Alumnus of the Year is campaign leader for Fossil Free Netherlands

“In the week that I heard that I had been elected Alumnus of the Year, UU also announced that it would not keep its promise to sever ties with the fossil fuel industry. That felt uncomfortable,” says Hiske Arts.

She has mixed feelings about the accolade. "As a campaign leader for Fossil Free NL, I have been working intensively to make sure that universities and other public institutions sever their ties with the fossil fuel industry. These companies use collaborations with academia as a means of greenwashing as they do not really want to change. Besides, it makes sense that a researcher's report about the fossil fuel industry will not be that negative if they work closely with that industry. They are so caught up in the company's mentality that they are influenced by it.”

Nevertheless, Arts is pleased to be chosen Alumnus of the Year. “It shows that opinions on this topic differ at the university. It is good that I now have the opportunity to make my point at the university's anniversary celebrations.”

During the ceremony, UU President Anton Pijpers asked what the dot on the horizon was. She replied: "This is not about my dot on the horizon. Universities play an important role when it comes to climate change, but they need to do more. It is hard to hear that my university is not honouring agreements about partnerships with the fossil fuel industry. Utrecht University collaborates with this industry and is therefore engaging in greenwashing." She also drew attention to the pro-Palestine demonstrators outside the church. "Listen to the activists. Don't assume they are only here to disrupt the party, take them seriously." Arts received a few rounds of applause during her speech. Pijpers concluded that UU is already starting a conversation but understood that UU needs to do more than that. 

Arts has nothing but good memories about her time at UU. “I started studying at University College Utrecht in 1998. Our education was very broad, and we were allowed to delve into different topics. The only thing I didn’t like as much was the obligation to live on campus.” After UCU, she stayed in Utrecht and obtained a Master’s in Conflict Studies in 2004. She described that experience as valuable and the programme as very strong in terms of content.

After graduating with her Master's, she founded the Critical Mass Foundation alongside other graduates. "We intended to make conflicts like those discussed in the Master’s accessible to young people with a pre-vocational secondary education background, presenting them creatively and interestingly. We saw that as a good way to get these young people involved in what is going on in the world and allow them to have a say in it.”

After a few years, Arts turned to the climate. “I already considered this topic important as a student, but I still had my head in the sand. The climate crisis is such an overwhelmingly pervasive problem. At a certain point, I realized it was time to commit myself to it.”

She ended up at the citizen movement Fossil Free NL. One of their successful campaigns was aimed at the pension fund ABP, which severed its ties with the fossil fuel industry. “You can see what happens when social acceptance for these companies disappears. Just look at what happened with Tesla in recent months. We at Fossil Free NL want to make it clear how bad fossil fuel companies are for our future. It would be great if universities finally took steps to permanently break off their collaborations with this industry.”

The Alumnus of the Year title emphasises the importance of UU alumni to society. To be chosen as the Alumnus of the Year, someone has to make progress in their field and dare to step outside the beaten track. It must be a socially committed person who knows how to inspire today's students, writes the University Fund, which is responsible for the accolade. Previous winners include Marjan Minnesma (2015), Feike Sijbesma (2016), Cathelijne Broers (2017), Jan Beuving (2018), Rutger Bregman (2020), Marion Koopmans (2021), Eva González Pérez (2022) and Tim Schuring (2023).