The Staff’s Column
Inclusion and co-determination. Thank you for your co-operation!
The academic staff board work is far from boring. Consider the disagreements between researchers and management about SDU’s initiatives, dimensioning, budget model and adjustment, and lack of co-determination and involvement. In this column piece, I shall address SDU’s work with co-determination and involvement and resign from the Board.
There has been no shortage of challenges in board work over the past five years. Not least the issue of lack of co-determination and involvement (hereafter referred to as the Danish abbreviation MEDI) in key decisions has been and still is a major issue, but the collaboration in SDU’s Board of Directors on this and other issues has been good and characterised by constructive discussions where both agreements and disagreements have been discussed.
SDU’s Board of Directors assumed its statutory responsibility to secure the framework for MEDI in 2020. A committee was set up and its efforts resulted in a number of recommendations that were discussed in the collegiate bodies. Amendments were incorporated before finally being presented to the Board of Directors. In other words, the collegiate forums were truly heard.
There are nine recommendations, including communication efforts in connection with university elections; training of managers in co-determination and participation; early involvement of collegiate bodies in important topics; timing of meetings in consultation bodies; visibility of decision-makers and transparency in hearings and discussions.
The implementation of these began in 2021, followed by a mid-term review in 2022.
Some areas and contexts show improvement: Decision-making processes, such as SDU’s new strategy, have become more transparent; the Board is informed more frequently about which councils have been consulted; meeting minutes are more comprehensive; and collegiate bodies are involved more frequently and earlier.
In other areas, however, MEDI is still limited to management’s information purposes towards the collegiate bodies. Here, minutes, agreed minutes and discussions are rare. In some parts of the organisation, there are even employees who refrain from expressing criticism for fear of the consequences.
We need to change that! MEDI is/should be a natural part of SDU’s everyday practices. It’s a shared responsibility and therefore requires everyone’s attention. I look forward to the recommendations being implemented throughout SDU, in all areas and in all corners, and I look forward to this being reflected in the final evaluation of the implementation, which, according to the Executive Board’s decision, will be initiated in 2025.
My board term expires at the end of 2023. I see the value in rotation as a means to prevent power concentration and ensure fresh perspectives. Therefore, I will not be standing for election, but will pass the baton to the winner of the upcoming election of academic staff to the Board of Directors.
I would like to thank all of my colleagues across all faculties for your great input to the board work. At the same time, I would like to thank the Board for our constructive co-operation, both when we agreed and when we disagreed.
Gitte Rasmussen
Professor and Head of Center for Social Practices and Cognition (SoPraCon) at the Department of Culture and Language. She sits on SDU’s Board of Directors as a representative of the academic staff.