During my first year, when the war in Gaza had just begun, I ditched studying for an awfully scary midterm to protest Utrecht University’s ties with Israel. I was charged with a need to scream for justice, for what is right. And at dinner, this feeling carried itself into the conversation between my unitmate and me. She told me that student protests were fruitless, and went on to say that the Israeli-Palestinian “conflict” would not be solved by a mildly recognized university

Fostering diversity is a truly aspirational goal, one that UCU seeks to strive for as its highest value. Diversity helps us understand different perspectives and consider those that were previously unheard before, or are marginalized in spaces of academia. In order to encourage a better understanding of often-silenced voices on the UCU campus, it is important to gain awareness of the challenges facing straight cisgender men in the Liberal Arts and Sciences, due to the recent

Running can suck. But it can also feel fantastic. And it’s almost always both. The positive effects of running make it impactful, not just in theory, but also on campus. Current first-year student at UCU, Camille Grenot, has been running for two years.  “I got into it a few years ago, and I’ve been hooked to the progress that you see,” Camille explained to me. It can take weeks for a less active person to get into running shape, but even for someone with a strong aerobic base

In a sea of UCU committee events, I am an undercover committee event hater. This is controversial, coming from someone who nearly sweated through all their clothes going to their own committee interview, but I stand by it. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the occasional post from UCU Confessions and the random UCU horses account that just popped up, but I sometimes find the rest to be a little performative. By the rest, I mean committees that are going through World War 3 wit

After dozens of tentative introductions and polite small talk during the first semester, phrases like “What’s your name?” and “Where are you from?” remain engraved in my mind. Had they not already guessed from my accent, I would smile and respond: Australia. Almost invariably, the next question would follow: “Why would you leave?” The Australia in people’s minds is idyllic – perfect, even. A never-ending Summer of scorching beach days, crackling campfires, and the smell of si

In February 2025, the Trump administration made the decision to cut roughly 90% of USAID’s current contracts and programmes, amounting to around 60 billion dollars. The main argument that Donald Trump and, at the time, Elon Musk, used to justify the cuts was that helping other nations in need was not the priority of the United States, asserting Trump’s “America First” nationalist policy. A study now reports that the impact of the administration’s decision might lead to 14 mil