Other spheres

The day after the American elections, Terence Tao, a mathematician at UCLA and winner of the Fields Medal (the ‘Nobel Prize for Mathematics’), pondered whether it made sense to deliver a lecture on complex analysis to his students that day. After all, could they really concentrate? And in light of current political events, how relevant is it to be able to calculate a contour integral in the complex plane? Yet, Tao found a glimmer of hope. “But there is one precious thing mathematics has, that almost no other field currently enjoys: a consensus on what the ground truth is, and how to reach it. Because of this, even the strongest differences of opinion in mathematics can eventually be resolved, and mistakes realised and corrected.”

At one of his rallies, Trump promised to end “the abuse of your taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s youth with all sorts of things that you don’t wanna have our youth hearing”. Sounds familiar? In her recent HJ Schoo lecture, Minister Dilan Yesilgöz likened ‘wokism’ to extremism in one breath, calling them movements that threaten the rule of law. “For too long, the activist woke culture has dominated lecture halls and educational institutions,” echoed Reinder Blaauw, an MP from the PVV. Budget cuts as a weapon: “This is the only way to give educational institutions the opportunity to reconsider their priorities. Do our educational institutions want political activism on the agenda or solid education and research?”

The announced budget cuts are illegitimate, as they constitute a breach of contract

In a poignant opinion piece in the NRC newspaper, Ingrid Robeyns observed that ‘history teaches us time and again that democratically elected politicians with authoritarian aspirations seek to undermine public institutions, because these are crucial for truth-finding and the protection of liberal fundamental rights’. The announced budget cuts are illegitimate, as they constitute a breach of contract. “In 2022, a governance agreement was made with higher education for 10 years which was meant to bring stability and peace to universities. Now, without any justification or consultation, this agreement is being unilaterally terminated by the Government.” The agreement involved significant investments in higher education and research: an annual investment of over a billion euros, including additional resources from the Coalition Agreement.

The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) is protesting the cuts in an open letter – a first of its kind. The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) have also made strong statements. A national demonstration was postponed. The National Student Union (LSVb) called for a strike. Our Executive Board Chair pulled out a red card.

It is to be hoped that the protests do not end there, and that legal action follows. Indeed, the termination of the governance agreement has been deemed by the Dutch Bar Association as ‘contrary to the principles of the rule of law’.

Fortunately, I manage to detach from all concerns occasionally by teaching beautiful mathematics to our enthusiastic students. Echoing Tao, “if my students can learn from this and carry these skills – such as distinguishing an overly simple but mathematically flawed ‘solution’ from a more complex, but accurate actual solution – to other realms that have more contact with the real world, then my maths lectures have consequence. Even – or perhaps, especially – in times like these.”