Meer dan een ornament: De zoektocht naar een nieuwe identiteit voor de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in de jaren zestig

Both the Calvinist Vrije Universiteit (VU) in Amsterdam and the Catholic University in Nijmegen underwent a transformation in the 1960s. Already around 1960 it was clear to both institutions that the changing times called for a new positioning. Various committees and study days were devoted to this issue. At the VU, it was mainly the ‘Kruyswijk Committee’ that, from 1965 onwards, devoted itself to reformulating the article of the statutory principles in which the identity of the university was laid down. There was no agreement in the committee as to how broadly or narrowly this identity should be formulated, and whether the original ideal of a ‘Christian science’ was still worth pursuing. Nevertheless, a formulation was sought in which various factions could recognize themselves. The formulation, so they emphasized, had to be more than an ‘ornament’: it had to give the university new impetus and appeal. Subsequently, two editorial committees, which produced the final formulation, gave the article an ecumenical and ‘horizontal’ character. Despite criticism by some of the more conservative supporters of the university, a new identity was formulated. However, developments in the student world and the new democratic university administration, made it difficult to put it into practice in the 1970s.