Facebook has lit up with a slew of indignant posts by students at Kazan State University. Apparently, President Medvedev has decreed that the historic home of Tatar higher learning – prized by many Tatars as their own – will now be unilaterally restructured “into a faceless Privolzhskiy Federal University.”
And as many have just discovered, one can’t challenge a presidential decree in court. The deed is done.
Some posters are concerned by the lack of transparency and consultation in the decision. Still others are openly worried about the decision’s impact on academic freedom.
Unfortunately, academic freedom was left out of Tatarstan’s 2007 power-sharing treaty with Russia. On the other hand, the treaty does allow Kazan to insert a page in the local propiska that’s written entirely in Tatar.
Lose a university; gain a page in the passport. That sounds about right.
And as many have just discovered, one can’t challenge a presidential decree in court. The deed is done.
Some posters are concerned by the lack of transparency and consultation in the decision. Still others are openly worried about the decision’s impact on academic freedom.
Unfortunately, academic freedom was left out of Tatarstan’s 2007 power-sharing treaty with Russia. On the other hand, the treaty does allow Kazan to insert a page in the local propiska that’s written entirely in Tatar.
Lose a university; gain a page in the passport. That sounds about right.
2 comments:
Watch out brothers, the Russkies are coming.
any t-shirts I can get that still say Kazan State University??
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