Six honorary medals for six outstanding UvA staff members
During the yearly medal day on 14 June, the annual UvA honours were awarded to (former) employees who have made a special achievement or merit for the UvA.
They are information manager educational logistics Nataša Rakić, professor of psychological methods and learning ánd Folia columnist Han van der Maas, former university secretary Calluna Euving, former skills lecturer and project manager Teaching & Learning Centre of the Science Faculty Nataša Brouwer-Zupančič, professor of methods and statistics at the Department of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences Frans Oort and associate professor at the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics Arne Janssen. They were presented with their medals by the Executive Board.
Passion
“The laureates are all six people who have worked tirelessly, with great passion for their work, for the UvA,” rector magnificus Peter-Paul Verbeek said at the presentation. “Their initiatives, ideas and solutions have had great impact and brought much to the UvA as an organization. They have dedicated themselves to education and research, but also to valorization and operations, for example. By awarding the honorary medals, we show our great appreciation for their work.”
Medal of honour
Awards, medals and decorations have a long UvA history. From the founding of the Athenaeum Illustre in 1632, countless medals, decorations and awards were devised and presented to mark just as many special events and achievements, from anniversaries to promotions. For a long time, for instance, UvA employees could be decorated with a small, medium or large step medal, medals that could stand upright and owed their name to that. But as the name suggests, a ‘small’ medal was for a 'small' merit, a ‘large’ for a great merit. In the period 1967-2003, the UvA also had the Silver Medal of Honour. The first was awarded in 1967 to former mayor and former UvA curator Gijs van Hall, the latter in 2003 to then university secretary Ruud Bleijerveld.
Ribbon-cutting ceremony
But such a plethora of medals no longer fitted into the UvA spirit of equality and equality of merit. And so in 2021, the medal day was created, a special day at the end of the academic year, a kind of ribbon-cutting ceremony, where six UvA achievers are awarded with a medal each time, all the same and anyone can nominate someone.
