© Portrait: Sam Rentmeester
‘Sometimes you have to go through a deep valley in order to climb that high mountain’
We are used to celebrating our successes: the scientific breakthroughs, successful spin-offs or fantastic student projects. Below the surface, however, some things are not going well. This became apparent this spring from the Education Inspectorate’s confrontational report on social safety at TU Delft. As an organisation, we have failed in recent years to provide a safe working and study environment for everyone, which takes us aback somewhat.
We just want to be a place where everyone can enjoy working and studying. Where we treat each other with respect and don’t exclude anyone. Where we work together constructively and where there is also scope for discussion and people are not afraid to speak out. That includes daring to admit that mistakes are being made and that things need to improve.
We are now fully engaged in that improvement. A ‘Plan for change’, drawn up with a lot of valuable input, feedback and ideas from staff, students and alumni, among others, is the first step in a process of cultural change that we are working on together. Sometimes you have to go through a deep valley in order to climb that high mountain. We hope we have reached the turning point and have set the stage for a socially safe university.
At the same time, let us remain mindful of all the great things that are happening in our TU Delft community. This edition of Delft Matters is full of them. In a nutshell: sport & sustainability, critical raw materials & geopolitical independence, electronic waste separation, bacterial arsenic filtration and much more is discussed, all of course from the perspective of the people working on it.
And a critical question to conclude with: should we put a stop to AI developments in order to prevent climate damage? I’m going to enjoy reading the answer, are you?
Prof.dr.ir. Tim van der Hagen
Rector Magnificus TU Delft
