New AMFI director on school culture: "Knowing how not to do something, doesn’t necessarily mean you know how to do it"
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It has now been over two years since an independent report labelled the culture at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI) as unsafe. New director José Teunissen tells local Amsterdam news platform AT5 that the school has definitively done away with the ‘breakdown culture’ that emerged from the investigation.
In 2021, the fashion school was in the news because of reports from several students that they experienced constant stress at the school and were publicly berated. They also recounted being physically and mentally drained by it. When they reported this to the program leadership, they felt they were not taken seriously. The students' reports came out after news broke in mid-March 2021 about fashion entrepreneur and former AMFI student Martijn N. N. who was being accused of transgressive behaviour.
After these reports came out, AMFI set up a task force to improve its learning and working environment. In addition, an investigation into safety at AMFI was conducted by independent agency Bezemer & Schubad. That verdict comes in June 2021 and is rock hard: the culture at the school is very unsafe. The fashion school responded in a statement that students were treated in an unacceptable manner and that this can never happen again.
Teunissen emphasises to AT5 that making improvements and changing a school culture is a process. "We really have to take people by the hand: if we know how not to do it, you don't necessarily know how to do it." Teunissen was announced as AMFI's new programme manager last December. "When I arrived, we were actually at the point where the very essence of the school needed to be properly redefined. What is AMFI and how do we keep being a relevant educational institution? What needs to happen to ensure that the workload for students is appropriate? And that teachers know exactly where they stand. That was lost in the whole process."
Student surveys show progress. "They’re giving us a six out of ten right now. It could be better, but we shouldn't be shocked by it either. Staff members are also more satisfied. There is more calm and clarity in the organisation." Teunissen tells AT5 that the fashion school needs to return to a culture of trust and openness where there is space for uncomfortable things to be raised as well. "In which you can say, 'I don't actually like that you said this to me.' And then some people will find that 'woke,' but you have to dare to have these kinds of conversations with each other."
This article was originally published on FashionUnited.NL. Translation and editing from Dutch into English by Veerle Versteeg.