Autonomy Is Out!

Today not even Nikola Tesla could be the dean of the electro-engineering faculty without previously becoming member of one of the two prestigious parties in power!  With this sarcastic comment Ph.D. Momcilo Grubac, Professor at the University in Novi Sad, illustrated the effect of the SPS-JUL measures on universities.  Until today, this too strong a metaphor is now becoming our worse tomorrow: the Government of Serbia gave itself nearly unprecedented powers in the draft law on universities, which was made secretly as a highly confidential party document, and is already scheduled for consideration in the Serbian Parliament as early as next week: the Government appoints rectors, deans and — professors.  With the new law it annuls both faculty and university councils as the last remnants of self-rule by universities.  At the same time, institutes are cut off from universities, which breaks the last remaining link between science and teaching.  Studying conditions are subject to Draconian measures and the doors of universities are opened wide to those with money: transferred exams and skipped years will be charged through economic penalties.

INSULTED AND INJURED: The academic community is shocked; the draft law on universities is perceived as another vulgar demonstration of party power.  The council of researchers and teachers of Belgrade University has assessed this move by the government as an event without precedent: the future of the university has never before been decided by those outside the system.  No one from the council of researchers and teachers of Belgrade University has yet seen the draft law which has been taken up in parliamentary procedures!?  The visibly disgruntled and bitter rector of Belgrade University, Dragan Kuburovic, admits that he has been “informed about everything from newspapers, and that he secretly procured the draft.”  Even though the President of Serbia, Milan Milutinovic, told representatives of Belgrade University that they must submit their version of the law by September, the draft of the law which is supposed to decide the future of universities, and even the future of this country, was written in secret, in high confidence, in party circles.  In accordance with the autistic and brutal behavior of this government, a session of the council of Belgrade University was initially called off and then rescheduled.

“The draft of the law is a heavy blow to the university and an attempt to make a party school out of it.  We have scheduled a university assembly: we will protest and demand that adoption of the law be postponed until spring, so that public discussion can be held,” stated Prof. Goran Milicevic, Ph.D., coordinator of the university council for the defense of democracy, in an interview for VREME.  Perhaps the dean of the philosophy faculty, Marija Bogdanovic, sums up best the situation in which the university finds itself: “Nothing is left of autonomy; the government is making a private company out of the university.”

FRENCH MODEL: “The story about universities, that is to say faculties losing autonomy, is a lament over lost self-rule.  Autonomy gains importance in questions of teaching, teaching plans and programs, while in organization there is no autonomy,” stated Ph.D. Ratko Markovic when the government of Serbia finally presented to the public the proposal for the new law on universities.  Ph.D. Milovan Bojic, vice-president of the government and president of the JUL university committee, moreover a man who holds ten or so important and responsible positions, stresses that there should be no doubt that the owner of the property, that is to say the founder, in this case the state, will appoint the most capable people to governing positions.  The Minister of Education, Dr. Jovo Todorovic, who has, through all critical situations at the university and generally where education is concerned, kept a solemn silence, on this occasion stated that the law was drafted based on the French model.

“What the government is proposing can under no circumstances be compared to French law.  It is sheer fabrication that this government proposal is similar to the French model.  Concretely, under France's law on universities, there is a system of so-called aggregation at the national level, which holds for the state at large: university professorships are regulated by an exceptionally difficult exam, which must be passed before a completely objective committee of experts.  Differences are fundamental, not to mention the wider political, cultural, and even economic contexts.  It is true, ministers do sign decisions about promoting candidates to professors, but that only after the decision by the committee,” stated Dragoljub Popovic, a professor at the law faculty and one of the authors of the law on universities which is proposed by a team of experts from Belgrade University.  According to Prof. Popovic, calling on the “French model” is merely an excuse by a government which has proposed a very restrictive law that is not based on the idea of university autonomy.  In any case, in France, the Minister was Andre Malreaux, a man with an international reputation; and who do we have in the chair of Dositej Obradovic?

