20 Years UCU Celebrations

From 8-15 September, UCU’s campus was buzzing with activity, all related to UCU’s 20th anniversary of course. Many students, staff, alumni and other visitors joined us for the UCU lustrum week events. And what a week it was! We’ve compiled some facts and numbers about the various celebrations that took place.

  • At Open monument Day, we welcomed 2000 visitors on campus. For a day, the military re-enacted their former presence on the campus, while we opened part of our buildings and organised two open lectures. Did you know that there are prison cells in the presently unused bell tower building?
     
  • At the lustrum Opening Reception, UCU alumna Abigail Prade's documentary had its premiere. The documentary will be screened again during events later in the year, such as at UCU Homecoming 2018, and is also available online. The reception also marked the opening of UCU20 Exhibition. The exhibition displayed 20 years of UCU history in objects, photographs, films, stories, and art. It also included the original architectural models of the campus buildings. A special spot in the exhibition was reserved for three paintings by UCU alumnus Fahid Ibrahim, currently doing a Master in Art Conservation in Amsterdam.

    Watch the UCU20 documentary
    Read the interview with Fahed Ibrahim
     
  • Tuesday 11 September was the day of the Interdisciplinarity Symposium. The panellists presented a pitch, discussing the pros and cons of interdisciplinarity

    Read the news article about the symposium
     
  • For the past weeks, Maxim Februari's novel The Book Club has been omnipresent on campus for the first ever One Book One Campus event in the Netherlands. On Thursday 13 September, we had the chance to discuss the book with the author himself.
     
  • About 50 UCU students, alumni and staff attended the Scholarship Dinner and Auction. While guests enjoyed a lavish meal and tried to outbid each other in order to win their favourite auction item, we raised an amount of €2.820, which will go directly to the UCU Fund and benefit talented students who otherwise could not afford to study at UCU. 

    Weren’t there? You can still make a donation to the UCU Fund!
     
  • The UCU Festival marked the end of the celebrations. The students' hip-hop group Outrageous was one of the first acts to kick off the festival. Throughout the day, more and more visitors joined us at the beer garden, and for a performance by the Utrecht Student Big Band.
     
  • Dutch newspaper Trouw published UCU Dean James Kennedy's column about the value of a Liberal Arts and Sciences education.

    For Dutch readers, read the column in Trouw. 
    For non-Dutch speakers: read about James Kennedy’s' column on our website.