The conversations with colleagues that followed are ones we have had before. No woman was actually shocked about the faculty only putting men on these prominent positions. But how could this happen in 2026? On LinkedIn, multiple people pointed out the lack of diversity on all fronts. The University communication department answered in a measured response. They had an open call, they expected the leaders to do this task alongside their normal tasks, and “this outcome highlights that we still have work ahead of us when it comes to diversity at our faculty”. As was pointed out in multiple comments: it is already known that open calls do not promote diversity, and extra tasks are not attractive to groups that are already overburdened - often the more disadvantaged groups.

If you walk through the corridors of the Science faculty, you see them everywhere, female talent, international talent. If you look at the promotional banner photo chosen for the article about the new leaders, you will see a Muslim woman in the lab and women doing fieldwork. The university has a DEI expertise office. The fact that these choices at the level of strategic leadership can apparently still be made unchallenged is therefore all the more painful.

Gender balance

I would have liked to see leadership that feels the need to go back to the drawing board if this was the result. That refuses to kick off working on strategic profiling themes before the Science community is actually represented. That takes the time to evaluate their procedures and have a conversation with those that don’t react to an open call. That offers real workload reduction in exchange for an extra commitment in an already busy schedule. That does anything beyond acknowledging the obvious. I want leadership that helps all of us become more actionable and dare to speak up if something does not sit right. Leadership that leads by example.

As our dean Jasper pointed out during the Science New Year’s event: we would rather have seen a better gender balance. The event itself proved the opposite. It did not stage any women. Not for the speeches on strategy, not for presenting or receiving any awards, and not for a scientific talk. So just like with most New Year’s resolutions, the intentions are good, but looking back at previous years, nothing actually changed.

Lisann Brincker is an educational advisor at the Science Teacher Support Desk (SEEDS) at the Science Faculty.