My goal as a faculty council member is to serve as a pragmatic and constructive voice, and to contribute to ensuring that our faculty remains an environment where every member of our community finds the ideal conditions to thrive.

A focus would be to identify and integrate diverse perspectives from across all departments into the faculty’s decision-making process and act as a bridge between high-level policy and the daily reality of our research and teaching environment.

Streamlined processes, enhanced student experience and a consolidation of research infrastructure are therefore key to maintain and strengthen. An interest is also to contribute to think on sustainable growth and long-term planning, aiming for lasting value.

I am looking forward to contributing to a resilient and future-proof faculty!

Recently the Faculty of Archaeology staff has developed a series of guiding principles, including that of implementing changes by working through co-creation and achieving our goals through continuous dialogue. While these are laudable principles that we should all embrace, it is likely that in practice these guiding principles will often be difficult to achieve given time constraints in our Faculty and policies and decisions taken at the university level. It is precisely to give voice to the concerns and priorities of the wider faculty community – rather than those of our management – that the Faculty Council exists. As a long-term member of the Faculty of Archaeology and a former board member (with an understanding of how management at our university works) I am well placed to represent the concerns of my colleagues.  I look forward to represent you, work with the other members of the council and to help make our Faculty even better.

Working together to make the university more transparent, more inclusive, and safer for everyone. That is why I want to become a member of the University Council on behalf of the FNV.

I want there to be greater transparency regarding who makes decisions and who is involved in the process. We still have a long way to go in terms of inclusivity and social safety, which is why it is important that every voice is heard.

Since, traditionally, the focus has been primarily on academic staff, I want to make a special effort on behalf of support staff (think of career paths, sabbaticals, and training policies).

I’m Wei Ping and I am running for the University Council as a representative of the PhDoc party, which defends the interests of the PhD and postdoc community in university policy. As an international PhD candidate with the Department of Archaeological Sciences since late 2025, I am investigating early human use of edible plants, so you may see me out and about foraging.

The Archaeology Faculty community inspires me to find ways of pushing for more collaboration, conversations, and empathy – I seek to channel this energy at the central university level. I feel strongly about addressing the unequal experiences of PhDs, gaps in institutional support, and hope to push for greater accountability from the university as an academic institution in this time of climate crisis, global inequality, and colonial violence. Based on prior work experience relating to policy and research, alongside previous student representative roles outside of Leiden, I am confident in navigating these discussions. Looking forward to your support and future conversations!