Dean's appeal to Novi Sad students: Let's consider the appropriate type of teaching

Seven faculty deans University of Novi Sad made an appeal to students in connection with the realization, as they say, of an appropriate type of teaching.

"Without the intention of questioning your protest or underestimating your motives and the way you express it, at the same time feeling visible respect for the perseverance, will and determination you have shown, and being yourself, like you, responsible to the faculties and the university, we ask you to consider the appeal that we are sending you, which refers to support in the implementation of an appropriate type of teaching," it is stated at the beginning of the dean's appeal.

They believe that "a harmonized form of teaching would represent a necessary step in the direction of preserving the status and credibility of students, professors and institutions".

"In an atmosphere in which stigmatization reigns and specific measures of repression are implemented against actors of university education, your understanding would represent an act of crucial care for your own academic integrity, which would not belittle or oppose the way you have protested so far and the impressive energy you have invested in it," the appeal added.

The signatories of the appeal also point out that, given that time is running out, it is necessary to act in the direction of reaching an agreement that implies mutual respect and excludes intrusiveness.

"Our appeal to you is not, as one might think, an expression of false dramatization, but is the result of our attempt to take a responsible look at the situation, to understand the factual situation and to face it together with you," the deans conclude.

The appeal was signed by the deans of the Faculty of Education, the Faculty of Agriculture, the Faculty of Science and Mathematics, the Faculty of Technology, the Faculty of Civil Engineering, the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Economics.

In the previous period, they provided support for student demands, and some of them were exposed to attacks from the authorities and media sympathetic to them due to their appearances in public, portal 021 writes.

Although the students in the blockade of the faculty of the University of Novi Sad have not yet spoken out in connection with the dean's appeal, a statement was previously published on the official Instagram profile of the students in the blockade, stating that the students oppose "any attempt to return to classes at this time."

Online classes are starting somewhere.

Before the appeal of the dean in Novi Sad, the teaching-scientific council of individual faculties in Belgrade they voted to start compensating classes.

First, the Faculty of Organizational Sciences announced that it had made a decision to begin compensating for delayed classes in the asynchronous model from May 19. On the same day, the Faculty of Economics announced that it will start with online tuition compensation.

Soon after the decision of the Faculty of Organizational Sciences was announced, the students in the blockade of this faculty spoke out, stating that they were deeply disappointed "because of the decision of the Teaching and Scientific Council of our faculty, which was made in an extremely non-transparent manner, without consultation with the students and against our will."

"We believe that this kind of action of our NNV is absolutely contrary to what the academic community should stand for," the students state.

In addition to expressing dissatisfaction with the faculty's decision, FON students also announce that "the end will not be when individuals or the regime media decide it - it will be the end when we decide it."

"Teaching will not start without our consent, because there is no return to 'normal' while the truth, responsibility and justice are concealed. There is no normal while we are under the influence of repression mechanisms. We will not take a step back while plagiarists are appointed as ministers, and professors' salaries for scientific work are suspended," the statement reads.

Belgrade students in the blockade condemned "the highest representatives of the government who constantly threaten the University and constantly humiliate the academic community".

They transferred the responsibility regarding the preservation of the academic year to the holders of public offices and institutions that are competent for their demands.