Chat GPT and love life predominate among Campus Columnist submissions

Many contestants stood out for the sense of humour with which they told their personal experiences. For example, two contestants wrote about mouse infestations in their shared homes, with one of them wondering whether it was okay for a vegetarian to kill a mouse.

This year's competition also included several analytical entries, with aspiring columnists addressing issues such as Gaza, the development of cancer vaccines, and the booklet the Dutch government sent to citizens, urging them to prepare for emergencies.

Many contestants referred to AI, particularly ChatGPT, which shows that both students and lecturers are struggling with this question. One of the nominees for the English page, a lecturer, wonders whether she should allow AI in her course. "As a teacher, I am told to be an example, to define the rules of the game, to set a standard for preparing students for a future we don’t know. The world races ahead, the game continues - am I lagging behind? We make decisions for tomorrow’s workers while today’s workers still try to understand how their own jobs are changing." 

A striking difference between international participants and their Dutch counterparts is that the former seem more concerned with the world’s biggest issues than the latter. Many international contestants compared their own cultures to Dutch culture, writing about the Dutch way of life and questions such as "who am I?" and "where is home?"

Our second nominee for the English page wrote about how she initially resisted calling Utrecht home, but the city ultimately captured her heart. "I believe the reason I didn't want to connect to Utrecht was partly that I wasn't sure if it would last. It is unclear if I will be able to stay in Utrecht after my degree is finished; I don’t know if I can find a Master's programme or a job, or if I can finance it."

Many students wrote about their love lives, which was not entirely unexpected. First dates, broken hearts, long-distance relationships... Even a “holy fuck” was described. But we’ve also had entries discussing a lack of love and loneliness.

The judges were pleased to see the quality of the entries, which were anonymised before being presented to them. The criteria they used to assess the submissions included writing quality, boldness, and sense of humour.

Contestants who connected their own experiences to broader social issues got extra points. Columns that simply described personal experiences, as in a journal, or that analysed social or political questions without a personal touch, proved insufficient to convince the judges. “We don’t just want to hear arguments, we also want to get to know someone,” said one jury member.

Choosing the best columns was tough. The judges changed their minds right up to the last minute. In addition, the number of entries was much higher this year than in recent years. There were twenty English-speaking participants and twenty Dutch-speaking participants, each submitting two columns for a double chance at winning. Last year, nine people entered the Dutch-language competition, and seven ran for the English-language position. 

Today, DUB is publishing the six nominated columns in each language. The two winners will be announced on Wednesday, 14 January, at DUB's New Year's reception. In addition to succeeding Tara Neary and Bastiaen Huijnen, the current campus columnists, and writing a column for DUB every three weeks, the new campus columnists will receive the Erik Hardeman stipend (1,000 euros each).

The nominees for the Dutch page are...

Caitlin Amels, Sara Niknam and Sam Ben Tühami.

Caitlin Amels (24) completed a bachelor's degree in Earth Sciences and is currently doing a pre-master's in Social Geography and Urban Planning. She wants to start a master's in Geography, Education and Communication in February. When asked about her nominated column, Holy Fuck, she says, "My inspiration for this column was my very first one-night stand. After I came home in the morning, I immediately started writing about my experience." You can read the column “Holy Fuck” in its original version here and the English translation here.

Sara Niknam (23) is pursuing a Master's degree in Climate Physics. Before that, she obtained two Bachelor's degrees, one in Physics and the other in Liberal Arts and Sciences. Apart from studying, Sara started powerlifting at SKVU Mammoet last year. Her nominated column, Geen Debat, Geen Baudet (No debate, no Baudet) pokes fun at “debate fetishists” by saying that maybe the university shouldn't organise political debates at all.

This is Sara's second nomination. She was also a nominee for the 2024 competition, but lost to another student. Sara's inspiration for this column was the controversy surrounding the presence of Dutch far-right politician Thierry Baudet in an election debate organised at the Faculty of Law, Economics & Governance. You can read her original column in Dutch here or read an English translation here.

Samir Ben Tühami (35) is a third-year Spanish Language and Culture student at Utrecht University. He is also a caregiver and works part-time. As a late bloomer, he brings a different perspective than the average student. About his nominated column, De groepsopdracht-leugen (The Group Assignment Lie), is a relatable account of all the problems one usually encounters when having to work with others for a grade. “This column is based on several experiences I've had with group assignments at UU. It's actually ironic: as I write this, I am once again in a group where cooperation is difficult.” Read his column in Dutch here. Prefer it translated into English? Click here.

And the three nominees for the English page are...

Isabella Saccardi, Marisca Westerhof and Iren Şerbetcioğlu

Isabella Saccardi (30) is a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Human-Centred Computing Group. Her nominated column, Cardboard Trees and Human Thoughts, is about whether or not to allow ChatGPT to be used in an assignment. “This year has been a whirlwind of questions about AI, balancing the need to make decisions about AI in my courses with the reality that we’re all navigating a very uncertain map. I think many colleagues feel the same tension, trying to prepare students for a future we can’t quite see yet,” she says about her column. Read it here.

Marisca Westerhof (22) is a fourth-year Philosophy, Politics, and Economics student with minors in Applied Data Science and Global Asia. In her nominated column, My Social Circle Has Border Control (And I’m Not Proud of It), Marisca admits her own hypocrisy: “I’ll scream and shout for free speech, but simultaneously cross people off my friendship list for having the wrong political opinions.”

Commenting on her choice of topic, she says: “Fresh off the recent elections, I felt quite defeated by the polarising results. How could so many people vote for right-wing parties when I don’t personally know any? The answer, of course, is my own selection bias.”

Iren Şerbetcioğlu (21) is a third-year UCU student. This is her second nomination: like Sara, she was one of the nominees for the Campus Columnist 2024 competition. Although she didn’t win, Iren went on to write a blog for DUB. She participates in the campus columnist competition every year. “It’s a fun exercise. The first year, I was like: ‘Okay, let’s try this’, and I got nominated. So, why not do it every year? I realised that I enjoy this.”

Her nominated column in 2026, An Emotional Affair on Exchange, was inspired by Home Reconsidered, one of the blog posts she wrote for DUB back in 2024. She wrote that calling any city other than Izmir, Turkey, “home” felt like a betrayal of her hometown. Now, she is abroad on an exchange and guess what? She says “back home” when talking about Utrecht.

This year, the panel of judges consisted of Joost de Vries, author and editor at De Volkskrant; Hieke Huistra, science historian and columnist for Trouw; Claudia Ionita, PhD candidate and former DUB blogger; Paola Di Stefano, former UU student and journalist; Marjorie van Elven, editor of DUB's English page; and Bas Mesters, DUB's editor-in-chief.