Berend Roorda (Law) is Lecturer of the Year 2019
Last Wednesday, law lecturer Berend Roorda was elected Lecturer of the Year 2019. Laura Batstra with behavioural and social sciences came in second, while theology and religious studies’ Méadhbh McIver came in third.
Roorda won a cash prize of five thousand euros, an artwork, and, as the cherry on top, he gets to design a course for the Honours College. ‘I already have an idea, but I want to work it out first’, he said after the award ceremony.
Roorda was one of the eleven nominees for the RUG election for Lecturer of the Year. The lecturers were nominated by their own faculties. On Wednesday, they presented themselves with a short pitch about what they did at the university.
Great pitch
A professional jury, which also included last year’s winner Marc Kramer (FEB), said that Roorda was a ‘clear winner’, not just because of his great pitch, in which he talked about the recent farmers’ protests, among other things, but also because of the many letters the jury received from students. The jury said that this showed how committed he is to his students.
Roorda was honoured to receive the award and used the spotlight to raise awareness for his initiative All Ears, where students who need someone to talk to can go to a student worker.
Talk to someone
‘Students can go to their study adviser or a student psychologist, but some people don’t really need those’, says Roorda. ‘But they do want to talk to someone. That’s why we started All Ears.’
All Ears was started in the city centre last year and quickly became so successful that they’ll open a second location at Zernike on March 1. Roorda is also in talks with the University of Amsterdam, which is interested in the initiative.