Starting academic year 2027-28, every Avans staff member and student will be entitled to two diversity days selected by Avans. These are non-Christian public holidays that are not currently designated as days off. The Avans Participation Council (AMR) approved the executive board’s proposal on Tuesday.
The five public holidays in question are: Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Yom Kippur, Diwali and Keti Koti. Avans made the selection based on the most represented groups at the university.
No exams
At present, students are still required to attend school on non-Christian public holidays and are dependent on the goodwill of their lecturers if they wish to have the day off. This plan will change that. On these five days, no exams or compulsory teaching activities can be scheduled. Non-compulsory activities will, however, need to be rescheduled for another time.
Under the new proposal, lecturers can choose two days per academic year to take off. They do this when filling in their annual timetable. These days are then reserved in their timetable. Non-teaching staff can take a day off on these dates.
The proposal states that this plan aims to meet Avans’ students and staff wishes for more up-to-date public holiday and leave arrangements.
Inclusion
The AMR has been calling for diversity days to be included in the annual calendar for several years now. “If we want to be an inclusive university of applied sciences, this needs to be addressed. This plan contributes to that,” says staff representative Eric van Oevelen. He is a member of the working group that examined the proposal. At the same time, the Diversity & Inclusion core team was also working on this issue.
Alignment with compulsory days off
The council is enthusiastic about the executive board’s proposal, but anticipated a potential wrinkle. If a diversity day coincides with compulsory days off, the council believes this could lead to many staff members taking leave at the same time. The Council would like to know how the workload for non-compulsory teaching activities will be prevented from increasing demand on staff who are present on those days. This question has been raised in a letter to the executive board. AMR member Van Oevelen emphasises that this point is a minor detail in an otherwise comprehensive proposal.
Initially, this will be a two-year pilot, after which an evaluation will take place.
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