Goodbye

Goodbye.

The Student Center for Diversity Advocacy and Inclusion, or as you all know us - SCDAI, has come to an end. The last four years have been a gut-wrenching and exciting journey, with all its ups and downs, we unfortunately are parting ways with SCDAI. As many of the creators of SCDAI have moved on with our lives beyond higher education, or the Netherlands as a whole, we have also struggled to maintain the movement and organization with the original goals and vision. As hard as it was to make this decision, we think it simply wouldn't be fair to the community since our capacity does not allow us to give our full energy to this important project, which it so clearly deserves. Therefore, we decided to say goodbye, at least for now and in this form. The following statement is to extend our gratitude to our community and the ones who have supported us, as well as to share with you what’s to come beyond this chapter.

Thank You.

We, the founders, Genesis, Talea, Alex, Pim, Walphana and Armita, started this project in 2019 with a strong passion to make a change in a system that benefitted some students and heavily disadvantaged others. Even though oppressive systems such as white supremacy and the patriarchy still prevail, and the right wing is on the rise, we would like to think that SCDAI has been part of at least a small change in pushing towards a more just educational environment for the many individuals who fall outside of hegemonic discourse and representation. We hope that while the work is by far not done, what we started has the potential to fully blossom one day. We have often questioned: is change possible within a hierarchical and bureaucratic system that takes ages to even begin moving away from oppressive cultures? If yes, what kind is necessary? Do we need to start from scratch? Or do we work within those often dystopian realities? We continue our journeys without definite answers but with hope and confidence that the students of today and tomorrow will continue posing these questions, challenging and disrupting white supremacy and hetero-patriarchal academia and student life.

Throughout this journey, many passionate people have joined us in challenging these norms. Ekin, Anoek, Emilia, Ches, Siri, Kira, Elias, Melissa - thank you for shaping SCDAI into what it has become today. While we were never that many in number, your voices, creativity, drive and knowledge has propelled us into a space that was able to practice what it preached.

To the teachers, who put themselves in difficult positions trying to amplify our message within a system that is not ready for such changes, this journey wouldn’t have been as impactful without you. 

And to the activist organizations of Groningen and the Netherlands, thank you for allowing us to grow alongside you. We are happy to see the movements evolving and standing up to racial, ethnic, religious, sexual, Queer- & transphobic violence across the board. We are excited to see where you take it. Power to all of you.

To everyone who has supported us and followed us in this time - thank you for taking your time to learn, give us feedback, and collaborate with us. We hope our work has inspired change within your own communities, too. 

What’s Next?

As you might remember, SCDAI held a fundraiser in May of 2022 for two reasons: to register as a foundation and to cover our expenses in our activities (website, design, events, etc.). While the first one (as explained in the beginning), we unfortunately could not accomplish, the latter one we still intend to use the raised money for. We believe that over the course of these four years we have been able to accumulate a large pool of educational and activist resources that can be valuable for: educators, university staff, D&I workers, activists, students, and curious minds. Therefore, the remaining funds will go into keeping up the website as a collection of those. You can find all of those on our website https://www.scdaigroningen.nl/ . Our social media will also remain active, open for questions or just for exploration (scdai_groningen). 

IF any group of students would like to continue with SCDAI, we can arrange a meeting between the founders and them, and make those resources available for them to do so. If you or someone you know is passionate about continuing this project, please get in touch with us on our Instagram account: scdai_groningen or via email on [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected] . There is no deadline.