Signature or Notice of Dismissal

Anyone who doesn't sign can expect to receive a dismissal notice! After several ambiguous variations on the theme of the new University Law, on November 24th, Minister of Education Jovo Todorovic finally dispatched a letter to the chancellor of Belgrade University, Jagos Puric, in which it is said that "those teachers and associates who have not signed the work contract are not allowed to pursue further academic work and tutoring." This decree, sent by the minister to the chancellor should be further distributed to all deans of the university. The teachers who did not sign the contract and whose number reaches almost 140, are given another 15 days to change their minds and put their signatures on that paper, which according to the lawyers is considered to be unconstitutional, illegal and therefore without any sense. The unbearable lightness that accompanies the already disturbed teaching at the majority of schools, still seems not to satisfy the authorities: the autistic and xenophobic coalition obviously wishes to disgrace and punish the university in toto as a possible center of resistance; thus, it is not enough to be silent and ‘till the soil of your own garden', instead, you have to bend your neck and - sign. Meanwhile, an open competition for filling the vacancies shall be announced (disregarding the fact that all professors already have regular contracts for their jobs!). The Minister informs us that "priority will be given to existent teachers and associates"! Of course, only if they apply to the competition...

ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY STIGMATISED: This entirely new, Draconian reading of one rather equivocal article of the law, known as 'Bidza's amendment' (because it was Dobrivoje Budinovic Bidza who suggested it after the parliament discussion), came across bitterness among the academic public.

Dean of the School of Philology, Radmilo Marojevic, ordered that the ten dismissed professors and associates who had been forbidden to enter the building in which they had spent their entire careers, should remove all their belongings within three hours. Shortly before the holiday, the professors, surrounded by darkness (all lights were switched off), took their belongings out of the building on Student Square. Prof. Ranko Bugarski, who possessed in his office a valuable library on linguistics, came to collect his books and scripts with his two sons... In the rest of the world, an academic of such reknown as Dr. Ranko Bugarski, as well the majority of the professors dismissed from the Schools of Law, Philology and Electrical Engineering, would have their offices placed at their disposal forever, and then perhaps, a library or a park would be named after those professors who had put so many generations on the right track and had made the name of Belgrade University famous. But not here - here the professors are being thrown out...
At the School of Electrical Engineering, the process of 'labanisation' (named for Milos Laban, a professor appointed by the new dean) is in progress, as one of the 'stigmatized' professors, Dr. Jovan Radunovic, described it: the professors and the eminent teachers are deprived of their own belongings as well as of a longer sojourn in the building of the School. According to this professor's words, payments for special security has so far reached the amount of 85,000 dinars. At a protest meeting of students, the Dean stated shortly: "I will be merciless. I will use all discipline measures at my disposal", while the activists of the Student Union have already been invited to an "informative conversation." President of the Student Union of the School of Electrical Engineering, Stevan Koprivica, was forbidden to enter the building on the charge of "disturbance of the teaching"! Dean of the School of Law, Oliver Antic, went even further: he forbade Marija Rudic, a brilliant final year student (who both studies and works) to either sit for the exams or to withdraw from the School (!) until termination of her discipline procedure.

THE DOOR OPENS TO THOSE WHO KNOCK: A wave of dissatisfaction seems to have also spread over those Schools of Belgrade University where everything appears "quiet and nice", according to the words of the dean of the School of Special Education. MonopolList, the bulletin of the Student Union of the School of Economics (SUEF), which has on its cover Corax's cartoon and a message IT IS NOT SERBIAN TO TALK NONSENSE, expresses that SUEF has been subject to constant repression; the web site hosted on the server of the School has been abolished, so that MonopolList is now the single source of information. Not to mention the air at the School, which is so unpleasant to breathe... The first piece of information in the latest issue of MonopolList is that Dr. Vojislav Seselj was appointed professor of postgraduate studies at the School of Economics: the course - Management of Social Activities. The bulletin reminds us that Dr. Seselj is also vice-president of the Serbian government, president of the Serbian Radical Party, representative of the federal parliament, committee member of the parliament in Belgrade, committee member of the parliament in the township of Zemun, member of the executive committee of the Institute of Social Sciences, member of the executive committee of the Institute of Economics, president of the executive committee of the School of Law, member of the executive committee of the School of Economics in Belgrade... The students of economics hope that leader Seselj will manage to fulfill his duties of giving lectures in a skilled, competent, refined and civilized manner - just as he has accomplished everything aforementioned...

If many people think that the opposition to repression is too weak, and that there is no energy for mass demonstrations, it is evident that students are quite aware of the 'labanisation' of the university: the resistance is serene, effective and self-confident: students refused to listen to the professor who was invited to replace Prof. Vladeta Jankovic, at the School of Electrical Engineering the new professors are always coming across empty classrooms, and Lidija Sanovic, a philology student, declares that students are "worried about Minister of Education Jovo Todorovic’s memory: we sent him a letter published in the newspaper, we called his attention twice to the affairs at the School of Philology, particularly concerning the abolition of the department of World Literature and its Theory, we invited him to the speaker's platform at the School and at Dom Omladine... Minister Todorovic did not respond to either of our attempts... And after all this, he states: "I have not had a chance to become acquainted with the situation at these schools... I was not even informed about the students' demands... Nor was I ever invited to visit those Schools and offer them some help...'?!"