Our University celebrates: 50 years!
Dear colleagues, dear students, dear friends of the university,
Did you know that it is now over 50 years ago since the idea was floated to build a campus in Dodesheide on the edge of town rather than locating our university in the city center of Osnabrück? The plan was to develop a vast single site which would include lecture theaters, laboratories, offices, accommodation and shops. When I imagine working in such an isolated, sealed-off environment, I am happy that things turned out differently. I am happy that our university - in addition to the lively and ever-growing campus on the Westerberg - has become firmly rooted in the city center and has even been granted the privilege of occupying the Schloß. This of course means that we are exactly where the university belongs: among the people of the city, at the center of their lives!
I assume that very few of you are aware of the story behind the establishment of our university; I must also confess that a good deal of information from back then was also new to me. This makes it all the more exciting to delve into the university’s history and to become acquainted with the many milestones, new beginnings, innumerable anecdotes, successes and of course failures that have marked the passing of the years. Currently, we are preparing a “traveling exhibition” which will present the university’s past in an exciting and inspiring way and which you will be able to see from the end of April onwards at various locations.
Just think! This year we are celebrating the first half century of Osnabrück University! To celebrate appropriately, we have put together an exciting program of events under the heading “Wissen_schafft: Zukunft” that is intended to give you all an opportunity to celebrate together with us and to look back at the university’s eventful history.
But looking back is only a part of this process. It is far more important to look ahead to where the road might take us. To be precise: how will our university develop in the years ahead? What will be our specialist research fields in the future? What exciting new forms of teaching does the digital age have in store for us? And how should we transfer our research findings to society and the economy in this fast-paced world - for the benefit of everybody?
Finding the answers to these and similar questions is not easy, but it is, I believe, an exciting task, and I would like to cordially invite you to participate in this discussion. Please take some time to talk to each other about this topic; our anniversary program offers ample opportunity for you to exchange thoughts and ideas on the subject. In addition, we have set up the following email address dialog50@uni-osnabrueck.de for comments and suggestions. Please feel free to use it.
It is my wish that all of us might learn something from the past five decades of our university and use it to shape the future - as the French writer André Malraux so aptly put it: "Whoever seeks to read into the future must consult the past". With this in mind, I am looking forward to our anniversary year and, above all, to having many wonderful and enlightening encounters with you!
Yours,
Susanne Menzel-Riedl
President of Osnabrück University