Are you DUB's 2024 campus columnist?

The campus columnist is a student or employee of Utrecht University who writes about their experiences and matters of interest to the university community.

They write about all kinds of topics. For example, students can write about their search for a place to live, the ups and downs of student life, their worries about climate change, inappropriate behaviours in the classroom, or the drama that goes with writing a thesis.

As for employees, they can talk about their workload, working from home, anonymous examinations, solidarity between students and teachers, open science, whether or not to wear togas to attend protests, and giving permanent contracts to teachers without research duties, to name but a few topics.

The panel of judges is looking for someone who doesn't shy away from sharing their views on the things taking place at the university, preferably with an amusing style that manages to get to the heart of the matter. The judges appreciate a precise sense of language with a touch of humour. The ideal campus columnist is not afraid to take a stand and should strive to surprise the reader.

The contest will elect two campus columnists, one for the English-language version of DUB and another one for the Dutch website. All students and staff are welcome to participate in the contest, as long as they choose one of the languages to write in. The winners will start publishing columns every two weeks from January onwards.

The columns will be submitted to the judges anonymously, so they will not know the writer's identity and whether they are a student or employee.

Eye for detail
The winners will succeed the current campus columnists, Quintijn de Leng and Helen Aadnesgaard, who won the Campus Columnist contest for 2023. Quintijn is a Master's student in Human Geography & Spatial Planning who also wweborks as a student assistant at UU’s Community Engaged Learning project. He is a keen observer who often writes about students' experiences. For instance, he recently wrote a column about how awkward it is to have drinks with a bunch of vague acquaintances during the introduction week for your Master’s programme. He's also shared his musings about going analog with a Polaroid camera and whether or not students should strive to graduate cum laude. 

Helen has recently completed her Master’s degree in Gender Studies at UU. In her column Apply to the Femlaude Illuminati, she denounces women’s poor position on the academic ladder with a touch of humor. Being humorous and empathetic is not unusual for Helen: she recently wrote about how important it is to touch people and how physical contact doesn't necessarily have to have sexual or romantic connotations.

Three finalists
After reading all the submissions, the panel of judges will choose six finalists, three for each language. The winners will be announced at DUB’s New Year’s celebration.

In addition to publishing columns on DUB for a year, the winners will get the Erik Hardeman stipend (1,000 euros each). Hardeman is a former columnist of U-blad, DUB's predecessor in print. He was known for depicting life at the university in an original way, with a touch of venom and a splash of humour, talking about things as varied as student associations, the Executive Board, and the Institute of Romantic Languages and Cultures. The Campus Columnist contest was established in 2012, following Hardeman’s departure, as a means to shed light onto the university and all its idiosyncrasies from an insider's perspective. 

All students and staff who are affiliated with Utrecht University on  January 1 2024 can participate. Participation is also open to students who graduate in 2024.

How to enter the competition
To enter the contest, you must submit two columns with an original take on university life. They should not be longer than 500 words and both of them should be in the same language. Please send your entries before  December 1 to: m.j.agterberg@uu.nl

The judges
The panel of judges, which will evaluate the anonymised columns, is comprised of the following members:

• Els Stronks, Professor of Early Modern Dutch Literature at the Department of Languages, Literature & Communication at Utrecht University. She researches the teaching of reading and writing at the secondary education level, aiming to find out how to get young people to read again in the digital age. From January 2024, she will lead the project Becoming Literate in a Digital Age.
• Nazgol Salamat studied Marketing Management at Tilburg University. At UU, she is responsible for implementing the social media strategy, with a specific focus on Instagram and Facebook. She manages a team of students who create and share content every day. 
• Annemarijn Oudejans is a Master's student in Sociology and she chairs the Student & Starter party in the municipal council. She's previously served on the University Council, representing the Vuur party, and was an active member of the study association Usocia.
• Ries Agterberg is DUB's editor-in-chief. He studied the Dutch language at UU and has published several collections of poetry and a novella.

1,000 euro stipend
Each one of the campus columnists will receive the Erik Hardeman stipend, worth 1,000 euros. In exchange, they will write a column for DUB once every two weeks for a year.

If you have any questions about the position of campus columnist, don't hesitate to ask them by e-mailing Ries Agterberg: m.j.agterberg@uu.nl.