University with Responsibility

The starting position

The University of Vechta sees itself as cosmopolitan, personal and familiar. In order to live up to these values, it offers its students and employees a wide range of counseling services — including Evermood. The platform supports the respective contact persons in the event of conflicts during studies and doctoral studies as well as in cases of discrimination. Employees and students who are affected by this or who observe this can contact the university's confidant team anonymously at any time.

In an interview, the confidant team talks about motivation, challenges and goals in counseling as well as the collaboration with Evermood.

What positions do you hold at the university?

The confidant team consists of various areas at the University of Vechta. This includes

• the management of the Central Student Advisory Service and representative for students with disabilities or chronic illnesses
• Study advisors and staff in the Career Service of the Central Student Advisory Service
• as well as the central equal opportunities officer and management of the Central Institute for Gender Equality & Diversity

What were the key challenges that you wanted to solve with Evermood?

With Evermood, we wanted to fill a gap in the university's counseling services. Until now, there has been no completely anonymous counseling service that allows interaction. In addition, there are not direct contact persons at the university for all conflicts during studies or doctoral studies and in the event of discrimination experienced or observed.

But in order to still offer the opportunity to communicate — not only to be able to display but also reflect on your personal experience — and to search for solutions together, Evermood offers a good start.

We also wanted to offer a very low-threshold opportunity to speak out and get in touch with confidants. We can also use Evermood for this.

What is your goal as confidants at the university?

We strive for a culture that is characterized by fair and respectful cooperation. Together, we are committed to ensuring that racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination are heard but ultimately have no place. But we also want to resolve, prevent and derive positive changes from other forms of conflict that may arise in the context of teaching, studying, scientific qualifications or in cooperation between all members of the university. So that we are a place where we can trust each other and learn from each other.

What do you want to achieve for people at the university?

Our work involves employees and especially students. Accordingly, we are constantly working to get closer to these goals so that everyone at the university is seen and heard. And so that all people take responsibility for living respectful cooperation.

“We strive for a culture that is characterized by fair and respectful cooperation. ”

— Dr. Tanja Meyer, Equal Opportunity Officer

Why the University of Vechta relies on Evermood

What made Evermood particularly attractive to you when it came to these destinations?

We liked the product when presented at an event. The contact was also always very prompt, friendly and constructive, so we expected a good collaboration here, which was also confirmed. As a digital offering with two-way communication, Evermood also fills a previous gap in our advice.

What sets us apart from our competitors?

We don't have any comparative figures because Evermood convinced us from the start.

What were your biggest doubts about working with Evermood?

Since it is an externally hosted system, there is always the concern that you have too little design options. Especially since, as a large public educational institution, we may have a different focus than private sector companies. Evermood, however, gives us the opportunity to contribute our own ideas to the further development and design of the product.

Of course, the issue of data protection also plays a major role. But here in particular, thanks to the transparent information, we were able to start using the system without worry.

What are the desired goals for working with Evermood?

We would like to continuously develop Evermood so that it supports conflict and improvement management at our university with a digital image.

"Together, we are committed to ensuring that racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination are heard but ultimately have no place."

— Imke Kimpel, representative for students with disabilities or chronic illnesses

Evermood as an important component of the counseling structure

How do you combine Evermood with your way of working?

Evermood is a component of our counseling structure. In the future, we would like to integrate it even more into all-university counseling, improvement, complaint and conflict management.

Which processes or work steps does Evermood change or simplify?

Currently anonymous counseling. Hopefully, this will also include an illustration of the counseling structure in the future.

Which contact points are integrated into Evermood?

The Central Student Advisory Service, including counseling for handicaps or chronic illnesses, equality including advice on sexualized discrimination, harassment and violence.

What are the desired goals for working with Evermood?

We would like to continue to develop Evermood further. So that it supports conflict and improvement management at our university with a digital image.