Opening of the academic year 2024–2025 speeches

Published 10.9.2024 | Updated 11.9.2024

Speech by the rector

Kaarlo Hildén

Dear guests, dear members of the university community, 

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 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 go up and ask questions and listen in a way that surprises and delights others? What kinds of surprising interactions bring you joy? 

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 unusual 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. Can we 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, I wish us all, and especially the new students, an open and courageous spirit and an inspiring academic year!

Speech by the Student Union

Chair of the Board Sara Koiranen

Dear fellow students, dear rector, dear Uniarts Helsinki community,

I don’t know if I can come up with anything new to say or anything you hope to hear. Yesterday when I wrote this speech, I tried to really reflect on what on earth I could say in this kind of an event in these kinds of times – something that you would have the motivation to listen to and that, in the best-case scenario, would give you something to think about. 

I decided that I will try to write a speech that I, as an arts student starting her master’s studies, would like to hear.  

Here we go. 

Dear arts students (and everyone in the audience),

I understand that you’re tired. You are witnessing the most unusual time of your life in a never-ending loop. It’s not enough that you are in constant turmoil with yourself in arts studies – you are also constantly witnessing news about culture-hostile and racist Government, killing of civilians, ecocatastrophe and mass destruction of endangered mussels.

These news make your mind tangled up. You doubt whether these absurd-sounding words can even be used, whether it’s really true that all these things are happening and are real life at the same time. I’d like to say no, they’re not, but I fear that would be a lie.

Your tiredness, confusion, anger and all your other emotions are actually more than understandable. How could you possibly keep up with all of this?

This summer, when I was visiting my parents’ house and complained about how much stuff I have to do and how full my calendar is, my dad said: you don’t always have to dance when the music is on.

I was very confused at first – what the hell is he talking about? I was even hurt a bit – I felt like he didn’t understand how important all these different meetings, events and activities are to me. Usually, I would have just started to object to what he just said, but for some reason, this time, I didn’t. I did something very unusual for me – I actually tried to hear and understand what he said. You don’t always have to dance when the music is on. 

Maybe it’s impossible to keep up if you’re always trying to dance when the music is on. Maybe keeping up actually requires yelling out “everybody stop” (or like my dad would say, “pull the plug”)! 

Because there is everything so much all the time – demands, threats, worst-case scenarios, wishes – it’s perhaps the best to just admit that sometimes we just genuinely need to pause in order to understand what’s happening. 

You can do it now, actually. 

Breathe in and out. Look around you. Who do you see?

My wish for this opening event was that we could use this time to get to know each other better. Instead of having big speeches about the importance of arts and culture, I wish we have a chance to remind ourselves where we are and who we are. We are all part of a very fascinating, bubbling, emotional, annoying, conflicting and priceless community. 

I don’t know if realising this helps with anything – to understand the world better, to feel better – but I just felt like I wanted to share this observation. That you are not alone with your hopes and fears, with your love and devotion to arts (which I assume you all have at some level). 

Few communities are the kind that you love with the bottom of your heart and that you agree with on everything. It’s not many that find Uniarts Helsinki, for example, this kind of a community. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe this community, these people around you, can be the ones who help you, most of all, to pause and learn new things. So that somewhere out there, outside these walls and this community, in the future, you will have the energy to dance – when the music is on. 

Have a wonderful and rewarding academic year!