Chancellor "dismissed" from his position

Owing to sources close to the boards of the Student Protest, we find out the particulars from the yesterday's session of the Scientific-educational Council of Belgrade University.

The sequence of events in the session of the Scientific-educational Council, attended by a delegation of the Student Protest 96/97 as well, with the dissociation of this Council from Chancellor Dragutin Velickovic as the chief item on the agenda, was in accordance with the plan. However, several interesting details could be observed. The standard delegation team of the Student Protest (Miodrag Gavrilovic, Cedomir Antic, Cedomir Jovanovic, Igor Zezelj...) sat at the conference table, whereas the other members of the delegation, appointed by the Main Board of the SP as the representatives of the schools which might suffer the consequences of the decision made by the Scientific-educational Council, were in the back of the amphitheater. During the session, the decisions announced yesterday in the media were made. Most of the Deans in the Scientific-educational Council received a written statement made by the Main Board on the previous day. The statement consisted of the following three items: the Main Board of the SP supports the efforts of the Scientific-educational board to manage the University affairs independently of the official Chancellor of Belgrade University; students will express their support through the Protest, i.e. by putting pressure on the authorities to replace the present Chancellor as soon as possible; the Main Board of the SP demands of the Scientific-educational Council not to invite students to attend lectures until students themselves decide their demands have been fulfilled. Miodrag Gavrilovic read only the first item of the statement, omitting to read the remaining two, after he had consulted only several members in the standard delegate team (author's comment: although the last two items are more important for the SP). A student (present in the yesterday's meeting of the Main Board of the SP) has stated for the BOOM 97 that Gavrilovic explained this move as a matter of tactics, meant to avoid putting further pressure on the Deans (author's comment: ?). During the session, although it was not on the agenda, two Deans mentioned the question of the beginning of lectures, explaining that the best way of opposing the repression imposed by the regime was devoted studying and spiritual prosperity. The members of the SP delegation did not agree with their attitude, saying that students would oppose the regime by continuing their protest until the Chancellor of Belgrade University has been officially dismissed. They also pointed out that the Scientific-educational Council must not set the conditions for the return to classrooms; it should be left for students to decide upon the return to classrooms and the end of the Protest, since they are the only ones who can estimate whether their demands have been fulfilled. In this way, the last two items of the SP Main Board statement were orally presented to the Scientific-educational Council.

TeaNoSugar


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