By Vedosi Karmarkar
10 June, 18:33: A message in the general AUC WhatsApp group chat (AUCGC) sent students into a spiral of confusion. The chair of the Student Council, Willemijn Eijsink, shared the three drafted scenarios developed by the Future Scenarios Taskforce regarding the future of AUC. While the presented scenarios seem to invite a sense of hopelessness for the future of Humanities and Social Sciences students, it is first important to understand the implications of this decision.
The drafted scenarios outline AUC becoming Bachelor of Science (BSc)-only, reorienting itself towards “Science, Technology, Citizenship in Society” while forefronting science in the curriculum, or shutting down entirely. Immediately, students expressed their displeasure with the scenarios in the AUCGC, questioning how this would affect their education, or whether such changes are sustainable.
In an interview with the Herring, Eijsink explains the process that the taskforce undertook in order to derive these scenarios.
What does this mean for current students?
On paper: nothing. It has been made clear that current students are protected by the rules set by the Academic Standards and Procedures (AS&P) and cannot be forced to switch majors or transfer programmes. “It’s important to remember that implementation will be a slow process”, says Eijsink. “The AS&P requirements have not only been fixed for our year, but also for the class of 2029”. She explains that the drafted scenarios are targeting Dutch and science-inclined students. It remains questionable whether such a target market even exists.
“A BSc-only Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) curriculum puts us in competition with programs that do the same thing, such as the Maastricht Science Program”. Eijsink comments. As AUC does not have resources like labs and in-house experts to compete with these institutions, the question becomes: Will AUC be able to attract 300 students per year?
If AUC becomes exclusively BSc, the philosophy of an LAS institution will carry on, with students being able to explore the sciences interdisciplinarily. However, “we find that even when we talk to Sciences students, they don’t just talk about interdisciplinarity within the sciences, but also [their] want for taking courses in Social Sciences and Humanities”, Eijsink states.
What happens now?
The scenarios are in the first draft stage. They have been created by the dean based solely on research conducted by the taskforce, and do not include concrete measures of implementation. According to Eijsink, they are currently “quite vague” and will actually be presented to the UVA and VU after more rounds of feedback. “What we’re trying to do is get students to see that there is still room for change”, says Eijsink.
“We want the clear rejection of the [BSc-only] scenario by the student body so that it can also be clear to the executive board that this is unappealing to everyone here for a reason”. Eijsink ascertains. She hopes that the “Science, Technology, Citizenship in Society” scenario can be shaped into something that keeps the interdisciplinarity at the core of AUC intact. While changes still need to be made to AUC, “there is a lot of wiggle room in the current drafts being proposed”.
“I want to emphasise that we are working on clarifying the scenario in a way that actually appeals to the current student body, and we invite everyone to be present for Tuesday’s [16 June] meeting to further express [their discontent]”, Eijsink concludes.
The final Taskforce Progress Meeting will be held at 12:45 in the common room. The dean will be present as well.
The Herring 