New campus columnists are looking for a fresh perspective on university life

The winners were announced on Wednesday, January 24, at DUB’s New Year’s party at Parnassos. The two campus columnists were chosen from thirty students and employees who participated in our annual competition. In his speech, DUB Editor-in-chief Ries Agterberg stressed that candidates didn’t shy away from big themes, something he also wrote in the article in which the nominees were announced.

And the winner for the English page is... 
The new campus columnist of our English page grew up in the Netherlands but left for the United States in 2015, where she worked at the University of Michigan. She returned to the Netherlands last September, even though she still has a tenure in the US. She now works as an educationalist at the Faculty of Social Sciences, more specifically in the Education Advisory & Training Department. She obtained her PhD from the Faculty of Medicine, where she specialised in programme development as well. 

She decided to participate in the competition because she hopes to keep herself focused by writing columns regularly. “I am pretty new at UU, so I think I have a fresh perspective on Dutch university life.” That new perspective clearly shows in her nominated column, Loneliness, in which she shares that she reluctantly signed up for a lunch organised by the Network USP Inclusive following the National Week Against Loneliness. The panel appreciated how she took the reader along in the emotions and thoughts she had during that lunch.

And the winner for the Dutch page is...
Emma Ravenhorst was chosen to write for the Dutch page. Emma has graduated from University College Utrecht and is now busy finishing a Bachelor’s in Law. At the moment, she is in Cambridge, where she will be spending several months on exchange. For this reason, she was unable to attend DUB's New Year's Party. She learned that she'd won the contest through a computer screen. Emma hopes to start a Research Master's in Law in September.

Emma decided to run for the position of campus columnist because she loves writing and wants to use her columns to discuss topics that concern her, writing more loosely and creatively than in an academic text.

Her nominated column, The Year of ChatGPT (available in Dutch only, Ed.) talks about struggling with the pros and cons of ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? And, if they were, would this help students? To what extent can ChatGPT ruin job opportunities for lawyers in the future? 

The jury appreciated how she managed to talk about this subject in a fluent writing style, without falling into a pedantic tone.

Emma Ravenhorst. Foto: DUB

Monica van de Ridder. Foto: DUB

The other nominees
There were two other nominees for the English page: John Tang, a Professor in History & Art History, and Iren Şerbetcioğlu, a student at UCU. Tang’s column, How nerve-wracking an oral exam can be, talks about the difficult aspects of an oral exam. The jury was particularly charmed by the way Tang describes such an exam. 

Iren Şerbetcioğlu was nominated for her column How leaving my country made me a patriot. Iren comes from Turkey and her column beautifully illustrates how we are hardly concerned with our cultural identities when we're still in our home countries. It's only when you go abroad that you start realising how much your culture influences you.

It wasn't easy for the panel to pick a winner for the Dutch page. The other nominees were Sara Niknam, a Bachelor's student in Physics and Liberal Arts & Sciences, and Ize van Gils, an undergraduate student in Language & Cultural Studies. 

Sara's column,The vulnerable position of the vertically impaired student, stood out because it draws attention to the topic from a different perspective and with a sense of humour.

Ize's column, You won’t get in anymore, was highly appreciated as well. Ize commutes to the university and her column describes how students rebelled against a professor who said that anyone who arrived late to his class would not be allowed in. She describes the resistance with great commitment. 

Winners Emma Ravenhorst and Monica van de Ridder will both get the Erik Hardeman stipend, worth 1,000 euros. They will also get the opportunity to publish a column every three weeks on DUB in 2024. They are the successors of Quintijn de Leng and Helen Aadnesgaard.

Entries inspired by PVV and stress
Last year, DUB noticed that most entries talked about a soul-searching generation that is struggling with identity issues, loneliness, and the pressure to perform, three themes that came up again this year. Students feel pressured not just in academic terms, but in their lives as a whole. One contestant advocates JOMO, the Joy of Missing Out, as a means to resist FOMO, the Fear of Missing Out. JOMO is about doing the things that make you happy rather than following what others are doing.

Other turbulent aspects of student life were covered by the entries as well. One contestant is critical of the going-out culture that exists among students. "Why would you want to have a different tongue in your mouth every weekend?”

Since the deadline to send submissions was December 1, a remarkable number of columns talked about the election results. Many students are surprised to find out that people they know may have voted for PVV. "I felt like there were no PVV voters in my circle, but that is statistically impossible,” writes one of the contestants. "Am I so cloistered that I don't realise that three out of ten Dutch citizens have a completely different view on life than I do?", writes another. A third one recommends: "Dare to engage in conversation, dare to be vulnerable, let’s dare to do it together." 

Several columnists chose to take readers along a certain situation. One of the entries hilariously describes the reaction of a group of students when their landlord drops by unexpectedly. Another one poetically describes the heckling autumn. Unashamedly, another student explains how she likes to eavesdrop on other cyclists standing at the red lights.

This year's panel
This year, the jury consisted of Early-Modern Dutch Literature Professor Els Stronks, UU’s social media strategist Nazgol Salamat, Master's student in Sociology and city councillor Annemarijn Oudejans, and DUB’s editor-in-chief Ries Agterberg.