Rector Kaarlo Hildén’s speech at the opening of the academic year 2024-2025
Rector Kaarlo Hildén pointed out in his speech at the opening of the academic year that the goal and importance of cherishing a meaningful and motivational life doesn’t apply to just our own community but the whole Western society.
I start off ecologically, recycling a thought that has come to me already before. In 1995, I was at an opening of the academic year, holding a speech as the chair of the Sibelius Academy’s Student Union. Back then, I reflected on new students’ relationship with art and how it evolves. “When a young person chooses art as their profession, they have already moved quite far in their relationship. And once they start their studies at our university, it means their relationship is already on a level comparable to a marriage.”
Maybe the choice of metaphor was partly because relationship matters were topical for myself – I had just recently got married then. In any case, that opening speech from nearly 30 years ago sprang to my mind when I met new Uniarts Helsinki students during their orientation period a few weeks ago.
The marriage metaphor sounds a bit old-fashioned nowadays, but maybe there was also something accurate about it. When an applicant says they want to partner with Uniarts Helsinki in the academia and when we as a university tell the select chosen ones that we, too, want to stick together, the relationship receives legally binding characteristics. But the relationship won’t work out without the presence of love.
The use of the word love when talking about university education may seem odd, but there’s some history behind it. Uno Cygnaeus, one of the pioneers of the Finnish general primary school system, declared in the beginning of the 20th century that a teacher must feel not only a strong sense of obligation but also love towards their students. Later, many Finnish educationalists have used the concept of pedagogical love to describe the comprehensively approving attitude with a strong trust in students’ skills, and the teacher brings out this attitude through respectful presence, empathetic conduct and guidance in comprehensive growth as humans when interacting with their students.
When I spoke about our values – skill, openness and courage – during the orientation period, I noticed myself slipping close to relationship counsellor territory à la Esa Saarinen. I asked how the values of openness and courage could be reflected on how we interact with each other and what kind of university community we are creating. What would it entail to make small acts of courage in our everyday lives – acts that highlight the courage to trust, the courage to give a little more out of ourselves, the courage to encounter others and listen in a way that surprises and delights? What kinds of surprising interactions bring you joy? Could we consciously spread more everyday micro-empathy around us and rejoice in being the object of it?
One form of pedagogical love is probably also the way that our socially aware and active students want to appeal to us earlier generations’ sense of responsibility and will to act. I understand that some people don’t think the messages of these banners fit the mood of the event, as the occasion is about celebrating the new academic year and new students. But we decided to leave them in place; they symbolise our controversial time, where distressing and delightful things come in contact with each other in surprising ways.
Many of us may be missing the normal student and employee grind where challenges are familiar and therefore somewhat manageable. Is it possible to create good everyday lives in a time where the media is filled with potential scenarios of crises and threats and where, as Saara Kankaanranta wrote in her column, the atmosphere in the Finnish society is like “- – groping empty shelves in a pitch-dark earth cellar. It’s cold and it smells of mould”? Yes, we can, and we actually must.
We, as a university community, have the ability and duty to create good everyday lives and experiences that strengthen communality, joy of life and our own and each other’s faith in future. Without these experiences, we can’t take care of our own and each other’s ability to promote the causes that we find important. Even though the world is upside down in many ways, new students still have every right to celebrate and be excited about the start of a new chapter in their lives. Let’s cherish the right to the joy and excitement of learning – that, too, is pedagogical love.
The goal and importance of cherishing a meaningful and motivational life doesn’t apply to just our own community but the whole Western society. We are in the middle of a downward spiral in terms of mental wellbeing, which needs to be stopped. The planned cuts cause a major concern for the future of services that the cultural sector produces and that play a key role in promoting mental wellbeing and meaningful life. The overall impact on the independent cultural sector may be severe, as not just the Government, but many municipalities, too, will be having difficult finance discussions this autumn.
There hasn’t been a thorough public discussion on culture in decades. We need it now more than ever, as the cultural policy report is circulating for comments at the same time as drastic cuts are made. We need to be able to welcome even people whose background is not in the arts or who find the arts alien to them and have them join the conversation so that our understanding of the meaning of culture and art is not based on only the opinions of people inside the like-minded culture bubble. Respect is not given by demanding it, it comes from reciprocity.
Dear guests and members of the university community,
Let’s spread micro-empathy around us and rejoice when we are the object of it. Let us engage in appreciative conversations with those who think differently. Let us take responsibility for the challenges of the world and give ourselves the right to be excited and to rejoice whenever we have reason to.
I wish us all, and especially the new students, an inspiring academic year!