of public lectures at DAE.
• Sensitivity Trainings on Teacher Days will be implemented as soon as 17 December, when the first of these days is going to take place. This Teacher Day will include sensitivity training.
• A forum for students and teachers to facilitate a conversation specifically about race and diversity issues will be set up between January and May 2021. This process will be started by collecting input from the student body and pinpointing recurring topics, which will be discussed by dedicated topic-teams from the student body with a group of 9–16 teachers from three studios and master courses. The discussion will be led by a moderator that is yet to be decided upon.
→ Group Agreements and Anonymous Teacher Evaluation Forms
Group Agreements will be set up next semester in all BA departments. These agreements are meant to be generated collectively with students and studio leaders and ensure that there is a clear understanding of what forms and tones of communication are acceptable for everyone. They are also meant to formalise acceptable ways of working for both sides and clarify how these have been decided upon. Detailed instructions on this will be sent in a separate email.
Anonymous Teacher Evaluation Forms are going to become a reality with a pilot project starting next semester in all BA studios. The questions on these forms will be related to the culture and environment within the studios and drawn up by ARC in co-operation with Student Council. Additionally, operational and content-related questions will be added by the Executive Board. Detailed instructions on this will be sent in a separate email. These tools are planned to be implemented for the whole institution by the third trimester of the BA Propaedeutic Year and the master programmes.
→ Internal and Independent complaint system within DAE
A number of students within DAE and all over the country believe that the way in which complaints are handled within educational institutions is broken. This is why multiple initiatives have emerged recently to take on the task of changing these systems. The Executive Board has made an acknowledgement of the state of this system within DAE, and it is also agreed upon by the parties involved that all energy will be put into changing this system, not just pointing out its flaws.
A first concrete step towards this transformation is a clearer communication from the Executive Board about the specific measures that are taken when a complaint is filed. At the same time, this demands a certain level of trust from the student body which is to be re-established and a mutual understanding that the treatment of every case is different and needs to be carefully deliberated.Further, the wish has been expressed to make it obligatory for all coordinators to document every offence by teaching personnel that is being reported to them by students.
→ Representation of BIPOC on the Institutional Participation Committee
The question of diverse representation of the student body on the newly established IPC was also raised by the Anti-Racist Committee. Since the student body elects student members of the IPC, its diversity is not decided by the Executive Board but rather by the votes from the student body.
With Kind Regards,
DAE Executive Board, Anti-Racist Committee and DAE Student Council
A message from DAE Executive Board, Anti-Racist Committee and DAE Student Council
19 November 2020
Dear DAE community,
On June 3rd, the Executive Board of the Design Academy published a letter seeking to address issues of diversity and racism within the institution. In that letter, they pledged to do everything possible to achieve concrete improvements in a short timeframe, and at the same time, asked students to use the considerable means at their disposal to influence the decisions that are made within the school.
To that end, a group of current students and alumni, working together with external experts, created a 6 point program, consisting of 28 demands, which seeks to directly tackle the systemic racism, and discrimination which has been experienced by students of the Design Academy.
→ A collaboration between the Board, the Student Council and the ARC
On October 27th, this group of students, known as the Anti-Racist Committee (ARC), along with representatives of Student Council (SC) met for the first time with the Executive Board to discuss the 6 point program. What followed was the beginning of a frank and open discussion which sought to outline the pragmatic steps that are being taken by the Board, and the administration to address the issues highlighted by the ARC.This first discussion led to the agreement of a series of meetings leading up to the new year to continue this conversation.
→ Clear communication
There was an acknowledgement that there remains a lack of visibility and communication to the wider DAE community about what these steps will be, and how students can provide meaningful feedback that can help shape their implementation. As such, working together with members from the ARC and SC, the Board has agreed to create more open and transparent lines of communication with the student body about what efforts are being made to directly address racism and discrimination within the school. The first such effort towards this greater transparency will be the publication of a monthly report, outlining the conversations held by this working group, any decisions that are made through it, and a clear description of the next steps being taken in addressing racism and other forms of discrimination within the school.
→ Planned measures
The newly created Bachelor Course Committee, as well as the still to be assembled Masters Course Committee will be tasked with evaluating and proposing changes to the current curriculum at DAE. These official committees will be made up of elected, paid representatives from the student body, as well as teachers, who will collectively work towards creating a curriculum that is more representative of and responsive to the needs of DAE students.
One of the three new Readerships will be devoted to structural transformation and decolonisation of the Design Academy itself. The research and focus of this Readership is meant to offer clear and actionable suggestions that will lead to more structural changes within the school. This is announced last Tuesday by the Board. For more information can be found on DAE website readerships.
Finally, for teachers in the bachelor’s courses, during the biannual Teacher Days, a workshop is being organized, which is meant to address issues of discrimination, racism, and inclusivity.
→ Follow us to know about further developments
As the conversation among the ARC, Student Council and the Board continues to unfold in the coming months, we hope to utilize various platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and emails to keep the DAE community informed and the actions of the working group as transparent as possible. We recognize that the changes outlined by this first letter are small and incremental. However, it is our hope that they represent the beginning of a longer and more substantive change to the culture of discrimination and racism which has marked the history of the institution and towards a more inclusive and equitable future.
With Kind Regards,
DAE Executive Board, Anti-Racist Committee and DAE Student Council
