"Family events belong on the list of priorities"
What characterizes a family-friendly university? An academic, a member of the admin staff and a student give their views.
Volker Gehrau (50) is a professor at the Department of Communication and its deputy Managing Director.
In my view a university presents a family-friendly working environment when it is organized correspondingly. Everyone has to be willing to support this and make their contribution to it. My experiences stem from the time when I became a father and a Dean at the same time. The most important decision at this time was to schedule all meetings for the morning. This meant that everyone, regardless of family and of the scale of any job, was able to be involved in decision-making if they wanted. Family-friendly decisions can only be taken when people with families are involved in those decisions.
The second important point concerns both informal structures and people’s own thinking. University work leaves a lot of latitude for setting priorities. Here people can decide better than in other work contexts what to do when – provided the work is done on time. Family events can – and must – be included in this list of priorities. Why should inaugural lectures – which mostly involve travel – or a colleague’s 60th birthday be more important than your own child’s birthday or first day at school? They aren’t. But each of us has to decide for ourselves. Such decisions are often difficult, because we assume that people would disapprove – but in most cases that isn’t the case.
When I became Dean I informed the Rectorate that mostly I could easily be contacted until 3 pm – but that for any time later than that I would need a week’s notice, so that I could re-arrange my times for looking after my children. The Rectorate sympathized and there have never been any problems in this respect. The Rector even told me she thought I was more easily contactable than many other people. If even the Rectorate is able to adjust to family-friendly agreements in everyday working life, then it should be possible – no: normal – elsewhere at this university too.
Stefanie Schläger (41) has been working at Münster University since 1991 and is currently in the personnel department (Dezernat 3.3).
After nine years, and feeling a bit nervous, I returned to work. Here, too, the personnel department made a lot of effort to find the right job for me. I was very fortunate in that someone in my old department just happened to be retiring.
As we live in Senden, we are dependent on my being able to have flexible working hours so that I can attend to family matters. Sometimes it’s one of the children who’s ill, sometimes the childcare facilities are cancelled … Going from full-time to part-time in my job became unavoidable, but it was no problem. I was even able to spread my working hours over four workdays, which is a great help for me in organizing everyday family life. I’m very grateful to my colleagues, too, because it wouldn’t be possible without a high degree of solidarity.
All in all, there’s a lot of stress of course: getting to work punctually, getting back home on time, always having everything under control and keeping everyone happy. But if I had to choose again I would still choose this stress – even though it has meant more grey hairs and less robust nerves … It’s great to feel needed – both at home and at work. That’s why I’m glad that the individual still means a lot at Münster University.
Paula Hesse (28) is studying medicine in her ninth semester; she works for the MitKind initiative organized by the Medical Faculty.
For me, the biggest advantage of becoming a parent so early is that I have time for the children. I can usually collect my son at 4 o’clock and go and have fun with him at the playground. And I can have my daughter around me almost the whole day, even though I’m still studying as normal. I simply take her with me to the campus. Most of the lecturers are pleased to have a bit of variety – and in what job would that otherwise be possible?
I want to become a gynaecologist, which is a job that is not exactly well-known for being family-friendly. At the moment, during my studies, I don’t yet need to think about childcare facilities during my 24-hour shifts later. That makes especially the first two years with children easier.
Of course things could be made even easier for us students with children. On the medical campus they’re just now building a parent-child room in addition to the nappy-changing facilities that already exist there. It would be a great help if even more of the studying could be done at home. Our Clinical Chemistry department is showing the way: all their lectures are filmed and can viewed online. There’s still a lot to do, but it’s also up to us parents to point out problems and work on solutions. Nevertheless, for me personally the best time to have children is now, while I’m still a student.
Source: "wissen|leben" No. 6, 12 October 2016.