Professor Jelena Kleut she is not alone. She stood on Wednesday (January 21) surrounded by her students. They defended it, are defending it and will continue to defend it.
Kleut is joined by her fellow professors – in a few hours, 700 of them signed a letter of support. With her is the whole university as it should be. Therefore, a space of knowledge and solidarity, academic and human honesty.
On the other side is the dean of the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, Milivoj Alanović, who is calling the police on his own students to expel them from the faculty building. There is vice dean Dejan Pajić, who threatens a "repeat of September 5", that is, brutal police violence. There are ćacii and drids, the expanded composition of the Senate of the University of Novi Sad, ready to fulfill the wishes of the regime, which is devoted to anyone it cannot bribe, vilify and intimidate.
On that side stands only bare force and naked obedience of a group of educators-climate-heads.
Photo: 021.rsPolice suppress students
Less than two months ago, I asked Jelena Kleut in an interview for "Vreme" why the government is running on soles? That is - why did she resort to such a violation of procedures as happened in her case.
She replied that the regime's goal, to begin with, is revenge. And then to show how they can do everything and thus send a message to everyone who raises their voice on different sides because of arbitrariness, repression, injustice...
This is probably what Cleut meant when she said to the students and others gathered at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad: "I know you are shouting 'Jelena', but you are thinking of the entire University and that is why you are shouting. We must defend the University."
If these two days could be summed up in three sentences, they would read like this: on Tuesday, Jelena Kleut, an associate professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, was dismissed. On Wednesday, she experienced the greatest honor that an educator can experience - her students rose en masse to defend her from everyone who considers free and critical thought a threat that should be violently silenced. Finally, the third sentence - in this fight, the University has a stake.
