Groningen University staff complain of undesirable behavior: 'There is toxic masculinity here'

The diversity and inclusion of Young Academy Groning is stated in a report by the Working Group, which interviewed 26 people and published it with the University. The institution is taking further action against the deficiency.

The perpetrators were almost all men, Dutch and officers of the victims. A professor at the university is said to have called the Chinese ‘yellow ants’. Another authority “almost weekly reminds us that our promotion depends on his evaluation.” If there are differences of opinion, he will threaten a negative evaluation.

Also, “there’s a toxic masculinity here that excludes choirs and homosexuals,” says another interviewer. Younger female employees had more work to do in their words: “I often taught twice as much as my male colleagues.” Such extra work made it more difficult to get a PhD.

“I’m totally disappointed. I do my job because I need money, but I’m shown as little as I can here,” says one of the victims. “Every time I go on an open day, I have a terrible experience. I’m always there, man, if you know what’s happening to you. ”

Young Academy Groningen included a response from the executive board of Groningen University. That “sadly” caught the attention of the report. A zero tolerance policy and various mechanisms were put in place years ago to prevent such behavior, the company said. “In spite of these efforts, as the report shows, we deeply regret that the employees interviewed are still experiencing undesirable behavior. We will continue to do our utmost to prevent this as much as possible. We have new initiatives in the fight against harassment and intimidation.”

An ‘Ombudsperson’ will provide plenty of resources to support anyone in need. There will be additional training sessions where people learn to deal with inappropriate behavior at an early stage. A team will be formed to monitor social security and gather knowledge on how to combat undesirable behavior.

A university spokesman said he was happy even with the RUG report. “If you don’t know enough about something, it’s hard to work on it. This makes the situation more transparent and helps to break the existing ban on things like this. Each step helps. ”