Commemoration on the occasion of our national holiday at the University of Debrecen

March 15 is ours, the Hungarians’, our common treasure, one of the main symbols of national unity. This is how we must live and celebrate – was said in the Hall of the Main Building of the University of Debrecen at the ceremony organized on the anniversary of the revolution and freedom struggle of 1848/49.

True to tradition, this year, on March 14, the university community collectively remembered what happened 175 years ago.

We cannot forget that our city is one of the special places for the holiday from a cult point of view. Debrecen is a distinguished place, one of the key cities and capital of the revolution and freedom struggle, a true guard of freedom. Its citizens preserve and carry on this heritage to this day

– said Elek Bartha in his speech.

The vice chancellor for the education of the University of Debrecen emphasized: the university is also a part of the events, which is rightfully proud of its half-thousand-year institutional heritage, its college past, its mentality of preserving its national values, which is an important pillar of the 1848/49 tradition, which is by far the city and has power beyond the boundaries of the institution.

This beautiful holiday is actually history: it recalls the glorious past when freedom and national independence mobilized the people of Hungary as a still-to-be-achieved goal. Its relevance has not been lost since then, in fact, it makes sense again from time to time. March 15 is ours, the Hungarians’. Our common, national heritage. It was created by the greats of our history, known and unnamed heroes, and preserved for us by our fathers and grandfathers, more than once by making serious sacrifices, even sacrificing their lives if necessary. We received it as a national, cultural and historical heritage, which we maintain and benefit from. Our common treasure is one of the main symbols of national unity. This is how we have to live and celebrate

– emphasized the speaker of the commemoration.

On behalf of the university students, István Csont, the president of the DE Student Self-Government, gave a speech based on a conversation with ChatGPT in the spirit of one of the most decisive scientific challenges of today, the rise of artificial intelligence. It turned out that the system is already able to collect and meaningfully process all the information needed to understand the events of March 15, 1848, even in Hungarian.

As ChatGPT answered, I myself believe that during the revolution of 1848, the progressive Western European ideas of the time gained strength in Hungary. The young people of March, the leading politicians and the leading intellectuals of our country all cast their votes in favor of a kind of spiritual integration that simultaneously strengthened the national self-awareness of Hungarians and enhanced their spiritual integration into the zone of social and legal development that Europe represented at that time. This required the involvement of educated people, which appeared partly in the importation of progressive ideas and partly in their delivery to the wider population

– the student leader pointed out.

István Csont recalled that in the past almost two hundred years, Hungarian youth, including the citizens of the universities, faithful to the ideals of the youth of March 1948, have repeatedly fought for freedom.

Nowadays, however, we can still see that the vast majority of Hungarian researchers and Hungarian university students – in the absence of a legal reason, completely unfounded – live in isolation in Europe. The gates of mobility and the flow of knowledge are closed, and this puts Hungary at a competitive disadvantage compared to the other EU member states

– emphasized the HÖK president, emphasizing that even ChatGPT recognizes the importance of the flow of ideas and knowledge in the development of society.

Let’s hope that the European Commission will also have insight, and we hope that the citizens of the University of Debrecen will soon have the opportunity to live as full members of an integrated intellectual community in Europe

– István Csont concluded his speech.

The event continued with the oDEon Theater’s celebratory program “I’m Hungarian”, in which Kulcsár Boldizsár, a student of the Faculty of Music, piano accompanist, Judit Böszörményi, university student Dóra Becsky, members of the Hortobágy Folk Dance Ensemble, and Szabolcs Csáki, artistic director of the oDEon Theater participated.

The recognized employees of the institution received their awards during the ceremony.

The Rector of the University of Debrecen awarded the best employees of the University of Debrecen with the Outstanding Worker award for their outstanding performance over several years, and the teachers, researchers and employees who performed their tasks with outstanding competence and diligence and were active in the university’s public life, received a Certificate of Appreciation.

At the end of the ceremony, as a sign of respect for the citizens of the University of Debrecen, the Vice Rector of Education Elek Bartha, Tibor Szólláth, member of the board of trustees of the István Gróf Tisza Foundation for the University of Debrecen, and István Csont, president of the Student Self-Government, jointly placed a wreath of remembrance at the bust of Lajos Kossuth.

List of excellent employees of the University of Debrecen: