University violence and a lot of hot air

The authorities has failed to clamp down connected violence and vandalism astatine the country’s nationalist universities. After the fiasco with the field constabulary force, it passed a caller instrumentality past summertime for field security. That instrumentality has evidently not been enactment into force, though, arsenic past week’s rampage by anarchists astatine Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) amply demonstrated.

However, the announcement issued by the PASOK absorption successful effect to that incidental besides exposed the deficiency of will connected behalf of the two parties that person astir exclusively governed the state since the extremity of the 1967-1974 dictatorship to woody with the contented of delinquency and violence connected Greek campuses. SYRIZA’s presumption connected the contented is not adjacent worth mentioning.

PASOK’s announcement said: “The effort to regenerate the field constabulary with a field authoritative is not going to solve the occupation of violence astatine universities, and it is besides profoundly problematic, since, alternatively of strengthening a civilization of education, prevention and inclusive administration, it chooses to criminalize field beingness and to enforce strict disciplinary and transgression mechanisms.” Is the enactment truly expecting the hooded thugs who bushed up students astatine the University of Thessaloniki to aspire to a pedagogical civilization and participatory administration?

At different point, the announcement reads: “The occupation is intrinsically linked to the very debased level of self-governance that Greek universities person successful examination to the ascendant European status quo. Self-governance, however, indispensable ever beryllium taken together with, and inseparably accompanied by, the request of afloat accountability to the funder of the nationalist university: the Greek people. As agelong arsenic the authorities continues to treat universities arsenic determination branches of the Ministry of Education, regulating adjacent the smallest and astir insignificant details of their medication and operation, adjacent those information measures that person succeeded successful different countries are bound to fail.”

Can PASOK truly beryllium talking astir self-governance? Has it asked the universities themselves what measures they suggest for their ain safety? And shouldn’t those proposals beryllium backed by factual examples? For instance, however precisely would the rectors of Athens and Thessaloniki universities forestall hooded thugs from entering and assaulting students – arsenic has happened successful the past 12 months?

As for university accountability, what precisely does the absorption enactment mean? Does it really hold with governing New Democracy’s 2025 law, which foresees sanctions against university rectors who neglect to take measures to code violence?

University authorities bash not want the work of policing their institutions. Why should they? Rectors similar to take the backing they’re owed and permission each the sticky matters to the Education Ministry (acting similar determination branches, perhaps?), while they bash their PR thing. Some rectors adjacent person an oculus connected a governmental vocation down the line. And they don’t want anyone breathing down their necks, which is why they scuppered the 2011 instrumentality passed by Anna Diamantopoulou, 1 of the boldest acquisition betterment plans the state has ever seen. 

Isn’t PASOK alert of each this?