{"id":117286,"date":"2020-08-31T20:57:31","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T18:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=117286"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:02","slug":"opening-of-the-academic-year-was-like-a-glittering-tv-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/08\/31\/opening-of-the-academic-year-was-like-a-glittering-tv-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening of the Academic Year was like a glittering TV show"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Opening of the Academic Year is an annual highlight on campus, with a jam-packed auditorium, the procession of professors as they jaunt over the pond in their gowns while everyone sings Io Vivat at the top of their lungs. But this has proven to be impossible in times of corona.<\/p>\n

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There was room for a mere 120 spectators in the auditorium. Everyone else joined in to watch via a video link. Nevertheless, Monday managed to turn the first day back at the university into a festive day that was perhaps more dazzling than other years. With hip, almost flawlessly functioning live connections and featuring performances from entertainers. The whole thing was strung together by the well-known Dutch TV presenter Wilfried de Jong.<\/p>\n

Talk show settee<\/h2>

The tightly directed afternoon was therefore something between an award ceremony and a slickly presented talk show program. Complete with a presenters\u2019 table and talk show settee, on which the first Rector Magnificus Rutger Engels took a seat.<\/p>\n

As is done every year, Engels reflected on those at the university who had passed away. This solemn moment, in which the names were projected on screen, was framed by a dance performance by the Rotterdammer Gil \u2018the Grid\u2019 Gomes Leal. Gil is a former world champion of experimental dance, who with his own personal language of movement conveys his stories to this audience.<\/p>\n

Strict mayor<\/h2>

A selection of guests passed by in an hour-and-a-half long show. Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb explained why he has been so strict with students lately. \u201cThe number of corona infections was so high that I had to do something. Students turned out to be one of the sources, which is why I started to wrestle with Rutger Engels on how we could resolve this.\u201d Laughing: \u201cAnyone who calls me a strict mayor hasn\u2019t yet had to deal with Engels.\u201d Fortunately, according to Aboutaleb, it looks as though Covid in Rotterdam is on the decline. \u201cWe are now in a situation where the number of infections is steadily falling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Anyone who calls me a strict mayor hasn\u2019t yet had to deal with Engels\u2019 \u2013 mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

The first part of the program was a roundtable discussion on the theme \u2018Education belongs to all\u2019, in which the mayor also took part. Professor and Chief Diversity Officer Semiha Denkta\u015f identified the issue of inequality of opportunities as a global problem. \u201cIt particularly affects children in families where parents have not studied.\u201d For Denkta\u015f, too, it was not a matter of course that she would go to university. \u201cWhen a woman said to me in secondary school: \u2018Semiha, I think you are going to go to university\u2019, it was a shock to me and encouraging at the same time. With the \u2018Connecting Our Future\u2019 program, we have to make sure that more children get that encouragement and those compliments and so start believing in the opportunities available to them from an early age.\u201d<\/p>\n

All teachers won awards<\/h2>

Aboutaleb also underlined the importance of investing in education. \u201cIf I had ten dollars, education would be the first, the second and the third thing I would spend my money on. You build bridges to the city with knowledge. But for the university, it\u2019s not enough to just open the gates. For the first generation of students in particular, the risk of quitting is quite high. That calls for a lot of counselling and coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the show, a whole series of awards were handed out, including this year\u2019s education prize to all the teachers at the EUR, who made it possible for education to carry on during the corona crisis. There were also prizes for the best thesis, the best student, and the student who had made the greatest social impact.<\/p>\n

New President of the Executive Board<\/h2>

Although he will not officially start working until Tuesday, the new president of the Executive Board, Ed Brinksma, also came on stage for an interview to introduce himself. Brinksma talked about his reasons for coming from Hamburg to Rotterdam. \u201cI am an inquisitive person by nature. That has brought me from Twente to Hamburg and now back again to Rotterdam. This university is among the best of its kind, not only in scientific terms, but also in the fact that the EUR is willing to contribute to solving social problems.\u201d
\nHow the city is evolving is something that Brinksma can judge from a great height, now that he has moved into his pied \u00e0 terre last week: an apartment on the 31st floor of the Red Apple, the skyscraper situated on the Wijnhaven. To show how he much he has integrated into civil society in the city, Brinksma sang, to the hilarity of the 120 guests in the auditorium, the final verse of the renowned hit by the Hermes House Band: \u201cRotterdam, de mooiste rotstad die er is\u201d (Rotterdam, the most beautiful rotten city there is).<\/p>\n

Daring to fail <\/h2>

Rutger Engels closed the opening of the academic year in the traditional way with a speech. In it, he urged \u2018to explore the very things we tend to leave concealed\u2019. \u201cThe longer we ignore structural issues, the more drastic the treatment usually is\u201d. In order to illustrate his point, Engels mentioned three crises that were recently on the agenda at a UN congress that he had attended \u2013 via a video link: The climate crisis, the pandemic and social inequality. \u201cAnd there are still people who continue to ignore or downplay or even deny these,\u201d Engels stated. \u201cThis is where an essential role lies for us as Erasmus University Rotterdam. It is our task to explore what is, and above all, what is not seen. That is how we make an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a personal note, Engels also talked about \u2018daring to fail\u2019, which, in his opinion, is an important factor in the wellbeing of students. \u201cWe prefer to keep failures out of sight. As a secondary school student, I was once put back from 3 VWO to 4 HAVO [equivalent to A levels and O levels respectively, ed]. It was a difficult period, which felt like failure. Looking back, it was an important experience for me. It taught me not to compare myself to others, but to make my own path. Failure is confronting and puts things into perspective; it inspires new insights. We give our students more room to fail, and we lay down a good foundation for their further development and for our scientific and civic future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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