Accomplishments of the School Police

"I'll rape you!", shouted a member of security at the School of Philology on Tuesday November 24th, in his attempt to snatch the megaphone from a female student in front of the Dean's office. A few members of Radmilo Marojevic's security surrounded the girl and started dragging her between themselves. Professor Dusan Ivanic and several students rushed to her aid, arousing thus the anger of the school police. Subsequently, the attacked student, together with one of her colleagues, used the situation to enter Dean Marojevic's office, who, after having failed to establish their identity, called the security to throw them out.

After this incident, the students came to grips with six fellows who are supposed to identify everyone who tries to enter the building of the School of Philology - and managed to push them back to the main door. At the same time, their colleagues jumped out of the ground floor windows and attempted to break in from the main entrance. Since the besieged members of the Dean's guard ceased to provoke further incidents, the students dispersed around the classrooms to hold their meetings.

BULKY AND GLOOMY: The Student Protest meeting at the School of Philology, being the second one since the general strike, had just begun an hour before with the words of the girl with the megaphone. "My name is a student of Philology.", she presented herself. "May I have your attention in the name of the Coordination Council of the School of Philology and invite you to a minute of silence for those who used to be people, but are not anymore, for those unidentified gorillas at the entrance."

Fellows at the entrance appeared on Monday, the first day of the boycott. The week before, Dean Marojevic tried to call up the security among the assistant workers of the School, but it turned out to be unfruitful since they were too kind with students. They even denied the Dean's decision that cameras are not allowed in the building, by pretending not to see them, turning their heads the other way. The new security staff (whose more talkative members even claim to be students themselves) carry out their
duties in a 'professional', bulky and gloomy manner. Students who forget their registration booklets must remain outside of the building, there is also inspection, and access to the premises of this School is strictly forbidden to anyone without the Dean's permission, which particularly refers to journalists. Therefore, reporters are giving their best to cope with the situation, and last Tuesday your reporter entered the School of Philology through a window. It seems, however, that this is not going to work
in future, since on Tuesday afternoon the security members started identifying all suspicious individuals along the corridors of the School.

The tense situation at the School of Philology, ever since Marojevic began his duties as the Dean in July of this year, reached its culmination on November 9th, when Marojevic ordered the preparation of dismissal notices to six out of thirty teachers who had not signed the work agreement according to the notorious University Law. Previously, on October 23rd, the Serbian government confirmed the disputed Statute of the School of Philology, by which the Department of World Literature is totally invalidated, and on November 3rd, the Ministry of Education sent letters to all deans reminding them that professors who have not signed the work agreement are not allowed to participate in further teaching. Minister Todorovic stated a day before that the insubordinate professors were actually those who organized the 1996 Protest, that their refusal to sign the contract is politically motivated, and that it can no longer be tolerated that "such a small number of politically seduced people, gathered mostly at four Schools of Belgrade University, inhibit the work of around ten thousand students."

WARNINGS AND NEGOTIATIONS: Before these notices, the teaching was boycotted only by the students of the Department of World Literature, the teachers of which were 'transferred' to the Institute for Research, since, acting as a group, they refused to sign the contract until mid-October. Having found out that the teachers, Vladeta Jankovic, Zoran Milutinovic, Aleksandar Ilic, Slobodan Vukobrat, Djordje Trifunovic and the assistant, Branka Nikolic were threatened with dismissal, the students held a meeting of all groups on November 12th, at which it was decided that all students should support the requirements that the students of Italianistics and World Literature underlined in October: that Marojevic should be replaced, his decisions canceled, and all dismissed or suspended teachers should be brought back to work. It was decided that unless their demands were satisfied in the meantime, they would begin a general strike on November 3rd.

At the same time, the Association of Teaching Staff of the School of Philology initiated the signing of a petition regarding the replacement of Dean Marojevic and the return of their disqualified colleagues. On Monday, November 6th, the Association decided that the employees of the School of Philology should begin a warning protest with a single demand, and that is: that all dismissed, suspended or transferred teachers should be returned to their posts. In the same week, every working day between 13 and 14 p.m. the warning protests took place in front of the Dean's office.

During those warning protests, the lectures were given only by Dean Marojevic himself. On Tuesday, the first day of the protest, he stumbled over those who were sitting along the corridor protesting, and on Wednesday, the first improvised security emerged at the School (Marojevic promised that advancement of teaching to the students of World Literature even at the end of October). Soon afterwards, the students joined their teachers and on Thursday they turned the corridors of the School into an improvised concentration camp with bars and the inscription: "Work is Liberty."

That Thursday, students held a meeting at which they finally decided to go on strike. On Friday, November 20th, the Dean spoke to the representatives of the Strike Committee. He told them that he could not satisfy any of their demands. On the contrary, he showed them a draft of the decision, which forbids any gathering of strikers in front of the Dean's office, as well as the "disruption of work". He also showed them a letter to Minister Todorovic, in which it is said that "no teacher or associate is either suspended or transferred to another post" and that six teachers lost their jobs due to their five days unexcused absence from work. He also stated that the best place for the strike would be in the basement.

That is how the boycott began on Monday. The signing of a petition was initiated for satisfying student demands. So far, it has been signed by more than 500 students. Adrijana Marcetic, assistant at the Department of World Literature, informed the students at the aforementioned meeting, that the Association of Teaching Staff would support all their demands. The decision of going on a general strike, the main reason of which is the abnormal way of teaching, resulted from the "arrogant manner in which Marojevic conveyed his self-will", was also read aloud at the meeting. The delegation, composed of three members, was supposed to submit this decision to the Dean, but instead, they returned to their colleagues to inform them that Marojevic proclaimed all their statements to be "lies and untruths", and insisted on identification of the members of the delegation.

PROCEDURE: On the first day of the boycott, the students walked around the School, stamping their feet, singing, whistling and producing unendurable noise. The first incident occurred in front of the Dean's office. The students went from one classroom to another, in order to check if there was any teaching going on. They discovered only one such case, but the same afternoon, a few lectures were also given. On Tuesday, as students inform us, no teaching took place at the School. On the same day, they read their letter addressed to the Minister of Education, by which they inform him of the situation at the School, and their chief action is supposed to be 'waiting for the Dean' who, according to schedule, has a lecture at 12:45 p.m. Since the Dean was already in the building while the meeting was being held in the lobby of the School, the students went to look for him in his office. And that is how the incident described in the first passage of the text was provoked.

The Students of the School of Philology founded the Coordination Council on Thursday, November 19th, and already on Tuesday they constituted a press service. A soccer match between a female team of the School of Philology and a male team of the School of Electrical Engineering was also announced, and it was to be refereed by students from the School of Law. Its occurrence, scheduled to take place as this text is prepared for print, is somewhat uncertain - owing to the latest aggravation of affairs.
The students claim that they will not provoke further incidents with security. They expect the decision of going on a general strike to be adopted by the professors, at the meeting of the Teaching Staff Association, called for next Wednesday. However, since the law prescribes at least ten days of warning strike before a general strike, the professors will be free to officially stop work only on December 2nd. The students declare that the boycott will continue until their demands are satisfied. "Our demands refer to our School only, and therefore we agreed that the boycott should take place only within the building of the School.

Nothing more than that is real at the moment, anyway.", says a member of the student press service for VREME. "Other Schools did not show any interest."