During its third meeting the Sustainability University Assembly at VU Amsterdam passed the halfway mark. On Tuesday 20 May the participants came together to continue their work on the the Assembly’s question: How can we become a sustainable university? The meeting focussed on cross-pollination between participants’ Working Groups: hearing about each others’ ideas and making them stronger by asking questions and making suggestions.
A quick recap of the process so far: more than 130 members of the VU community – students and staff – started their journey on 15 April when they first explored the issue of becoming a sustainable university. Through dialogue they decided the main topics for the Assembly to address. They then formed Working Groups of 8-10 participants, each dedicated to one of these topics, and started developing their ideas. In their second meeting on 6 May they spoke to a range of guest experts who could provide input. After collecting information from these Inspirators, the participants continued the work on their proposals in the Working Groups.
Meeting 3: cross-pollination
Now, at their third meeting, the time had come for Working Groups to compare notes, so they could add to each others’ ideas and find out if there were topics on which they could collaborate between groups. To do this, they mingled by way of a carrousel – a format that they had also used in the meeting with guest experts on 6 May. In three rounds, participants chose which other Working Group they wanted to hear from, and joined their table for a 25-minute dialogue session. Of course, one or two participants of each Working Group had to stay put to inform others about their own proposal.
For just under 90 minutes, we saw cross-pollination happening between groups, as participants were informing and questioning each other at 14 dialogue tables. Between rounds, there would be a few minutes of organised chaos, as all participants got up and found their way to their next station in the carrousel. One of the participants remarked at the end of the final round: “this was such great fun” while another said that the approach of one of the groups had given them “a useful way of looking at what we can do even in a context of budget cuts”.
Towards a Sustainability Agreement
After the dinner break, participants reconvened in their Working Groups and started to process the feedback and insights they had collected in the carrousel. They used this to further develop and finetune their proposals for a sustainable VU Amsterdam. The room, Theatre 2 in the NU Building, bathed in the evening sunlight while the dialogue at 14 tables provided a gentle buzz. This, too, is what decision-making on complex issues can look like.
The Assembly will resume the development of proposals on Tuesday 3 June. During this meeting, the Working Groups will aim to finalise their proposals and prepare presentations – and short videos – to share them with a broader audience. The Assembly will present its proposals on Friday 20 June, from 10am, at the ‘University Convention’. This will be a public meeting, do register if you would like to come along and find out about the Assembly’s proposals. The Convention will conclude with a vote and the resulting Agreement will be handed to the Executive Board, which is committing to taking the outcomes seriously.