“It is not advisable to defend this law with foreign models.  We could ask why the German or Italian versions of the law on universities, which are far more liberal, were not taken into account?  This draft does not at all fit into European trends.  Even Montenegro has a far better law on universities: there, one third of the council is appointed by the government, while here, the government, up to now, appointed half the council.  In any case, Montenegro has a constitutional guarantee of autonomy for universities.  There is no such thing in Serbia.  Therefore, in Montenegro the kind of proposed law which has been filed in Serbia would be unconstitutional.  Thus, if they want to talk about models, why don’t we model ourselves according to Montenegro?  That law is not the work of Djukanovic: both the constitution and that law were made earlier.  “There, the situation was better from the very beginning,” states Professor Popovic, adding that it is absurd to say that “autonomy is a repeat of communist self-rule”: what is at issue is nearly a thousand years of tradition.  Even the proposal by the team of experts from the University of Belgrade took the direction of improving slightly the existing law, strengthening the influence of universities, but all within the existing academic community.

Dr. Popovic also questions the argument that the state has the right to govern universities and faculties, because it finances them:
“Budget resources are the resources of taxpayers.  The government is obliged by law, as well as morals, to distribute those resources according to social needs.  Those resources do not belong to the government and its ministers, nor to the party in power!  The government's version of the law turns everything upside down: teaching will be seriously disrupted, a crisis in research will occur, pogroms...  Until now, the regime has lived on the manufacture of a war for which it claimed the country was not involved; and now it appears to be incapable of doing this any longer because the international community has become both more cautious and strict - the result being that domestic crises are created instead.  This society is sick, it is being destroyed by various domestic crises, and I simply don’t understand how the regime thinks it will get out of this chaos.  The worst thing is that the regime in power does not appear to be capable of governing the state under normal conditions: this crisis in the universities has also been initiated by the government,” states Professor Popovic.

UNBELIEVABLE EASE OF PERSECUTION: If this draft law is adopted, the government will have complete control over universities, with practically unlimited possibilities for abuse: prosecuting the teaching and research staff, but also rewarding those who are suitable and submissive with professional and political promotions, and money is not even worth talking about...  “This kind of law opens wide the doors for total sycophantism, privatization, party and clan cliques, financial malversation, abuse, fudging of private and public debts, but also for blackmailing students,” believes Professor Ljubisa Rajic, Ph.D.  Thus, we have times ahead of us of new rectors like Dragutin Papovic and Dragutin Velickovic, of deans like Dusan Jovic, and also of teachers like Ph.D. Mira Markovic and her “party friends”.

The ice has been broken: the political top does not hide the fact that it feels closer to questionable people than it does to Belgrade University, and that is why, with the aid of old allies like Vojislav Seslj, it is waging a campaign of “freeing universities”, as Ph.D. Bojic, a JUL activist, promised.  The government has appointed Dr. Seselj to two executive committees: at the Institute for Economic Sciences and the Institute of Social Sciences.  It is truly an insult to our intelligence to listen to Seselj speak about the “European spirit” of the new law, while promising at the same time that there will be no mercy for those who strike: neither for professors, nor for students.  Vivat academia!

REVENGE FROM DEDINJE: Just as all those reforms used to be “revenge of academic failures”, as the former Pavle Savic used to put it, the attempt at totally canceling the autonomy of universities is seen by a segment of the academic community as revenge by the conjugal couple from Dedinje for the student protests of 1996/97.  This is merely the dramatic finish of retribution which began immediately: the president of the council of universities has been imposed from outside, a man who is anonymous as a scientist; then the government announced loud and clear that it has no money for scientific journals and literature, sessions of the council were postponed illegally, the financial ruin of universities continued, but also of the people employed there.  At the same time, while the government sliced resources for education, science and culture, the budged for the police was increased by 41 percent!

In any case, a system which is based on power and deception has little use for knowledge and science.  The only consolation is that it is not possible to rule indefinitely with stupid people.