Interview Universität Heidelberg – Diversity in Community
14 October 2024
In the interview: Rector Frauke Melchior and student representatives Carolin Roder and Fritz Beck talk about spaces for discourse and dialogue
Over 40,000 people from more than 120 nation states, with their respective, very different cultural backgrounds, form the cosmos of Heidelberg University. This creates great diversity, which is enriching and contributes to broadening personal and academic horizons. But it can also give cause for arguments, tensions and misunderstandings. That is the topic of an interview between Carolin Roder and Fritz Beck, the two chairs of the Constituted Student Body, and Prof. Dr Frauke Melchior, Rector of Heidelberg University.
How do you experience diversity at Heidelberg University and what challenges arise there in everyday life together?
Beck: Diversity is extremely important for us as a university and as the student body. One of the challenges is creating space for dialogue without individuals or groups feeling or being disadvantaged. We understand space not only figuratively but also physically: as space we give for personal exchange, for student events or meetings.
Roder: “For us, a good university is a place of diversity” says one of the first decisions of our Constituted Student Body, which was founded ten years ago. That is still relevant. We stand for equality of opportunity, for the integration of international students and for neutrality of world view. We have to and we want to engage with different perspectives. At the same time, a decision was taken relating to incompatibility with anti-constitutional groups, which we have already put into practice.
Melchior: I can only endorse that. I see diversity in the university as an essential basis for our successes. It is irreplaceable as an important resource for both our research and for studying and we must protect it. However, people only feel at home and capable of top performances if they have an environment in which they feel safe and appreciated. That is something we in the university leadership want to foster even more. We would like to give our members everywhere and at every place – whether in lecture theaters, research groups or the administration – the feeling of being welcome and valued.
Diversity is extremely important for us as a university and as the student body.
Fritz Beck
At present the Middle East conflict is sparking polarizing, emotional debates that influence life together on campus. Is that a danger, or perhaps also an opportunity for the university?
Beck: That question is not so easy to answer. Individual events we can, or must, rate as dangers, while others should naturally also be understood as opportunities. We must only ensure that every discourse ultimately leads to dialogue, because both are important.
Roder: Here, too, there is an older decision by the student body that is helpful. It related originally to the promotion of humanities subjects, but advocates the regular questioning of one’s own worldview as a general principle. For us, that is one of the foundations of university culture that affects all areas of science.
Melchior: Yes, that is the essence of science; just as I, as a cell biologist, constantly critique every hypothesis published by my colleagues, I also critically question my own hypotheses. The university is a space in which we should be able to discuss everything and be allowed to view everything from all sides. If necessary, we have to defend this freedom in our midst but also from outside influences.
There are red lines. As soon as the dignity and safety of people is under attack we have to put a stop to it.
Frauke Melchior
How can you manage the balancing act between, on the one hand, enabling conversations and disputes and, on the other, protecting members of the university from discrimination?
Melchior: There are red lines. As soon as the dignity and safety of people is under attack we have to put a stop to it. I also think that we have to bear with certain things, and are capable of doing so. Expressing opinions through posters and demonstrations is one of the basic rights in our democracy. What we can’t accept, however, is forms of physical violence or aggressive verbal attacks.
Roder: We, too, clearly position ourselves against any form of violence. In the Student Council we have clearly distanced ourselves in the past from “anti-Semitism, anti-Islamism, antigypsyism, racism, as well as any form of discrimination” that arise in combination with political conflicts. At the same time, we do not adopt a political position in such conflicts. As a student representative body we may only make statements on university policy and not generally on political matters.
What steps do you take to enable respectful community relations?
Roder: We are always in search of structural solutions, facilitating dialogue and responding to actual situations. For example, once a lot of anti-queer graffiti started appearing on walls. Then we put our heads together to find a way to prevent that happening. We propose amendments to laws, draft manuals or encourage initiatives along these lines. In general, prevention work is necessary from all sides.
Beck: Naturally it is always hard to make spaces somewhere without taking them away somewhere else, to use this metaphor once again. This creates new conflict potential right away. But we also see encouraging signs. Two and a half years ago, for example, students from Russia and Ukraine each demanded that we should not allow the other group to use our Constituted Student Body premises. We continued to make our rooms available to both groups. Fortunately, some of the people from these groups are now talking to one another again.
Melchior: Willingness to discuss has top priority with me, too. I am convinced that we have to give people a hearing. As soon as they feel they are taken seriously there is less danger of radicalization. Even if opinions are sometimes hard to tolerate, we have to pay attention to them – but always in a respectful setting.
We are always in search of structural solutions, facilitating dialogue and responding to actual situations.
Carolin Roder
Could one problem be that there is often a lot of emotionality and personal involvement in play?
Melchior: What causes me great concern is to hear that some students are afraid to come to our university. If, for example, Jewish, Muslim or queer students no longer feel safe on campus we have to think about how we can deal with that better. We have already taken many different steps, e.g. through the service providing accompanied walking across the Im Neuenheimer Feld campus or now through the ‘trust pilots’ available in the GUIDE program. In my opinion, however, anxiety is also being fueled and instrumentalized at the moment, not least in the media. Individual incidents are blown up to look greater than they are. We have to tackle the fear, including through being more attentive to one another.
Roder: We have been successful in drawing those concerned into our structures, for example with our anti-racism department as a contact point. On the topic of Israel/Palestine we held a panel discussion where those involved on both sides were able to come together and exchange views. They weren’t all necessarily fond of one another but the dialog still worked.
Beck: That is a key point – involvement in student culture or also in the social fabric of the student body. Here the departmental student committees play a significant role. They contribute considerably to integration and that is also very important in terms of feeling safe.
What message do you give the new students who have just begun their degree courses at Heidelberg University?
Melchior: All students enrolling here are, first of all, members of our university. Regardless of what background they have, they are here to learn, to acquire knowledge and expand on knowledge, and to do research in order to then go out into the world again. The university should be a protected and an open space at the same time, in which people show respect and consideration for one another. And quite specifically: use the different introductory events like the Freshers’ Weeks at the start of the semester. That is a wonderful, important and valuable instrument for receiving new students. I personally still have happy memories of my Freshers’ Week.
Roder: That is indeed a good opportunity and it is extraordinary to be taken by the hand and introduced to the university and the subject culture at all kinds of levels.
Beck: We in the student representative body invite students to approach us and join in. We are open for conversations, ideas, assistance. And we hope to be able to offer a change of perspective. That brings us back to the first question in this interview about what diversity is good for. Well, it’s primarily for that.