A forgetful university

I’ve now been at TU Delft for a good four years. When I finish my master’s degrees in two years, I will have spent six years here. Statistically speaking, at that point, around 85% of the students who started at the same time as me will have graduated. It’s par for the course: students come and go, and only a few brave souls stay and persevere through a PhD. When you look at it this way, is it any wonder that our collective memory is so short?

There’s no aspect of university life that this doesn’t touch. For example, student representation fights an uphill battle against a mostly static university administration. How can student representatives exercise a consistent multi-year vision if their individual terms last one year? Furthermore, how can the fight for issues like social safety and democratisation continue if many of those fighting leave every year?

Wait for the troublemakers to graduate

Certainly fresh blood also means fresh ideas and new ways to address problems. But I’ve been noticing that it also makes it all too easy for an administration that is not interested in addressing controversial issues. All they have to do is promise reform, spend a few years in committee, and wait out the clock. Wait for the troublemakers asking for change to graduate, then slowly return to business as usual. By the way, anyone remember how a super majority of consulted students and staff asked for transparency and specific conditions for collaborating with fossil fuel companies a year ago? No, me neither.

We now have an opportunity to demonstrate that we do have a collective memory. TU Delft has finally decided to suspend new institutional partnerships with Israeli universities unless they meet some as yet unannounced criteria. Now that a shaky ceasefire has been reached, it is conceivable that some would call for a return to normal. But to return to business as usual would mean to implicitly capitulate to Israel’s genocidal violence that some estimates show has led to the death of up to 10% of the population of Gaza. It would be morally bankrupt to resume partnerships just because the worst of the criminal acts have already been performed.

It is true that the modern world bombards us with so many issues that it feels like it’s impossible to keep track of everything. Even so, we can’t keep those in power accountable unless we keep an eye on the past. I may sometimes forget what I ate this morning. But I can’t forget what I’m fighting for.