Habibović herself kept things fairly light by focusing on the university’s impact on students, research and the region. At the same time, she warned that academic values such as freedom, responsibility and integrity “are under attack, now perhaps more than at any time during the last fifty years – around the world, and increasingly also in the Netherlands.”
Call to action
The honorary doctorate recipients, however, each issued a clear call to action. “Nature is our oldest model, measure and mentor”, said Peter Stenvinkel, professor of nephrology, who was the first to be awarded an honorary doctorate during the ceremony. Failure to protect nature would have catastrophic consequences: “Biodiversity is not an environmental luxury. It’s the very foundation of human health.”
Climate change litigator Roger Cox explained why his work is mentally demanding. “Every day, we are confronted with ample evidence that we are destroying the beauty and liveability of our planet on an unprecedented scale.” If we do not act now, he warned, we are headed for “a future that is too painful to imagine.”
Moral crossroads
A visibly emotional Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), moved the audience to silence with her words. Her speech followed several festive elements. Maastricht-born violinist and conductor André Rieu provided musical interludes with his Johann Strauss Orchestra and the Royal Choir Society Mastreechter Staar (“What a wonderful surprise”, remarked Rector Habibović, apparently unaware of the three buses with Rieu’s face on them parked outside on Vrijthof Square). There was also the presentation of several awards (see box), as well as the arrival of King Willem-Alexander, who sat down for a photo opportunity at the same table where his grandmother Queen Juliana signed the university’s founding charter before attending the rest of the ceremony.
In her three years as ICRC president, Spoljaric Egger has seen a shift: not only is the number of armed conflicts rising, but countries are increasingly justifying their own actions “in the name of self-defence. Destroying the enemy at all costs is being masqueraded as an effective tool for peace.” We are at a moral crossroads, she said: “Will we allow the barriers that prevent brutality in war to be dismantled, or will we demand that even in war there are red lines that are never allowed to be crossed?”
From the sidelines
Spoljaric Egger received a standing ovation from several audience members in the side aisles, but she was unable to see them because of the seating arrangements. The stage could only be seen from the nave of the church, which was reserved for the academic procession and guests of honour. The rest of the audience was seated in the side aisles and had to watch the ceremony on screens. “Who decided to put colleagues out of sight of all the dignitaries, in a remote corner of this beautiful church?” demands Roy van Kessel, building manager at UM, in an open letter to Observant. He left early and watched the rest of the ceremony at home via a livestream.
Outside the church, there was a protest by a small group of pro-Palestinian students who argue that UM’s decision to suspend ties with the Hebrew University does not go far enough and demand that the university sever all ties with Israel.