Hamamboculeri.org: Alternatif Haber,Ingilizce, 26 Eylul 2002
DAU-SEN: "We want a democratic university"
The trade union of the academic personnel of the Eastern Mediterranean University DAU, issued a statement saying that they are struggling for a democratic university. DAU-SEN’s statement follows:
“The crisis that has been going on in the higher administration of our university has taken on new dimensions recently. On Friday 20th the Board of Trustees dismissed the rector, Prof. Ozay Oral. Soon after this decision, the TRNC President and some political parties stated that this decision was neither legal nor valid. This made the situation even more debatable and untenable. These events have once again illustrated the inherent problems in the current extreme centralist management of the university. The top-down appointing system of EMU as established in current legislation should no longer continue. A solution in favor of either party without a change in the present structure of the university would not remove the polarization within the university. It is quite clear that in a situation where everyone’s job security is disputable, even for the rector, the lack of job security of academic staff is an important problem that should be solved urgently.
It has come to a point where it is unavoidable to press for reforms in order to have an autonomous, democratic and openly administered university. DAU-SEN, the only union that represents the academic staff, has been stressing this since its foundation in 1984. In the recent past, our union took the position of unifying all academic staff and producing a permanent solution for the good of our university and its long-term future. Unfortunately, the executive board of DAU-PER-SEN, the union of the workers and the administrative staff, has attacked our union very recently. The executive board of this union not only took sides in this polarization by supporting the Board of Trustees’ decision, but also paid for an advertisement in a local paper which fraudulently declared the academic staff members of DAU-SEN as traitors. At the very moment when our university needed to pull together and speak in one clear voice, DAU-PER-SEN attempted to destroy our unity and solidarity. It is interesting that this shallow and shameful assault on DAU-SEN appeared ‘coincidentally’ the day before the rector’s dismissal. The thought-provoking question is “Who and what interests is DAU-PER-SEN serving?”
EMU is a crucially important institution for our country, and as such staff members take it upon themselves to be responsible representatives and set good example within the community our university serves. Many sections of our community, especially the government and the political parties, should work for modernization of our university structure to address the issues raised by recent events and build a solid future for EMU. We invite everyone to use common sense and take a stake in our university’s future; support the academic staff as they take steps towards preventing chaos and polarization, and create a university that is autonomous, democratic and openly administered.”